By: Jim Rosenberg Print-to-Web Developers Partner Up
'The South's Oldest Daily Newspaper' is expanding and refining deployment of its industry's newest trick. The Post and Courier, Charleston, S.C., is enhancing its print-to-Web capabilities through a partnership of its supplier of specialty bar codes and hand-held scanners with a data and analytical services provider.
GoCode Inc. developer of the tiny, two-dimensionally encoded bar codes the paper uses to direct wired users' browsers directly to Web sites related to stories or ads in which the codes appear is developing products jointly with PlanetPortal, creator of swipe cards and keyboard-mounted readers that do the same thing. Both firms also created remote Web-addressing devices that allow users to call up Web sites in much the same way viewers use remote controls to select TV stations (E&P, May 15, p. 37).
The firms initially will combine their technologies for magazines and newspapers the first being GoCode's hometown daily, which Post and Courier Assistant Publisher Larry W. Tarleton said has been adding GoCode links since they appeared May 1.
While GoCode supplies the connectivity, PlanetPortal, based in Durham, N.C., will deliver content based on user demographics and behavioral patterns. 'Their technology complements ours in providing the publishing industry with a meaningful way to integrate Internet content in their services,' said GoCode CEO Tom Pickens.
According to GoCode Marketing Vice President Prioleau Alexander, partnering with PlanetPortal seems to make more sense than developing the expertise itself. 'They are extremely good at managing the back end,' he remarked, noting that the firms are still negotiating their relationship.
The first fruit of their cooperation is an 'Internet Guide' to content selected according to criteria such as local interest, holidays or events, and promotions. The listing appears in the Post and Courier as a boxed quarter-page section that includes the day's 'featured links' of news, information, services, commerce, and regular sections of Charleston.Net, the newspaper's Web site.
'We're acting as a filter to tailor the content for a community,' said PlanetPortal founder and CEO Brent Kleinheksel. While his company provides such 'Internet Guides' directly,
efforts are under way to syndicate the print-to-Web codes and listings. Though he would not identify any prospective syndication partners, Kleinheksel said at least one is a name long familiar to newspapers. Tarleton likened syndication and function of GoCodes to the wide availability of VCR Plus+ codes. Those numerical codes, developed by Gemstar and printed in newspapers' TV sections, simplify selection and recording of programs.
Syndication was chosen, said Alexander, because 'we were having problems with newspapers really understanding how ... we were charging.' For $4.50 per month per 1,000 readers, a newspaper obtains use of the printable GoCodes, a daily 'Internet Guide' in a choice of sizes, and seasonal 'Netchecks' smaller boxed listings that enable readers to scan for particular information related to almost any section of a paper. An e-commerce breakout 'is negotiated on a case-by-case basis,' said Alexander, because the technology allows users to buy directly through an ad's scanned GoCode. Containing all necessary buyer information, the GoCode reader can automatically fill out an online order form. If GoCode finds the vendor, Alexander explained, the paper will get a cut on each sale; if the paper negotiates an advertisement, GoCode will get a cut.
Each entry in the guide contains a GoCode, some as small as 5/16 by 1/16 of an inch. With a keyboard-connected (and soon untethered) penlike device, readers scan codes for entries that interest them. Their browsers then call up the corresponding Web page, obviating the need to record and type the typically very long uniform resource locators that describe individual Web pages. The printed guide ends with an offer for free GoCode readers. The hand-held GoCode reader also has buttons that users can program for specific Web sites. One button is dedicated to an on-screen version of the same 'Internet Guide' that appears in the paper.
Alexander said use of the guide may decline over time, as GoCodes spread throughout the entire issue and readers become familiar with their use. In the meantime, he said he's extremely pleased with how the tiny bar codes hold up on newsprint, even when occasionally over-inked. The best results, he added, are obtained with codes output through the paper's pagination system now about 50 per day. A thousand subscribers are expected to be testing GoCode readers by the end of the first week of August, according to GoCode, which hopes to double that number by the end of next month.
PlanetPortal also looks to work with other print-to-Web technology providers, including Digimarc, which now links several magazines' printed pages to Web pages, and Digital Convergence, which, besides its printed bar codes, embeds electronic signals that selectively link TV programming to related Web sites.
'GoCode is but one node of our network,' said Kleinheksel. PlanetPortal will develop aggregate consumer profiles from all its technology and publishing partners, he continued, gleaning the consumer information 'within the privacy concerns of both firms.' That aggregation of 'previously unavailable' data on consumer behavior, online and in print, he added, creates a 'more accurate, detailed understanding' of certain consumers and groups.
Kleinheksel stressed that information is picked up from code scans and PlanetPortal card swipes not from activity at Web sites. 'The information they get will be carefully filtered through us to begin with,' said Alexander. Maintaining 'a very strict security policy,' he said, GoCode prefers to 'err on the side of caution' because so much is learned about 'GoCoders' who are, after all, his customer's customers.
Sorted as PlanetPortal requires, information is passed along 'in a form that is useful to advertisers, but acceptable to the people ... using the GoCode reader,' Alexander said.
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Jim Rosenberg (tech@editorandpublisher.com) is a senior editor for Editor & Publisher magazine.
from this week's Editor & Publisher magazine. To subscribe, click here.
by Jim Rosenberg
"The South's Oldest Daily Newspaper" is expanding and refining deployment of its industry's newest trick. The Post and Courier, Charleston, S.C., is enhancing its print-to-Web capabilities through a partnership of its supplier of specialty bar codes and hand-held scanners with a data and analytical services provider.
GoCode Inc. — developer of the tiny, two-dimensionally encoded bar codes the paper uses to direct wired users' browsers directly to Web sites related to stories or ads in which the codes appear — is developing products jointly with PlanetPortal, creator of swipe cards and keyboard-mounted readers that do the same thing. Both firms also created remote Web-addressing devices that allow users to call up Web sites in much the same way viewers use remote controls to select TV stations (E&P, May 15, p. 37).
The firms initially will combine their technologies for magazines and newspapers — the first being GoCode's hometown daily, which Post and Courier Assistant Publisher Larry W. Tarleton said has been adding GoCode links since they appeared May 1.
While GoCode supplies the connectivity, PlanetPortal, based in Durham, N.C., will deliver content based on user demographics and behavioral patterns. "Their technology complements ours in providing the publishing industry with a meaningful way to integrate Internet content in their services," said GoCode CEO Tom Pickens.
According to GoCode Marketing Vice President Prioleau Alexander, partnering with PlanetPortal seems to make more sense than developing the expertise itself. "They are extremely good at managing the back end," he remarked, noting that the firms are still negotiating their relationship.
The first fruit of their cooperation is an "Internet Guide" to content selected according to criteria such as local interest, holidays or events, and promotions. The listing appears in the Post and Courier as a boxed quarter-page section that includes the day's "featured links" of news, information, services, commerce, and regular sections of Charleston.Net, the newspaper's Web site.
"We're acting as a filter to tailor the content for a community," said PlanetPortal founder and CEO Brent Kleinheksel. While his company provides such "Internet Guides" directly,
efforts are under way to syndicate the print-to-Web codes and listings. Though he would not identify any prospective syndication partners, Kleinheksel said at least one is a name long familiar to newspapers. Tarleton likened syndication and function of GoCodes to the wide availability of VCR Plus+ codes. Those numerical codes, developed by Gemstar and printed in newspapers' TV sections, simplify selection and recording of programs.
Syndication was chosen, said Alexander, because "we were having problems with newspapers really understanding how ... we were charging." For $4.50 per month per 1,000 readers, a newspaper obtains use of the printable GoCodes, a daily "Internet Guide" in a choice of sizes, and seasonal "Netchecks" — smaller boxed listings that enable readers to scan for particular information related to almost any section of a paper. An e-commerce breakout "is negotiated on a case-by-case basis," said Alexander, because the technology allows users to buy directly through an ad's scanned GoCode. Containing all necessary buyer information, the GoCode reader can automatically fill out an online order form. If GoCode finds the vendor, Alexander explained, the paper will get a cut on each sale; if the paper negotiates an advertisement, GoCode will get a cut.
Each entry in the guide contains a GoCode, some as small as 5/16 by 1/16 of an inch. With a keyboard-connected (and soon untethered) penlike device, readers scan codes for entries that interest them. Their browsers then call up the corresponding Web page, obviating the need to record and type the typically very long uniform resource locators that describe individual Web pages. The printed guide ends with an offer for free GoCode readers. The hand-held GoCode reader also has buttons that users can program for specific Web sites. One button is dedicated to an on-screen version of the same "Internet Guide" that appears in the paper.
Alexander said use of the guide may decline over time, as GoCodes spread throughout the entire issue and readers become familiar with their use. In the meantime, he said he's extremely pleased with how the tiny bar codes hold up on newsprint, even when occasionally over-inked. The best results, he added, are obtained with codes output through the paper's pagination system — now about 50 per day. A thousand subscribers are expected to be testing GoCode readers by the end of the first week of August, according to GoCode, which hopes to double that number by the end of next month.
PlanetPortal also looks to work with other print-to-Web technology providers, including Digimarc, which now links several magazines' printed pages to Web pages, and Digital Convergence, which, besides its printed bar codes, embeds electronic signals that selectively link TV programming to related Web sites.
"GoCode is but one node of our network," said Kleinheksel. PlanetPortal will develop aggregate consumer profiles from all its technology and publishing partners, he continued, gleaning the consumer information "within the privacy concerns of both firms." That aggregation of "previously unavailable" data on consumer behavior, online and in print, he added, creates a "more accurate, detailed understanding" of certain consumers and groups.
Kleinheksel stressed that information is picked up from code scans and PlanetPortal card swipes — not from activity at Web sites. "The information they get will be carefully filtered through us to begin with," said Alexander. Maintaining "a very strict security policy," he said, GoCode prefers to "err on the side of caution" because so much is learned about "GoCoders" — who are, after all, his customer's customers.
Sorted as PlanetPortal requires, information is passed along "in a form that is useful to advertisers, but acceptable to the people ... using the GoCode reader," Alexander said.
