The Dallas Morning News Selects Inso's DynaBase XML-based Web Publishing System to Develop, Manage, and Automate dallasnews.com

DynaBase to Enable One of the Top Ten US Newspapers to Expand its Web Publishing Efforts and Improve the Timeliness, Quality, and Consistency of its Online Information


BOSTON, MA. June 15, 1998. -- Inso Corporation today announced that The Dallas Morning News has licensed Inso's DynaBase XML- based Web publishing system to develop, manage, and automate the newspaper's complete Web presence at dallasnews.com. The Dallas Morning News online publishing group plans to initially utilize DynaBase to run a new site at baseball.dallasnews.com. A full DynaBase implementation is scheduled for next quarter to coincide with a complete redesign of the dallasnews.com site, and is also timed with the introduction of the football.dallasnews.com site.

"We chose DynaBase over competing alternatives because it provides the most complete automation environment for our Web site designers and developers," said Dale Peskin, Manager of Online Publishing at The Dallas Morning News. "DynaBase's XML-based architecture enables us to automate the insertion, placement, layout, and serving of large volumes of professionally- designed Web content. In addition, we are able to rapidly increase the scale and enhance the quality of our site without any additional manpower. For our Web site visitors, this will mean improved timeliness, quality, and consistency of our online information."

According to Ron Lee, Webmaster at The Dallas Morning News, "With an XML-based approach to content management, DynaBase provides us with an extremely open, standards-based publishing platform that easily interfaces with our front-end editorial systems and automates the Web publishing process. In this manner, DynaBase enables us to capitalize on XML today, while also dynamically publishing our content in various flavors of HTML."

"We are very pleased that The Dallas Morning News has selected DynaBase as the foundation for a cutting-edge, Web-based newspaper publishing application," said Kim Shah, General Manager for DynaBase at Inso Corporation. "Adoption by such a highly regarded publisher further illustrates DynaBase's suitability in the most rigorous of mission-critical Web publishing environments. We are also pleased that support for XML, a critical new Internet standard, was a key selection criteria."

DynaBase is an award-winning Web publishing system that provides Web teams with an integrated solution for developing, managing, and dynamically publishing high-impact Web content. DynaBase's two main capabilities are sophisticated content management and powerful dynamic publishing.

The DynaBase content management environment stores and manages all types of Web site components, including XML and HTML content, graphics, multimedia files, applets and scripts. Central to the environment is the XML-based Data Server, a version-controlled, object-oriented repository that embeds the industry-leading Object Store database from Object Design, Inc. DynaBase supports remote access to the production environment and enables Web contributors to use any authoring application or to add content via browser- based forms. An ODBC-compatible scripting language is also provided for managing content and transactional data in relational databases from vendors including Oracle, Informix, Sybase, and Microsoft.

The DynaBase dynamic publishing environment provides for a highly automated Web publishing process. Utilizing Visual Basic-compatible scripts, DynaBase dynamically generates high-impact, professional Web pages using components and XML templates stored in the Data Server, as well as from external sources such as relational databases. DynaBase provides publishers with the flexibility to generate and publish customized Web content in real- time, to publish content from a browser-specific cache, or to export content to file system-based servers for publishing.

DynaBase also includes a new Command Line Interface (CLI), an application programming interface (API) that supports the goal of the Information and Content Exchange (ICE) initiative today. The CLI is a Java application that leverages DynaBase's architecture and XML support to enable customers to define, implement, and operate automatic, controlled exchange and management of online assets between DynaBase and disparate servers, including editorial systems or any server connected to the Internet.

DynaBase 2.1.5 is currently available for use with Microsoft Internet Information Server running Windows NT 4.0 and Netscape Enterprise and FastTrack Servers running Windows NT 4.0 and Sun Solaris 2.5. For teams operating in new media publishing organizations, starting pricing for a DynaBase installation is $47,000. Call Inso at +1 (800) 733-5799 for more specific pricing and configuration information.

The Dallas Morning News is a subsidiary of A.H. Belo, one of the nation's largest media companies with a diversified group of television broadcasting, newspaper publishing, cable news and electronic media assets. Belo's Publishing Division is headed by The Dallas Morning News, which has the country's eighth largest Sunday circulation and ninth largest daily circulation.

Inso Corporation is a leading global supplier of software solutions for sharing and publishing electronic information. Inso provides solutions for effective distribution of all forms of electronic information, from the simplest memo to the most complex technical manual, in environments ranging from computer desktops to the Internet. Five members of Inso's technical staff are significant contributors to the development of XML and other Internet standards. Information about Inso and its products can be found on the company's Web site at http://www.inso.com.

Inso, the Inso logo, and DynaBase are registered trademarks of Inso Corporation. All other company and product names are trademarks of their respective holders.

Inso correspondent: Tom Burke.