Subject: Re: History question! From: joannm@pls.com (Jo Ann Mandinach) Date: Sat, 10 Jun 1995 12:47:56 -0700

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LauriePete makes some points below re The New York Times that still get me
going after all these years.

At 9:22 AM 6/10/95, LauriePete@aol.com wrote:
><staff hired for the purpose, or did they hand over raw material to existing
>Internet providers? Who were the first?<<
>
>In 1984, I joined the staff of New York Pulse, an electronic information
>service created by The New York Times. It went live with paying customers in
>1986 and was distributed through  Pronto, which was then Chemical Bank's home
>banking service.
>
>Our staff of 25-30 (including techies and marketing) was totally separate
>from the newspaper offices. Interaction with the newspaper staff was also
>restricted to a few designated contact points. The primary reason for this
>was the union. We were not part of it.

Ah, yes. In 1969 The New York Times had a widely-praised internal morge
based on the IBM Stairs software.  In 1975 they decided to expand and
created The New York Times Information Bank to cover publications other
than The New York Times. They set up shop in Parsippany, New Jersey, right
outside the Guild's jurisdiction.

Out of some 12,000 applicants for 12 jobs abstractor/indexer jobs, they
threw away all applications not post-marked in New Jersey and hired 12
really top-notch folks. For many months if not a full year (memory fades)
we had no listing under 411 information.  Staffing eventually reached 35 or
so abstractor/indexers (2 shifts), 6 regional sales offices, customer
support, techies etc. for a total of around 85.

We were non-union, too, but a unionization drive really split up the
offices and got some
very interesting reactions from the same management that ended up at
Laurie's operation. (JB??) and also restricted contact with the newspaper.

We abstracted and indexed some 100 other publications magazines,
newspapers, newsletters and wires. We produced full-text of The Boston
Globe and index various wires in real time. We talked to the LA Times about
doing their archives.

Ironically, when the Information Bank and the electronic publishing rights
were awarded to Mead "in perpetuity" back in 1982? on the dawn of the
personal computer age there was no one at The New York Times headquarters
who really understood either what we were doing, how it would help the
newspaper.  Instead, they hired McKinley who came in, did a high-priced
study saying, effectively, you have a paper index, microfiche and the
newspaper. Why would you need to have everything in yet another form??

>We were using information from the newspaper as raw fodder for a service that
>provided some limited criteria searching. We were also trying to keep "dated
>archives" timely. For instance, travel stories would have periodic updates to
>check on hotel prices, etc. A key challenge was to create some semblance of
>interactivity in a world that was running in ASCII at 300 baud.

>The service was geared to the New York market and would also provide
>information from non-Times sources and advertisers. We were working on an
>online grocery shopping service for D'Agostino's when we folded in December
>1986. The goal was to migrate Pulse over time to the other home banking
>services. At that time there were four up and running. Eventually, we might
>have expanded to a broader market. (We were also operating under the stifling
>Mead agreement that gave Nexis online rights to the New York Times news
>materials.)

Laurie, I have three proposals moldering away someplace for a packaged service
that would have integrated the New York Times's Mimi Sheraton restaurant
reviews,
travel articles, etc. plus a really amusing one on why we should cover
Playboy itself rather than just the articles ABOUT soundbytes like Jimmy
Carter's "lusting in his heart" statements taken out of context from the
interviews.

>I am always amused when Times executives omit from their online history the
>story of New York Pulse (and earlier NYT experiences with videotex services
>Viewtron and CBS Venture One's Reach--for which I also worked from 82-84.)


Laurie, "amused" is not the word I use in this context ;->

You don't hear them talking much about The New York Times Information Bank
either or the McKinley study.

We also did an advertising & media database called AMI (Advertising &
Marketing Intelligence) as a joint venture with J. Walter Thomson, and KIT
(Key Issues Tracking) for the Carter Admin. White House.  Both were really
leading-edge at the time.  AMI -- 65 publications on media, marketing and
consumer products - would still be incredibly valuable today.  We charged
something like $175 an hour back then and were pushing away customers.  AMI
lasted from 1978 until Mead finally got most of the same publications in
full-text form circa 1987.

Times management, in its infinite wisdom, wouldn't let me staff up with 2
more people ($25-28K for both at the time) to cover the international
information customers like Coke, Pepsi, etc. required since their marketing
didn't stop at the US borders. Parenthetically, I left to join Dow Jones
News/Retrieval shortly after that decision.

The NYT Information Bank alumni club does a reunion the first night of
National Online in New York every May.  Join us.

On the other hand, it *is* good that they're finally gearing up their
electronic publishing activities 10-15 years after some
less-than-enlightened moves in the annals of online publishing history.

Sorry to go on and on.....
Jo Ann




********************************************************
Jo Ann Mandinach, Personal Library Software,  (415) 329-8655
    Dir. of Information Industry Partnerships
          Point to http://www.pls.com to ftp our new PLWeb 2.0



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