IQ Publishing Corporation, the Internet publishing division of Technews, publisher of SA Instrumentation & Control, recently announced a major upgrade to its web-publishing engine. "The changes to our facilities provide our clients and production team with the very latest in web-publishing technology," commented Darren Smith, Director of IQ Corp. "Companies hosting web-content with our server are able to maintain their websites with a minimum of effort via our browser-based interface.
"Despite the recent 'dot bomb' in the business-to-consumer market, the electronic business-to-business market is still growing in importance as an increasing number of South African companies become e-enabled," Smith continued. "Technews not only publishes all its magazines in traditional print format, but also makes them available on-line at no additional cost to its readers, advertisers or editorial contributors. We see this as being an integral part of the media partnership we offer our clients."
One of the problems that most companies face is maintaining the content of their websites. The web-publishing engine alleviates this problem by dynamically linking the Technews on-line magazines and 'media office parks' to the client's website. This means that the company's latest news is automatically updated onto its website. IQ Corp. offers clients the option of either maintaining their own content in their media park, or IQ Corp. will maintain the content for them at a highly cost-effective rate.
"We host the engine on a dedicated, high-speed server that is connected directly onto the M-Web back-plane," said Graeme Bell, Technical Director of IQ Corp. "Maintenance of all web content is done via web browser, alleviating the need for our clients to have dedicated software installed on their workstations. The use of this thin-client technology also means that our clients can maintain their website from anywhere in the world at any time. The user-interface is specifically designed to be low in graphic content to allow for fastest possible operation."
On-line buyers' guides
A few years ago Technews took a strategic decision to integrate its buyers' guides into an on-line engine. This was the first time that a South African print publisher had taken such a bold step. The company re-wrote the entire buyers' guide software facility and then provided a web-portal whereby readers could view the data on the Internet. The next stage involved providing contributors to the guide the ability to update their information on-line.
"We have received a hugely positive response to this move," continued Bell. "Our vision was to leapfrog CD technology and rather aim for excellence in the Internet arena. We are confident that there is not another technical publisher that has managed to integrate their print and on-line media in the same way that Technews has. The latest release of our on-line engine also integrates our buyers' guides and traditional magazines - another industry first."
Access to all Technews' on-line sites is available at www.technews.co.za
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