And production-management software distances itself from the hardware it monitors. Burt Technologies Inc. of Evergreen, Colo., took software it developed for GMA Inc. inserters and entered a partnership with EnterNet of Lombard, Ill., emerging with hardware-independent products. In turn, GMA of Bethlehem, Pa., took software developed by The New York Times and tweaked it for other customers. The scope of such production-control and tracking systems grows. Pittsburgh's Denex Inc. is testing a totalizing system tracking newsprint use and system performance from inventory through the pressroom to the mailroom.
Innovation continues on heavy-metal products as well.
This year, for example, several companies offer high-speed stackers and bundlers capable of processing up to 45 bundles per minute. Using technology refined by commercial printers, the shaftless and gapless press will be introduced next year. Two computer giants, IBM and Intel Corp.'s iCat, and newspaper supplier InfiNet of Norfolk, Va., rank among those showing products permitting Internet-site operators to create online stores. With classified ads widely seen as newspapers' online Achilles heel, also watch for smarter online-classified applications, typically featuring tight integration with related editorial, directory and Yellow Page information, or with the inventories of advertising partners from automobile dealers to Realtors. Clearly, the revenue-based approach becomes common in all areas of production.