E-clips Press Release - 2 December 2002

New "E-clips" service keeps corporates informed.

New Zealand businesses and organisations now have an innovative new way of keeping abreast of news in their field. An electronic press clipping service, called "E-Clips", has been launched by New Zealand's leading research archive The Knowledge Basket. The innovative service - which is already being successfully used by Parliament and Telecom - is the brainchild of The Knowledge Basket directors Dave Keet and Linda Winterburn.

"E-clips is aimed at any organisation which currently monitors information in the media, or has a need for such a service," explains Dave Keet. "It is based on the concept of the traditional manual news clipping services, but uses technology to deliver the news faster and more efficiently." The purpose-designed E-clips software uses a 'search agent' to seek out news articles targeted at the client's specified areas of interest. News is sourced from newspapers from INL , STUFF and the NZ Herald, and, which includes all the major dailies and business and industry magazines. News is delivered much faster than is possible through manual press clipping services.

Dave Keet says E-clips are sent at "pretty much the same time" as the hard copy publication becomes available. Another advantage of E-clips is it can be integrated with a company's internal networks or Intranet - so that everyone in the organisation, including offshore staff, can be kept informed simultaneously.

Linda Winterburn says this fits well with the modern business philosophy of information- sharing throughout an organisation. "Business today increasingly want their people to be empowered with information," she says. "If they wish, the client can also attach their own responses or viewpoint to any of the articles."

There is also capacity for the service to be tailored to certain individuals; for example, the CEO or the sales manager may require different types of information. E-clips is linked with the Newztext service, a full text archive of key news publications which The Knowledge Basket has operated for several years. This archive allows companies to readily retrieve articles which have appeared previously, and eliminates the need to keep their own hard copy files.

As Linda Winterburn explains, E-clips provides two important functions for companies who use it. Firstly, it fulfils the public relations task of monitoring what is being reported about the organisation in the press. "It allows organisations to better manage their public image as reflected in the media. Particularly in the case of adverse publicity, they need to be able to respond quickly." The other major function is to keep abreast of new developments, trends or competitive information within their industry sector. "E-clips allows them to monitor any external influences which have an impact on their business," says Linda. "This includes things such as new legislation, regulatory changes, information on their competitors, or general market trends."

And as the distribution of news becomes increasingly fast-paced, E-clips allows an organisation to filter out only the vital information it needs. "Businesses are finding it increasingly difficult to assimilate all the information which is published today," says Dave Keet. "E-clips is designed to streamline the process for them, and deliver that crucial information quickly and efficiently."

Libby Schultz