Dow Jones Reuters Business Interactive LLC (DJRBI) has inaugurated an exchange of content that will supply a rolling 30 days of information from both sources to current clients of Dow Jones Interactive (DJI) (http://djinteractive.com) and Reuters Business Briefing (RBB) (http://www.briefing.reuters.com). Timothy Andrews, president and CEO of DJRBI, announced that the full merger of the two services into one multiple-interface system will occur in July 2000.In the first major development since the formation of the recent joint venture [see our May 18, 1999 NewsBreak], news articles written and edited by some 4,000 Reuters and Dow Jones journalists worldwide are now available to both Dow Jones Interactive and Reuters Business Briefing customers. Reuters Business Briefing now offers 30 days of Dow Jones Newswires; the same-day full text of the Wall Street Journal, the Wall Street Journal Europe, and the Asian Wall Street Journal; Barron's, and the Dow Jones Business and Financial Weekly. DJI now offers Reuters newswires, including those in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish.
Overall DJRBI estimates that the new content development will add some 11,000 articles each day, covering industry, general, economic, political, and sports news, and the world's major financial markets.
The newly merged company began operations July 1. On July 26, Andrews reported that he had just returned from extensive visits on an "around-the-world tour" of customers and clients as well as Reuters and Dow Jones staff. He considers the 30-day archive as "our first step toward meeting ... pressing and widespread need." At this point, either DJI or RBB sales staff can offer access to either service. In the U.S., DJI is the lead product with RBB and all its content as an extra offer, according to Andrews, while the reverse occurs outside the Americas, where the DJRBI staff would promote DJI access to clients who need a U.S. focus. At this point, full access to the products of both services requires two contracts, except for the 30-day archive.
Andrews asserted again that by July 2000, they will have a full-scale merged service with a proprietary exchange of content and thousands of products from both services. Until then, Andrews foresees only some occasional, minor augmented access to non-English content. DJRBI intends to move slowly and get it right, he said.
Reuters Business Briefing carries more than 10,000 stories a day in 20 languages from 4,000 sources, including leading newspapers, newswires, trade journals, and magazines worldwide. Dow Jones Interactive supplies breaking news worldwide, an archive of over 6,000 periodicals covering key industries, general business issues, market research, investment analyst reports, and extensive financial information and historical data.
