• Gannett Co. Inc.'s Wisconsin newspaper group has deployed its first-ever subscription-based premium content site -- using Clickshare.

• A web trailblazer talks about universal registration, and the idea of giving users simple access to multiple websites.

• Another web pioneer is quoted describing the need for identity-management technology, which will help with both marketing and privacy.

• A debate among news professionals over whether charging for content makes sense -- and whether the web is a mass or niche market.

GANNETT USING CLICKSHARE TO DEBUT COMPANY'S
FIRST SUBSCRIPTION-ONLY WEBSITE -- FOR NFL PACKERS

The nation's largest newspaper chain debuted earlier this month its first subscription-only website, a feature-packed offering devoted to fans of the NFL's Green Bay Packers. Subscription, authentication and transaction billing for the site is handled by Clickshare Service Corp. "Packers Premium" (http://premium.PackersNews.com ) was offering discounted subscriptions at $29.95 yearly or $4.95 a month during a "sneak peak" preview period from now until Nov. 3. Subscribing "cheeseheads" - Packers fans - are treated to exclusive columns by Coach Mike Sherman; video of players and play diagrams; and pre-game and post-game analysis. "We're combining our talent and expertise in covering the Packers and placing it all on one Web site for fans to have easy access. I think fans will really enjoy the stories and analysis," said Ellen Leifeld, Gannett Wisconsin's Winnebago Group president and publisher. Gannett became the fourth news publisher to debut enhanced Internet services for NFL fans using Clickshare Service Corp's customizable user-registration services, federated (multi-site) authentication and subscription or per-item billing of digital-content transactions. Both DallsNews.com and DenverPost.com offered NFL newsletters for the Cowboys and Broncos in their 2001-2002 seasons. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune launched its premium NFL Vikings website last month.
http://www.clickshare.com/news/2002-10-21-gannett.shtml

WEB TRAILBLAZER TELLS SUCCESS OF SUBSCRIPTION-BASED WEBSITE; SAYS "HOLY GRAIL" IS SINGLE SIGN-ON

Editor & Publisher magazine profiled a web trailblazer in an Oct. 3 Q&A-format interview. The subject was Donn Friedman, assistant managing editor at The Albuquerque Journal. A year ago, the New Mexico daily restricted access for most of its websites to those who registered. Print subscribers who registered got free access; others had to pay. Now 20,000 print subscribers are regular users, and 1,500 online-only subscribers have paid. Friedman says advertising is up over the pre-charging era and traffic has not dropped substantially. Rather than presiding over a failed attempt to assess value for the paper's content (instead of giving it away for free), Friedman looks at the first year as a success. Friedman says he isn't surprised other publishers haven't started charging - because "it takes a commitment to the value of their news product. Most newspapers don't value the work of their editors and writers." As he looks toward the future, Friedman thinks news websites should be offering the convenience of a network login to their users. "My holy grail is universal registration," Friedman told E&P. "I want to sign-up one time to gain access to all sites: news, information, anything, without surrendering my privacy."
ARTICLE: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/

WEB PIONEER DYSON SEES IDENTITY MANAGEMENT
AS CRITICAL FOR PRIVACY, MARKETING NEEDS

The only technologies that will be around long term are those with the power to change society, according to web pioneer Ester Dyson. Edward Prewitt interviewed Dyson in the Oct. 1 edition of CIO Magazine. Dyson was founding chairman of the group, which controls assignment of Internet domain addresses. Dyson is also editor/owner of Release 1.0, one of the most prestigious tech-industry newsletters. Dyson uses her theory of the long-term value of social change in her own investing. In the CIO interview, she says she puts money into technologies that also create usefulness and value. She is quoting as saying one promising area is "identity management." Dyson sees the need for technologies that will enable people to control their online identities [privacy] and allow companies to verify consumers' identities [marketing], the CIO article says. "Technologies with staying power have social implications and business implications," Dyson says in the interview. "If they didn't they wouldn't matter. Business is about people, about people interacting."
http://www.cio.com/archive/100102/dyson.html

DEBATE RAGES AT "ONLINE NEWS" OVER HOW SITES
WILL BE FINANCED; ADVERTISING/FEES, MASS/NICHE?

Just how news and other content web sites are going to build a sustainable revenue model continues to be among the hottest topics among web journalists. The Poynter Institute hosts an Internet mailing list frequented by online news execs. Posting editors note that year-to-year advertising revenues at news sites are up by double-digit figures and that this brings some websites to incremental profitability - not necessarily counting the cost of creating the content they post from their print-side parents. Other postings note that the Wall Street Journal website has reached 664,000 paying readers, and the Consumers Union website is pushing past one million subscribers. "I'd like to think that we've show that information has value," Joel Gurin, executive VP at Consumers Union, was quoted by the Wall Street Journal as saying. "Consumers are willing to pay for credible information." The deeper question being pondered by online editors is this: What is the nature of the online product? It is mass, or niche market? And doesn't that affect how it will be financed? To read the posts, go to: http://talk.poynter.org/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?visit=online-news&id=193891971 and search on "charging".

ALSO NOTED . . .

More and more European newspapers are lowering the boom on free content, according to an Oct. 17 story by Bernhard Warner, Reuters' European Internet correspondent. "Only breaking news will be free one day," the story quotes Gerardo Gonzalez, an editor at Spain's El Pais Online, as saying . . . the Oct. 3 edition of the New York Times carried a marketing column by Glenn Fleishman entitled "From 'Dilbert' to Oliphant: The Funny Page Redefined," which mentioned Universal Press/Andrews McMeel's http://www.mycomicspage.com/ page. The service allows consumers to subscribe to a custom page of daily comics. Clickshare handles the subscriptions.

ABOUT CLICKSHARE . . .

The comments of Friedman, Dyson and the editors suggest that more experts are realizing the need for a single-sign-on identity-management service, which respects user privacy, but allows a single account to provide access and privileges at many websites. And one, which doesn't require a central database user, controlled by one company or government. Last year, Forrester Research Inc. published a report: "Building Unified Access Control." The Boston-based technology consultant surveyed 67 security professionals from among the largest 3,500 firms worldwide and found that 75 percent are in the process of implementing or have implemented some form of integrated website access control. They are doing this to reduce the cost of multiple password administration, to hasten their ability to form trading networks with external partners and to make their data more secure. Sharing the burden of user authentication - without sharing private customer data - creates a marketplace for digital content where everyone wins and no one need dominate.

For more about Clickshare, start at: http://www.clickshare.com/solutions/

To keep abreast of developments on the topics of federated authentication and content marketing, check: http://www.clickshare.com/news/