Reuters sued for publishing public URL

Here's an odd one. Swedish tech firm Intentia International has filed a suit against Reuters for obtaining an earnings report for the company from a web page that Intentia considered private on the grounds that no public navigation directed vistors to the page. The URL, however, was completely open to the world inasmuch as no registration is required to access it -- simply knowledge of the URL. Intentia reckon this means hacking and argue that a ruling against them would set the precedent that anything on an open web server is public information. Tautology?
(From Salon)

Pfeiffer on EidosMedia

Industry pundit Andreas Pfeiffer considers Xsmile, the XML-based pagination component of EidosMedia's Méthode publishing system, and reckons that such systems "could prefigure what standards driven workflow solutions of the future could look like". I did a review of Méthode for GNL IT - colleagues can read this in the "IT Library" or whatever it's called. The main problem with the ideal of a natively XML based solution is that in a medium as mature as print, in many design-driven workflows it is simply unrealistic to draw a line between form and content. The fact that XML and even SVG isn't really rich enough to describe a multi-layered InDesign page using sophisticated transparency isn't a failing -- it's to be expected.
(From Pfeiffer Report)

"91% of XPress users unhappy" -- Macworld

Macworld UK asked 1,268 readers if they were considering an alternative to QuarkXPress or have already switched. Niney-one percent of them said they were unhappy with Quark. Fifty-one percent said they were sick of waiting for a OS X version of the software, and 40 per cent said they had already switched to Adobe InDesign. Nine per cent declared that they would rather use XPress under any circumstances.
(From Macworld UK)

Washington Post 'was forced to sell IHT stake to NYT'

Washington Post CEO told Post editors that the New York Times threatened to drive the International Herald Tribune to ruin unless the Post sold its stake to the Times, according to Editor & Publisher. Apparently the Times threatened to start its own international edition and to block investment into the IHT. The Times has not commented.
(From Editor & Publisher)

Europe leads on cross-media publishing

Review of the Ifra show from Editor and Publisher. Argues that European developers are showing the way for new cross-media publishing solutions. "No less than five Spanish companies -- Ailink, Protec, Quasar, SchlumbergerSema, and Seinet -- will compete with northern Europe's established giants and their equally attractive Italian counterparts to court the world's newspapers." Media tech consultant Bill Rosenblatt, who recognises that American publishers are far more conservative than Europeans when it comes to news tech investment, observes also that European vendors "have the better technologies".
(From Editor & Publisher)

Quark gets SOAPy

Quark has upgraded its Digital Media System to improve access to, and administration of, assets within the system. Also added to DMS is a "Web Site Manager" and a SOAP framework, indicating that Fred Ebrahimi has jumped on the web services bandwagon; "WebCopyDesk", which is fairly self-explanatory; CRM tools; some workflow automation tools; and finally the "QuarkDMS Workflow Engine". This is described by Macword as as allowing publishers to "design and execute workflow processes, track projects, and define custom graphical workflow templates to control how work flows between people throughout the enterprise. This solution includes prioritization, editing, scheduling and production-orientated tasks."
(From Macworld UK)

German ABC to count digital editions

Katja Riefler notes on E-Media Tidbits that IVW, the German equivalent of the Audit Bureau of Circulation, is likely to decide to recognise some newspaper digital editions as paid circulation. The proposed model is such that digital circulation will be counted as a distinct figure to print circulation rather than a component of it.
(From E-Media Tidbits)

Pfeiffer on XPress X

Andreas Pfeiffer on the forthcoming timing showdown between Apple machines booting in OSX only (Jan 2003) and Quark's forthcoming X-only release of XPress (probably Q2 2003). He notes that businesses would prefer to migrate OS and application environments at different times, but they may well be forced to change both at the same time. The article is pretty much verbatim what he argued in his recent eWeek report, albeit more management summary. Conclusion: what people really want is an XPress 4.x that runs both in OS9 and OSX -- so they have control over their upgrade migration.
(From Pfeiffer Reports)

Telegraph sales drop below 1 million

The Daily Telegraph circulation has dropped below 1 million for the first time in eight years following the paper's move to reduce discount sales and free copies. Like the Guardian and the Independent, the Telegraph recently raised its price by 5 pence to 55p.
(From Media Guardian)

PA moves north

As anticipated, the Press Association has announced that it will shortly move part of its Victoria operation to Howden, east Yorkshire, where PA's contract publishing outfit is based. There will also be a number of redundancies. The departments affected will include the website and Teletext operations, plus some people in PA's IT department. The TV and radio listings teams will remain in situ.
(From Media Guardian)

200 newspapers now have digital editions

Vin Crosbie on Tidbits notes that a Digital Dots/Ifra survey has concluded that European newspapers believe that digital editions -- ie, online representations of the newspaper as printed, often in PDF form -- will be commercially viable within this decade. And Crosbie's consultancy firm Digital Deliverance concludes that nearly 200 dailies -- mostly in Europe and Asia -- are now producing digital editions.
(From E-Media Tidbits)