Tera and Autologic hook up

Autologic Information International Inc. -- one of the top two suppliers of imagesetters and pre-press workflow systems -- has agreed to become the marketing agent for an Italian line of editorial front-end and digital-asset management systems.

Tera U.S. Inc., the Bedford, N.H.-based North American subsidiary of Tera S.p.A. of Milan, said in late March that it had licensed Autologic, of Thousand Oaks, Calif., to sell the Tera product line in North and South America under the APS brand ("APS" stands for Autologic Phototypesetting System). Autologic has the exclusive North American rights to the Tera products, while two other companies will also be marketing Tera in South America.

Previously, Software Consulting Services of Nazareth, Pa., had represented Tera in North America. Software Consulting and Tera had installed a dozen systems in U.S. newspapers, including those at the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., the Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer-Times; the Desert Sun in Palm Springs, Calif., and the Daily Times-Call in Longmont, Colo.

Autologic, which once sold an editorial system that was abandoned in the late 1970s, has hired F. Barry Truitt to head up its Tera sales and support. Truitt, the former vice president of sales at Atex and a 20-year veteran of the newspaper systems supplier business, will coordinate the education of Autlogic's existing sales and support staff in the finer points of editorial and digital-asset management issues. Most recently, Truitt was in sales at Net-Linx Publishing Solutions, the German company that now owns front-end suppliers CText Inc. and System Integrators Inc.

"This is a true OEM agreement," said Bob Hanselman, U.S. sales director for Tera. OEM stands for "original equipment manufacturer" and is used to describe a business relationship where one company manufactures a product for resale under another company's name.

While Autologic will have exclusive sales rights to the U.S. market, Hanselman said that Tera U.S. would handle some existing catalog customers and possibly newspapers as well. "There may be some small papers that fall off the table and we'll be there for that," he said.

The Tera executive also said his company and Autologic would upgrade all the U.S. customers to the latest release of Tera software.

Hanselman said that while Software Consulting and Tera have "gone our own separate ways," the break had "nothing to do with our bringing on Autologic."

He said, "We didn't discharge ourselves of one for the other."

Tera S.p.A., which had estimated revenues of US$10 million last year, says it has installed systems at more than 160 newspaper titles around the world; its largest installation is 480 seats at O Globo in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which has a circulation of 266,000 and a Saturday circulation of almost twice that. The company has been successful in the United Kingdom, where it has sold systems to the Northcliffe Newspapers Group and the Yorkshire Newspaper Group, for a total of more than 40 titles in the country.

The Tera editorial front-end product, which will be marketed by Autologic as the APS Tera Publishing System, started out life in the early 1990s as the Hyphen Editorial System and was marketed through Hyphen, the international raster image processor supplier. Following the collapse of the Hyphen businesses in 1995, the developer of the editorial system, Roberto Antoniotti, started Tera.

Originally dubbed "Good News," the latest incarnation of the system is called GN3. It is a client-server environment, utilizing Microsoft Windows products for both the client and the server, with the Microsoft SQL database (the company says it will soon offer a version of GN3 for a UNIX server and an Oracle database). While using ubiquitous hardware, operating systems and database, the GN3 product is otherwise proprietary -- it has its own text editor and its own pagination application, which allow for accurate story lengths in the text editor. GN3 has a module for publishing on the Web as well.

The Tera Archiving System (Tark) is also based on Microsoft technologies, including NT Server, SQL Server and IIS web server; its search engine is based on the AOL Full Text engine (which was formerly known as Personal Librarian). It will be marketed by Autologic under the name APS Content Management System. Tark handles pictures as well as text and has been modified for use as a picture desk. Using HyperText Markup Language (HTML) and Microsoft's Active Server Pages technology, results from queries to Tark are displayed in a standard web browser. The product produces links between the text and pictures in the database and Portable Document Format (PDF) files of the pages on which they were published.

Al Brunner, president and chief operating officer of Autologic, was traveling in Asia following the Tera announcement and was unavailable for comment. In a press release, though, Brunner was quoted as saying, "We have found that many newspapers prefer a vendor relationship with a company that can provide a complete solution from the newsroom to the pressroom. No one else has been able to provide this."

Though a 20-year veteran of Autologic, Brunner briefly left the company last year to serve as president of the CText division of Net-Linx. When Brunner's longtime boss at Autologic, Dennis Doolittle, left to run Net-Linx's System Integrators business, Brunner came back to Autologic as president.

Monotype Systems Inc. of Rolling Meadows, Ill., Autologic's biggest competitor in the imagesetter and pre-press workflow system business, is owned by the IPA Group, which also owns front-end suppliers IPA Systems of the United Kingdom and Freedom System Integrators of Wichita, Kan.

-- dmc

Autologic Information International Inc.,
(805) 498-9611;
Tera US Inc.,
(603) 624-9160,
e-mail: sales@tera-us.com.

Bountiful Boston

Seybold Boston 2001 will be held April 9-12 at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston.

The meeting is divided into four main conferences -- Web, digital media, publishing strategies and print publishing -- and also has 11 special-interest daylong tutorials in addition to a three-day trade show.

Keynote speakers for the overall meeting include Bruce Chizen, chief executive of Adobe Systems Inc., Christie Hefner, chief executive of Playboy Enterprises Inc. and Fred Ebrahimi, chief executive of Quark Inc.

Special session events include "Publish or perish: the game show," a panel discussion on publishing technology that has six industry experts presenting "with a comedic flair," and "The future of design in the age of digital media," a panel discussion featuring the famous designers David Carson, Clement Mok and Roger Black.

Scheduled topics for the Web conference include "Has consolidation killed innovation? Analyzing the shakedown of design company acquisitions," "Brand-X: exploring the movement toward multimedia branding," "Outsourcing: leveraging external resources and ASPs," "Monkey saw, monkey did: common practices, best practices and the quest for innovation," "Content management systems: who is doing what for whom?," "Three website makeovers: before and after," "Managing web projects and teams," "Recipes for defeat: why dot-coms fail when the gravy train stops," "E-commerce development: best practices," "There's no 'you' in 'user': tactics for user-centered design" and "Next generation web sites."

The print publishing conference topics are to include "Optimal server architecture," "Pre-flighting and quality management in pre-press production," "Direct to press and the challenge of variable-image design & production," "PDF for publishers," "Handing off your files," "Proofing in CTP workflows," "Moving fonts and graphic files between computing platforms," "Outstanding color," "Digital asset management: making it work," "Scripting in design and pre-press production" and "Top 10 techniques to maximize your workflow."

In other Seybold news, the newsletter arm of the business has announced that it will be combining its Seybold Report on Publishing Systems with its Seybold Report on Internet Systems. The former was distributed 20 times a year and the latter was a monthly; the new publication, called simply the Seybold Report, will be issued 24 times a year.

Seybold Seminars, (650) 578-6900.

-- dmc

Bit bucket ...

"Not long ago, the common emotion was a kind of Mickey Rooney-meets-Scrooge McDuck: 'Let's put on a dot-com and get obscenely rich!'"
- Michael Malone, on Forbes.com, talking of the failed Internet boom.

Appealing jobs: At the Associated Press (AP) of New York, Janis Magnin, manager of the corporate web site, has been named the wire service's news editor in Honolulu. ... Also at the AP, Fred Sweets has been named senior photo editor for training and development; previously, Sweets was assistant bureau chief for photos in the news cooperative's Washington, D.C. bureau. ... Taking the Washington slot is John Hall, formerly deputy managing editor for photos and graphics at the Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. ...

Computer typesetting pioneer: Presented annually by the Rochester Institute of Technology, John W. Seybold is scheduled to receive the 2001 Isaiah Thomas Award in Publishing, sponsored by Xerox Corp., at Seybold Seminars later this month. Seybold, arguably the father of computerized typesetting was definitely the pater familias of the various Seybold businesses (in addition to the Seybold Reports and Seybold Seminars -- started by son Jonathan -- Seybold's daughter Patricia has a newsletter and consulting business focusing on office automation and e-commerce, while his other son Andrew has a newsletter and consulting business focusing on mobile and wireless communications), was the founder of Research on Computer Applications in the Printing and Publishing Industry, the first company to create computer programs for commercial typesetting in the 1960s. ...

New media mavens: At Cox Interactive Media of Atlanta, Chris Kelly has been named general manager of the company's Omaha, Neb., web site; previously, he had been the co-owner of Internet Business Solutions, also of Omaha. ...

Vendor vibrations: At Adobe Systems Inc. of San Jose, John Warnock has retired as chief technology officer. Warnock, a co-founder of the company, had relinquished his chief executive's chair to Bruce Chizen in December; he remains co-chairman of the company's board of directors. ... At Digital Technology International (DTI) of Springville, Utah, Kathie Chadaz has been named customer service manager; previously, Chadaz had been a project manager at Novell. Also at DTI, Fred Davenport has been named a project manager; previously, Davenport was a manager at AT&T. Lastly at DTI, Robert Lines has been named regional sales account manager in the United Kingdom; previously, he was technical director of Press Computer Systems. ... At ECRM Imaging Systems of Tewksbury, Mass., George Carlisle, president and chief executive, has resigned; taking Carlisle's place will be Bill Givens, the company's chairman of the board. Before ECRM, Carlisle had headed up Scitex's U.S. operations. ... At Presstek Inc. of Hudson, N.H., Stan Najmr has been named director of digital imaging marketing; previously, he had been with CreoScitex and Scitex America Corp. ... At Scitex Corp. Ltd. of Herzlia, Israel, Meir Shannie has been named chairman of the board; previously, Shannie had been chief executive and president of Clal Industries and Investments Ltd. Shannie succeeds Rimon Ben-Shaoul, who has stepped down from the Scitex board following his appointment as co-chairman and president of Koonras Technologies Ltd. ... At Software Consulting Services of Nazareth, Pa., Bob McCullion has been named manager of sales; previously, McCullion had a 14-year career as a regional sales manager for Collier-Jackson and its successor company, Geac. ... At Tera UK, Alison Trueman has been named GN3 application specialist; previously, Trueman had been with Yorkshire Post Newspapers. Also at Tera, Dean Robinson has been named systems engineer; he had held a similar position at Northcliffe Newspapers. ... At the interactive division of Tribune Media Services of Chicago, Thomas Tierney has been named director of sales and marketing; previously, Tierney was with London's Financial Times, where he served as business development manager in the United States. Also at TMS's interactive division, Mike Fioritto has been named executive producer; previously, Fioritto was on-line operations manager at the Arizona Republic in Phoenix. ... At United Press International of Washington, D.C., Jack McLean has been named director of sales and marketing; previously, McLean was the founding managing partner of the Greater Washington Initiative, a public-private regional marketing effort. ...

Confabs: Folio West will be held April 18-30 in Los Angeles. The magazine conference and trade show will highlight 83 seminars and 15 educational tracks. Topics include, "Developing digital ad strategies: the continuing story," "Creating the user-centric on-line magazine" and "XPress yourself." For more information, call (203) 358-3751 or e-mail trade_shows@intertec.com. ... The Direct Marketing Association's Multi-Media Marketing Seminar will be April 18-19 in New York. Topics include "Using predictive dialing to get more orders," "Using off-line media to drive web traffic" and "How to get your web site to the stage where it really pays off." For more information, call (212) 768-7277 or e-mail customerservice@the-dma.org. ... Dynamic Graphics Inc. sponsors Managing Creative Services, to be held April 19-20 in Chicago (the same seminar will be held May 10-11 in Washington, D.C., and June 14-15 in Las Vegas). Seminar Leader Maria Piscopo said, "Discover active approaches to enhance the image of your graphics department and earn professional respect for the work you and your staff produce." For more information, call DG at (309) 688-8800 or e-mail service@dgusa.com. ... The Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association's Wireless 2001 will be held April 19-22 in Las Vegas. Keynote speakers include Microsoft's Steve Ballmer, Intel's Craig Barrett, Dell's Michael Dell and Yahoo's Jerry Yang. For more information, contact Ctia at (202) 736-3241 or e-mail info@ctiashow.com. ... The University of Virginia and the Library of Congress' seventh annual seminar, "Publishing in the 21st century: managing our own evolution," will be held April 19-21 in Washington, D.C. Topics include "How the Internet is changing publishing: stories from the front," "New kids on the block: a look at the new breed of publishers," "Applied content: the promise of distance learning," "Metadata: why it matters," "XML, PDF: function and design," "Digital rights management," "Intellectual property rights" and "Building your digital content repository." For the scoop, call (804) 982-5345. ... Internet Content Management 2001 will be held April 23-25 in Boston. Speakers include David Gilmour of Tacit Knowledge Systems and Tim Bray of Antarctica Systems. For more information, call (800) 260-7501. ... The Newspaper Association of America's (NAA) annual meeting will be April 29-May 2 in Toronto. Speakers are to include Philip Evans of Boston Consulting, John Lavine of the Newspaper Management Center at the Kellogg School of Management at the University of Illinois and Luis Antonia Ubinas of McKinsey & Co. for more information, call the NAA at (703) 902-1600 or e-mail laths@naa.org. ... #

From THE COLE PAPERS, April 2001, Copyright © 2001, All Rights Reserved.