PRESS RELEASE

Windsor, England - Major news industry organisations are pooling their resources under the auspices of the IPTC to develop a single XML-based standard for all aspects of news creation, storage and delivery.

At their recent meeting in Amsterdam, members of the IPTC agreed to revamp their operating structure and establish a new work programme, IPTC2000, which will deliver an XML-based standard to represent and manage news through its life-cycle, including production, interchange and consumer use. Entitled NewsML, it is intended that the new framework standard will build on the intellectual property invested in existing IPTC standards such as the Information Interchange Model (IIM), News Industry Text Format (NITF) and the IPTC's widely used Subject Classification Standard. Using Extensible Markup Language (XML), it is intended that NewsML will draw appropriately on existing and emerging W3C recommendations.

Three working groups have been established to develop the key components of the programme. These are News Structure and Management, News Text and News Metadata.

Earlier this year, the IPTC announced the publication of its first XML based standard, News Industry Text Format (NITF). This work, together with the Information Interchange Model (IIM), will form the basis of NewsML.

Jo Rabin, VP development Reuters and chair of the News Structure and Management Working Group, says of the IPTC's existing body of work, "It is important that the IPTC keeps up with the demands placed on it as a result of development of new applications for news outside the traditional news sector. The IPTC has a long history of developing standards for the news industry. I am delighted that it is responding to the increasing scope of application and pace of standardisation by developing the next generation of news standard."

Alan Karben, Director of Document Architecture for The Wall Street Journal

Interactive Edition, and head of the News Text working group, added "news

organisations are interested in preparing their content for more than just a

day in print, on the web, or over the airways. The IPTC2000 effort will make

it easier for publishers to use their information resources efficiently. By

placing the emphasis on adding value to content in an industry-standard way,

IPTC2000 will help make the news more searchable, accessible, and

presentable by the technologies of today and tomorrow."

Peter Müller, Director of the Swiss News Agency and Chairman of the IPTC, says that "the new work programme aims to speed-up the standards setting process and will enforce IPTC's role as THE News Standards Organisation."

The International Press Telecommunications Council was established in 1965 to safeguard the telecommunications interests of the World's Press. Since the late 1970's its activities have primarily focussed on developing and publishing Industry Standards for the interchange of news data. At present the IPTC membership is drawn mainly from the major news agencies around the globe but it also has a strong representation from newspaper publishers as well as system vendors. It is hoped that with the launch of IPTC2000 and the development of NewsML other media organisations will also wish to join the IPTC.

Membership of IPTC is open to organisations and companies concerned with news collection, distribution and publishing.

The following are members of the IPTC:-

A S Norsk Telegrambyrå, AFX News Ltd, AFP, Agence Télégraphique Belge de Presse S.A., Agence Télégraphique Suisse S.A, Agencia EFE, Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata, Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau, Alliance Européenne des Agences de Presse, Associated Newspapers Limited, Associated Press, Australian Associated Press, Austria Presse-Agentur, Bundesverband Deutscher Zeitungsverleger E.V., Canadian Press, CCI Europe, Cybergraphic Systems Limited, Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Digital Collections Verlagsgesellschaft MbH, Dow Jones & Company Inc, FingerPost Ltd, HINA The Croatian News Agency, ICL in Media, IFRA, ITAR-TASS News Agency, Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association, Keystone Press AG, Kyodo News Services, Magyar Tavirati Iroda, Middle East News Agency, NewsEDGE Inc, New York Times Company, Newspaper Association of America, Oy Suomen Tietotoimisto-Finska Notisbyråm AB, PR Newswire Europe Limited, ProSieben Digital Media GmbH, Reuters Limited, Ritzaus Bureau I'S, SAXoTECH A/S, Slovenska Tiskovna Agencija, Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå, United Press International, World Association of Newspapers,

All existing IPTC standards are copyright IPTC and are administered by the International Press Telecommunications Council, based in England. Information on NITF, IIM and Subject Matter Coding is available at http://www.iptc.org.

15th November 1999