Flashback.

Byline: Bobby Pickering

Knight-Ridder voices ambitions for Dialog, DataStar and MSN

The business information subsidiary of US newspaper conglomerate, Knight-Ridder Inc, made two key announcements. First, it had "firmed up plans" to introduce a combined front-end for its Dialog and DataStar products, allowing users to do a single search across the two databases. Chief operating officer, Jeff Galt, said: "By the end of 1996, access will undoubtedly be seamless. At this point there will no longer be separate DataStar and Dialog services. Instead, searchers will access the complete collection." The reality would prove otherwise. Meanwhile, KRI linked up with Microsoft for the impending launch of MSN. It would provide business information to a new consumer market. Galt told IWR: "We aim to broaden our appeal, particularly in the small business market." The BusinessBase service would be offered on a subscription and usage basis. An ambitious plan. Yet all the frustrations of operating in the fast moving information marketplace would be neatly sidestepped by Knight-Ridder in 1998, when it sold the last remaining pieces of its business information services division to Thomson.

Acrobat endorsed by IEEE, Investext and Euromoney

Under the headline "Providers offer look-alike documents", we reported on Adobe's efforts to establish the Acrobat PDF format. "Acrobat is a better option than image format because it also allows users to cut and paste data into other applications," we reported. Three companies had just launched products using Adobe technology -- Euromoney, Investext and IEEE. Euromoney was offering CD-ROMs containing back copies of its publications. "Our magazines have a lot of graphics, and ...