- Electric Classifieds Inc. of San Francisco, a producer of services and tools that enable interactive online classified advertising, has received $7.5 million in its second round of venture and corporate funding. Investors include Canaan Partners; Weiss, Peck & Greer; Charter Venture Capital; Softbank Holdings, and Rosewood Stone Group.
- Real Media Inc., a New York City-based Internet advertising software and services company, received a minority investment from Swiss-based Publicitas Holdings SA. Publicitas provides advertising services to print publishers.
- AdOne Classified Network completed a $4.5 million venture-capital financing round with a $2.25 million investment from Venrock Associates and a $500,000 investment from Lawrence, Smith & Horey.
- The AdOne Classified Network of New York City added 11 publications in December to its Web-based classified-advertising network.
- Applied Graphics Technologies Inc. of Greenwich, Conn., announced that its New Media Group has engineered a Web site for the Daily News of New York City.
- Baseview Products Inc. of Ann Arbor, Mich., announced that it installed, upgraded and trained customers on its Macintosh-based publishing software at 21 sites in September and 33 sites in October.
- Geac VisionShift of Tampa, Fla., announced an agreement to install its VisionShift Advertising software, part of the VisionShift Newspaper suite of products, at The Weekly Planet in Tampa.
- GMA of Bethlehem, Pa., announced that the Leader-Telegram of Eau Claire, Wis., has chosen a 10-into-two SLS2000 Inserting System for its packaging and distribution facility.
- Managing Editor Inc. of Jenkins, Pa., announced that it installed its Page Director Series of Ad Layout Systems, Classified Layout Systems and Editorial Layout Systems, in addition to several Quark XTension programs, at eight newspapers.
- Media Marketing Inc. of Boulder, Colo., recently installed its Immediate Integrated Sales Automation systems at six newspapers and added modules to already installed systems at three newspapers.
- T/One Inc. of Petaluma, Calif., announced that it will install Merlin Archive Systems at sites including MSNBC, The Dallas Morning News, The Tampa Tribune, the Tulsa World, The Denver Post and The Hartford Courant.
Newsbriefs
Dayton Daily News to Get New Plant
Cox Ohio Publishing announced in December that it will build a $90 million printing and packaging facility in Franklin, Ohio, to produce the Dayton Daily News. Construction will begin in the spring of 1997, and the plant is expected to be fully operational early in 1999.
"We believe the Franklin Production Facility will be the most advanced newspaper printing plant in North America and perhaps the world when it opens in 1999," said J. Bradford Tillson, president and chief executive officer of Cox Ohio Publishing and publisher of the Dayton Daily News.
All of the Dayton Daily News production work now done on two sites in downtown Dayton will move to the new plant. The company will keep its corporate headquarters and editorial workforce in downtown Dayton.
The new plant is being designed and constructed by a team of newspaper-facilities firms. The architect is Celso R. Gilberti, principal of Gilberti Spitter International of Cleveland. The engineering consultant is the Blevins Harding Group of Boulder, Colo., and the construction manager is Turner Construction of Cleveland.
Douglas Franklin, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Cox Ohio Publishing, said the new printing plant will incorporate technologies currently not in use at other U.S. newspaper-printing plants. "Our new presses will allow us to print 3,500 newspapers per minute and make faster changes for later news," he said. "New inking technologies will make the Dayton Daily News a more colorful, cleaner-looking newspaper. Our color capacity will more than double."
Web Companies Obtain Financing
Three companies that offer World Wide Web services to newspapers recently obtained equity financing:
Gerber Donates CTP to RIT
Gerber Systems Corp. of South Windsor, Conn., has donated a complete computer-to-plate system to Rochester Institute of Technology's School of Printing Management and Sciences. Valued at $410,000, the Gerber system includes a platesetter equipped with a PostScript raster-image processor and an automated media transporter.
The Gerber System will be used to make plates for all sheet fed and web classes in the School of Printing Management and Sciences and for industry seminars presented by RIT's Technical and Education Center.
Groupsoft Ships Groupsoft Publisher
Groupsoft Ltd. of the United Kingdom announced in October that it has begun shipments of Groupsoft Publisher, an editorial system for managing an online publication.
Groupsoft Publisher allows a small editorial team to manage a Web publication. It separates production into three distinct roles--site structure management, page appearance and content--so that the online publication can be managed without specialized resources becoming a bottleneck.
X-Rite Ships Color System
X-Rite Inc. of Grandville, Mich., announced in December availability of the X-Rite Color Spectrofiler, a color-measurement and archiving system. The company says that the Spectrofiler will facilitate International Color Consortium profile creation, color analysis, and research and testing of color-imaging devices.
Southworth Introduces Container System
A new feeder/positioner from Southworth of Portland, Maine, can be lowered to floor level, allowing containers to be rolled on from stock carts and dollies. Operators can then raise and lower the containers for feeding and off loading without having to lift, bend, stretch or reach. Pushbutton or foot control allows lift adjustment over a 26-inch range. Capacity is 1,000 pounds.
Baseview Tops Pagination Survey
Baseview Products Inc. of Ann Arbor, Mich., announced that it took first place in a survey of customer satisfaction for newspapers using pagination software.
The survey was conducted by the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the Society of Newspaper Design. Of the 32 respondents who use Baseview, 29 reported being "happy" with the program.
4-Sight Publishes ISDN Directory
4-Sight L.C. of Woburn, Mass., announced in December that it has published the first ISDN media directory for the graphic-arts industry. Developed in partnership with British Telecom, the new catalog lists over 5,000 companies using ISDN for high-speed file transfer.
4-Sight lists U.S. companies in the following categories: ad agencies, service bureaus, graphic designers, image database, printing, publishing, repro house and ISDN dealers. The directory also lists the 42 countries where ISDN is available, providing telecommunication company names, services provided, and telephone and fax numbers.
Users listed in the directory include the Chicago Tribune, USA Today, BBDO, Ogilvy and Mather, Hearst Corp., RR Donnelley, Quad/Graphics, Cahners Publishing, National Geographic and Ziff-Davis Publishing.
To order a copy or be listed in a subsequent directory, contact 4-Sight toll free at (888) 247-4448. The first copy is free; additional copies cost $15 each.