In an aggressive push to add newspaper content to its Web services to libraries, schools, and universities, Gale Group has signed agreements with 89 newspapers from Asia, Europe, and North America. This will expand the pool of newspaper content available through Gale's InfoTrac Web, the single Web brand for the library, academic, and school markets, since Gale merged its SearchBank and GaleNet online services.Gale Group's InfoTrac family of online products is used by library subscribers in more than 100 countries. According to Christine Gordon, Gale Group vice president of publisher alliances, "Newspapers offer a unique, local and fresh perspective for virtually any library, educational or academic research project. Combining our new content with Gale Group's extensive proprietary content and the thousands of other information and research sources already available through our online services gives library users and students powerful new tools."
The push is apparently not over. Gordon also indicated that "we are actively pursuing other publishers as well, and expect to announce additional new titles in the future."
The content purchasing patterns of library, academic, and school markets encourage as much content from a single provider as possible. However, corporate markets—the other side of Gale Group—usually access material from third-party hosts like Dow Jones Reuters, Dialog, LEXIS-NEXIS, etc., that already may have large collections of alternative content—particularly full-text newspapers. When we asked representatives at Gale Group's corporate operations how the addition of a newspaper content stream would affect their products, they indicated they had plans underway to use some of the content but on a far more selective basis.
Gale Group already has arrangements in place with many national and large city newspapers in the United States to supply it with content. These papers include Boston Herald, Detroit Free Press, El Nuevo Herald (Miami), The Florida Times-Union, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, St. Paul Pioneer Press, San Francisco Chronicle, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Arizona Republic, The Christian Science Monitor, The Kansas City Star, San Jose Mercury News, The Miami Herald, The News & Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina), The Observer (Charlotte, North Carolina), Philadelphia Daily News, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Post, and The Washington Times.
New distribution deals with other U.S. newspapers include The Akron Beacon Journal (Ohio), Antioch Ledger/Dispatch (California), Belleville News-Democrat (Illinois), Bradenton Herald (Florida), Centre Daily Times (State College, Pennsylvania), Columbus Ledger-Enquirer (Georgia), Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, California), Grand Forks Herald (North Dakota), Lexington Herald-Leader (Kentucky), San Ramon Valley Times (Danville, California), Sarasota Herald-Tribune (Florida), Tallahassee Democrat (Florida), Aberdeen American News (South Dakota), The Grand Rapids Press (Michigan), Macon Telegraph (Georgia), Monterey County Herald (California), News-Sentinel (Fort Wayne, Indiana), Post-Tribune (Gary, Indiana), The State (Columbia, South Carolina), Sun Herald (Gulfport, Mississippi), Tribune (San Luis Obispo County, California), Union-Recorder (Milledgeville, Georgia), Valley Times (Pleasanton, California), West County Times (Richmond, California), and The Wichita Eagle (Kansas).
From Canada, new newspapers include London (Ontario) Free Press, Calgary Sun, Edmonton Sun, Financial Post, the Globe & Mail, Ottawa Sun, Toronto Star, and the Toronto Sun.
From the U.K., these national newspapers will add reports and articles: Daily Mail, Racing Post, Sunday Business, Sunday Mirror, the Daily Telegraph, the Evening Standard, the Financial Times, the Mail on Sunday, the Mirror, the People, the Sunday Telegraph, the Sunday Times, and the Times. Regional U.K. newspapers added are Birmingham Evening Mail, Coventry Evening Telegraph, Daily Record (Glasgow), News Letter (Belfast), Sports Argus (Birmingham), Sunday Mail (Glasgow), Sunday Mercury (Birmingham), and the Birmingham Post.
The International Herald-Tribune, based in Paris and circulated worldwide, will soon supply Gale with editorial content too.
From Asia, new content providers are Bangkok Post, Beijing Review, Jakarta Post, Korea Daily, Korea Economic Daily, Korea Herald, Korea Times, Manila Bulletin, News Straits Times (Singapore), South China Morning Post, the Hong Kong Standard, and Vietnam Investment Review.
