3 Japan Media Firms to Launch Joint Database
Tokyo, Feb. 6 (Jiji Press)–Three major Japanese media organizations on Wednesday announced a tie-up that will allow corporate clients to search information online from a joint database of news articles.
News agency Jiji Press Ltd. and newspaper publishers Asahi Shimbun Co. and Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun Co. will start the database service in April.
The database service chiefly targets small and midsize companies by setting prices lower than rivals such as Nikkei Telecom 21, run by Nikkei Inc., the publisher of the biggest business daily in Japan.
The new service combines the strength of Asahi Shimbun and Jiji Press that cover a wide range of news and other subjects and Nikkan Kogyo which has considerable expertise in business news.
The announcement comes at a time when newspaper publishers and news agencies race to beefing up their online business as a new source of revenue in order to offset falling circulations and advertising revenues.
The collaboration represents a first step for surviving competition in the media industry, Takuji Tanaka, head of Asahi Shimbun’s digital media division, said at a news conference.
The database service aims for annual sales of 500 million yen for the third year of operations, Tanaka said.
The new service, called “kijisaku”–”article search” in Japanese- -covers eight million articles, including those of two Asahi Shimbun magazines.
The basic monthly charge is set at 6,300 yen, which allows users to search some 100 articles per month. Beyond this threshold, additional fees will be imposed in line with the number of additional articles accessed.
Users are able to see daily flash news and pictures from Asahi Shimbun and Jiji Press on the top page of the new service’s Web site. Subscribers are allowed to post their own press releases on the site.
Optional content includes Asahi Shimbun’s “Chiezo” encyclopedia and who’s who data as well as Japanese public-sector information and Asian business news offered by Jiji Press.
Other content will be added gradually, including weekly business magazines Weekly Toyo Keizai and Shukan Diamond as well as credit data provided by Teikoku Databank Ltd.END
(c) 2008 Jiji Press English News Service. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.