SPECIAL REPORT TO EDITORS: FLEXIBILITY
CUSTOMDATA
In a major breakthrough, UPI has developed a customized news service that offers editors a virtually unlimited number of news options. CustomData allows newspapers to tailor the UPI report to their editorial requirements.
Instead of receiving the entire wire report, editors can now decide what types of news, sports, markets and features they want. The UPI CustomData microprocessor installed at the newspaper, selects only those items about which newspaper editors feel their readers want to know. UPI editors call CustomData the "clutter cutter."
The news service enables UPI to code stories by topic, sub-topic, by geographic area, type of story and by priority. Thus an editor can choose, for example, to receive all stories scheduled on one cycle, plus certain regional stories, plus all relating to a specific industry, such as agriculture, mining or automobiles.
UPI CustomData sorts and delivers only those categories to the newsroom printer.
------ PHOTO: "It's been said that choices are the trend of the future. Nowhere is this more true than in the news industry, where exponential growth in the volume of information is straining the ability of newspapers to keep pace. Editors need better tools to help them select, tailor and direct the flow of information to meet their newspaper's needs. UPI is developing services specifically designed to meet these changing needs of today -- and tomorrow." -- Robert Kieckhefer, News Projects Manager ------
UPI CustomData has been designed to work for small newspapers as well as major metropolitan dailies. UPI CustomData is a flexible service. Newspaper editors can reprogram and select additional special topics, increase the geographical range of regional coverage or delete categories of news -- with one phone call.
The service is now available via UPI's high-speed DataNews service and requires no new printers or circuits.
FINTEXT
Fintext will provide tabular financial services customized for individual newspapers, delivered faster and with greater accuracythan another other stock service available.
Subscribing newspapers will receive the data via a specially designed and programmed client computer, which will store a custom-selected database. Using the computer keyboard, editors will be able to access and format any combination of financial material. At the editor's command, the pre-selected and formatted information will be sent through the newpaper's typesetting equipment. The enhanced service will be compatible with the hardware and software a newspaper is now using.
Portions of lists that do not change, or change infrequently, such as the stock name or annual highs or lows, remain in the client computer database. Only changes will be transmitted and integrated with the standing data. this streamlined method of creating financial tables is faster than other high speed services, which retransmit standing material again and again.
Moments after market closings, the newspaper will be able to send final figures to the typesetter in any data format and column width. Fintext will enable newspapers now carrying semifinal prices to capture closing market prices.