[11419] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Interactive Publishing Alert -- April Issue Now Available
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Rosalind Resnick)
Fri Apr 1 11:56:53 1994
Reply-To: rosalind@harrison.win.net (Rosalind Resnick)
To: com-priv@psi.com
Date: Fri, 01 Apr 1994 08:15:41
From: rosalind@harrison.win.net (Rosalind Resnick)
The April issue of Interactive Publishing Alert is now available.
This month's issue explores the small but rapidly growing trend toward
newspapers publishing on the Internet rather than on commercial online
services such as CompuServe, Prodigy and America Online. The issue also
includes profiles of three Internet publishers: The News & Observer,
the 155,000 Raleigh, N.C., daily that launched its Nando Land and
NandO.net services earlier this year; The Palo Alto Weekly, a twice-
weekly paper in California's Silicon Valley that went online in
February, and Hot Off The Tree, an online-only magazine that bills
itself as "the first controlled-circulation publication on the Net."
There's also a review of Access Atlanta, the new joint venture between
Prodigy and The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, in our IPA Test Lab
plus a sampling of reader opinion about U.S. News & World Report's new
online venture with CompuServe. The issue also contains a roundup of
the latest online publishing deals and excerpts from recent articles
about online services and electronic publishing.
Here are some of the highlights:
* "A lot of newsroom executives appear to be afraid of the technology,
and that's probably what has driven so many newspapers to deals with
America Online and Prodigy. In reality, it's very easy and quick
to hire a couple tech geniuses and get yourself a BBS and be on the
Internet." -- Steve Outing, owner of an Internet mailing list that
provides a forum for discussing developments in electronic newspaper
and magazine publishing
* "One of the neat things about the Internet is that a small paper
that serves a very focused area can, with minimal effort, offer the
community a way to engage in collective dialog. ... For us, going on
the Internet was the path of least resistance." -- Bill Johnson,
publisher of The Palo Alto Weekly
* "Within 10 years, our print edition, as we now know it, will go away.
We'll still publish a print edition, but maybe only two editions a
week." -- Frank Daniels III, executive editor, The News & Observer
* "I think the Internet may be as important to publishing as the
Gutenberg printing press. It means that anybody can be a publisher, as
long as they understand the Internet. I haven't spent a nickel, and I'm
putting out an international magazine and rounding up tens of thousands
of subscribers." -- David Scott Lewis, publisher of Hot Off The Tree, a
free online magazine with over 31,000 subscribers
* "Access Atlanta, one of the first electronic newspapers to make good
use of the graphical capabilities that the online medium has to offer,
is a worthy effort by Prodigy and The Atlanta Journal and Constitution.
Simply put, Access Atlanta wants to be your hometown paper in the
wilderness of cyberspace. Log onto Access Atlanta and you'll find local
news and information and lots of it -- from lists of births, deaths,
home sales and day care centers to the length of the tour at CNN Center.
Click a yellow square on a subway map and find out what's happening at
Peachtree Center; page through a transportation index and find out the
fastest route to take there. The only real weakness in Access Atlanta
is that it's not always easy to find what you're looking for --
information about day care centers, for example, is tucked away in the
InfoCenter instead of under Living & Kids. And, like any good thing,
readers are already complaining that there's not enough of it -- they're
clamoring for more classifieds, more entertainment listings and other
features. Overall Rating: 7 (on a scale of 1 to 10)." -- IPA Test Lab
Interactive Publishing Alert, a monthly online newsletter tracking
developments in interactive publishing and electronic media, is edited
and published by Rosalind Resnick, a veteran business and technology
writer who specializes in online services and consults with newspapers
and magazines expanding into interactive media. Ms. Resnick is also the
author of Exploring the World of Online Services (Sybex, 1993). She
can be reached on the Internet at rosalind@harrison.win.net and on
CompuServe at 71333,1473.
Subscription Info: A subscription to Interactive Publishing Alert is
available for $149 for 12 monthly issues; $79 for six monthly issues;
$45 for three monthly issues, and $15 for single issues. To subscribe
via e-mail, send a message to 71333.1473@compuserve.com. Please include
your name, title, company name, phone number, fax number, billing
address, desired subscription length and the electronic mail box to
which you'd like your subscription sent. Make your check payable to
Interactive Communications International, Inc., 1124 Harrison St.,
Hollywood FL 33019. To order this newsletter online, use Gopher to
connect to marketplace.com by typing 'gopher marketplace.com'. Once
you see the MarketPlace menu, select the 'Interactive Publishing Alert'
menu item.
NOW AVAILABLE: Transcripts of the proceedings of the Interactive
Newspapers '94: The Multimedia Mission conference held in Tampa, Fla.,
Feb. 14 to 16 are now available online through Interactive Publishing
Alert. Co-sponsored by The Kelsey Group and _Editor & Publisher_
magazine, the sessions drew more than 600 editors, publishers and
technology vendors from around the world. Full sets of conference
proceedings cost $15 for 16 transcribed tapes or $50 for each tape
purchased separately. Interactive Newspapers '94 conference packages
containing a complete set of audio tapes, a three-ring binder with
copies of speakers' slides, and a list of the names and addresses of
all the attendees, are available for $250. Send e-mail to Rosalind
Resnick at 71333.1473@compuserve.com for a list of conference tapes
and speakers. These materials can be ordered online or via e-mail as
described above.
