Newsday to test personalized phone information service p.

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By: Editorial Staff THE NYNEX CORP. and Newsday, Melville, N.Y., will test a personalized telephone information service targeting Long Island residents.
The plans call for a trial service to begin this fall with approximately 1,500 customers.
Customers will have access to news about their community, high school and college sports scores, and local weather as well as travel information and restaurant and movie listings. State and national news will also be available.
The trial customers will include Newsday readers who subscribe to New York Telephone's Call Answering, a voice-mail service. Other customers will be invited to try the service to help the two companies assess customer willingness to pay for personalized information. Trial participants will be charged a monthly fee.
Robert M. Johnson, publisher, president and CEO of Newsday, said the paper has been studying opportunities in the electronic information market and is convinced there is a future for newspapers as community information providers.
"We believe that the future will be in instant interactive and customized delivery of information through devices that ultimately give readers access to a kind of electronic newsstand from home, office or street corner," Johnson said. "Newsday intends to be a significant presence on that newsstand just as we are today on newsstands and doorsteps throughout Long Island and New York City."
Johnson also said the newspaper is "committed to the principles of separating the control of content from the transmission of information and insuring that the electronic highway for new information services must provide equal access to all information providers as espoused by the Newspaper Association of America.
"Months of discussions between our two companies have convinced us that we can engage in joint testing within the context of our traditional roles and consistent with Newspaper Association of America policies. To this test, Newsday brings its abilities to gather and package information and NYNEX brings its abilities to route and transmit it."

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