Prepress Technology March 2000
Tera establishes foothold in U.S. newspaper publishing market
By Lisa Larson
Prepress Editor
Tera
U.S. Inc., the fledgling subsidiary of Milan, Italy-based Tera S.p.A.,
opened its doors in Bedford, N.H., and is targeting its sales efforts
at the largest 100 newspapers in the country.
Tera offers the GN3 newspaper publishing system (formerly GoodNews), the Topic open prepress interface server and the Tark archiving solution.
"My immediate mission is to establish greater awareness of GN3 among the top 100 newspapers and secure a position on their short list of system vendors," said Tim Kacprowicz, who was named managing director for Tera U.. "We believe if we have the opportunity to demonstrate GN3's capabilities in front of these decision makers, we'll earn our share of installations."
Tera's Tark archiving solution, designed and developed to work together with the GN3 publishing system, allows users to automatically archive text, pictures and pages into a browser-based environment.
Tark also now works in a Quark-based pagination environment for newspapers that are already using this type of system. This feature has been installed at two newspapers in Europe.
Because of its seamless integration with GN3, everything published in an edition can be archived in a single step without requiring manual intervention. The need to manually combine text, pictures and pages during the archiving process is eliminated because the elements are transparently linked together during the production of the newspaper.
The archive can be viewed with a standard Web browser, providing access from a local intranet or the global Internet. Tark provides background information to editors and can be used to create new sources of revenue, such as photo sales.
All the links between the various elements, which are established when placing them in the same page or in the same section, are automatically recreated in the library, so that users are able to search for a story and then jump to the page where it was published, and from there to list all the pictures used on that particular page.
In addition to forging new relationships with large U.. newspapers, Tera U.. also will provide technical support to its dozen existing newspaper clients in the United States, including The Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., the Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer-Times, The Desert Sun in Palm Springs, Calif., and the Daily Times-Call in Longmont, Colo.
Software Consulting Services, a value-added reseller of the Tera product line primarily focusing on the small to medium-size newspaper market, will continue to provide support for Tera's products as well.
The Free Lance-Star, which was the first U.. installation of GoodNews about five years ago, plans to upgrade to GN3 by the end of April, said Bob Absher, systems manager for the family-owned newspaper. GN3 is currently running on a test server at the Free Lance-Star to evaluate the newspaper's requirements. The Free Lance-Star installed the Tark archiving solution shortly after the product was introduced.
One feature Absher likes best about Tark is that it integrates all the photos and text on the pages so that all the elements of the story are linked together. "Everything is intertwined in one database so it doesn't have to go out and do queries in other databases," said Absher.
The second aspect is doing something with the data once you've got it.
"We can bring the stories and photos back into the editorial system." Absher said. "We're pleased with the functionality and the way things are intertwined and connected in the system."
The Fayetteville Observer-Times has been using the Tera system for about a year, and last month upgraded to the 2.0 version of Tark.
The newspaper also plans to upgrade from GoodNews 2.0 to GN3. "GoodNews is running extremely well," said Ronnie Criminger, operations director for the Fayetteville Observer-Times. "We were the first installation in the United States with Tark. I think the reporters in the newsroom are pretty happy with it."
Tera U.S. Inc.
603.624.9160
www.tera-us.com