News products - A VIP Editorial
Jinfo Blog

By Robin Neidorf

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One of the most satisfying experiences in publishing VIP is when we can fulfill a specific request from a subscriber for a product review. Such is this case with this month's review of ICAP Online Services, a provider of data about Greek companies. A subscriber made a point of coming to the FreePint tabletop at June's SLA Annual Conference to ask about providers of Greek information, and lo, a few months later you have the result.

This month's second review is of NewsEdge.com, published by Acquire Media. As with last month's featured Eureka.cc, NewsEdge.com is part of a growing category of business news products. Each of these products differentiates itself based on its particular dataset, search and delivery functions, industry customisation, workflow integration and host of additional factors. They compete successfully both with the lower end of the market (as in, the free sources of news content) as well as the higher end of the market - the Big Names in news aggregation we're all familiar with.

The news category is one that never fails to give us plenty to write about: Between paywalls going up and coming down, debates over licensing and links, and new frontiers in mobile delivery, there's always news about news. That's part of why we've dubbed next month 'November News Month'. Here's a short list of what you can look forward to:

• In-depth review of Factiva, plus comparative analysis of sources and features across a number of news providers, including LexisNexis, NewsEdge.com, Eureka.cc, and Moreover's Newsdesk
  
  
• Results of FreePint Research: News Needs and Preferences (haven't completed the survey yet? There's still time to add your thoughts...)
  
  
• 2010 News Report, collecting LiveWire coverage about the news category over the past 12 months

We'll also be hosting online discussion, via webinar for live interaction, about the role of news products in your content portfolios. We know from current and past research projects that news content is an area many VIP subscribers struggle with: Enormous internal pressures demand you cut the budget for news down to the bone, without losing coverage or flexibility. Users want news in different formats (including, increasingly, mobile formats). These webinars will present some FreePint Research data then facilitate peer-to-peer, confidential discussion on how you are resolving these opposing tensions.

Participation in these webinars will be free to VIP subscribers. You'll receive an invitation to register for the limited spaces available, and please email me directly with any questions you may have or to let me know of your specific interests - I'm always eager to hear from you at robin.neidorf@freepint.com.

In the meantime, there's plenty to keep you informed in this month's VIP - SourceWire, results from FreePint Research: Enterprise Market for Mobile Content, Tap the Wire and more.

Enjoy.

Robin Neidorf is the General Manager and Lead Researcher for FreePint.

This editorial appears in VIP Magazine No. 83, October 2010. Purchase online >>

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