IBM Unveils Valuenet Strategy
Most newspaper executives don't think of IBM as a publishing-software supplier, but a suite of products announced at NEXPO may change that perception.
Publisher's Valuenet offers an umbrella of products and services from a variety of suppliers designed to help newspapers extend business to the Internet. It couples technology developed by IBM and others with existing publishing systems and operations, bridging the gap between traditional print and the Web, said Peter O'Sullivan, director of publishing, IBM Global Telecommunications and Media Industries in White Plains, N.Y.
Among the technologies displayed at NEXPO under that umbrella:
- Media Bank, a database application allowing single or
interacting work groups to share content and files
- NewsFlow for Lotus Notes, letting publishers research, create
and organize stories regardless of destination, whether print, the
World Wide Web, compact disc or broadcast
- Dalai DDPI-NewsCreator, providing a Lotus Notes interface to
QuarkXPress
- SurfAid, to analyze and interpret the behavior of visitors to a
Web site
- EZSeek, an interactive, single-source consumer Web guide to
local businesses, products, services, events, special promotions and
offers
- Koz Community Publishing by Koz Inc., allowing community
organizations to self-publish on the Web
- IBM's Intelligent Subscriber Management System, to manage a
large number of online subscribers
- Infopager, software that creates personal, digital reproductions of publications and delivers targeted news and advertising directly to subscribers.