ABCNEWS.com to Launch on the Web and on America Online Later This Month
BURBANK, Calif., April 3 /PRNewswire/ -- ABC News Chairman Roone Arledge
announced today the creation of ABCNEWS.com, a 24-hour, online news service
launched in partnership with America Online Inc., Netscape Communications
Corporation and Starwave Corporation. The online news service will provide
up-to-the-minute national, international and local news, as well as complete
sports, entertainment, business and technology news. ABCNEWS.com will launch
later this month.
At launch, ABCNEWS.com will have unprecedented distribution for an online
news service. The 12 million daily visitors to America Online (AOL) and four
million daily visitors to Netscape, will each have quick access to
ABCNEWS.com, giving the service a reach of more than 16 million people each
day.
"ABC News has long been recognized as the leader in broadcast news. With
ABCNEWS.com we will extend the leadership of ABC News and our affiliate news
operations onto the Internet," said Mr. Arledge. "The Internet really
represents what news on demand is all about. And ABC News is committed to
establishing the world's premier 24-hour Internet news service."
"ABC has been developing this project for over a year, joining forces with
the leading Internet developers, technologists and distributors to ensure that
we have both the best product and the best distribution," commented ABC News
President David Westin.
ABCNEWS.com will draw on the vast resources of ABC News worldwide. From
ABC's news bureaus around the world, ABC News Radio, and ABC's affiliate
newsrooms, ABCNEWS.com will offer a concise, lively and gritty look at the
day's top stories as they unfold and provide background on each story for a
more thorough treatment than is available in other media. ABC will be working
closely with its affiliates and owned stations in establishing and maintaining
local sites and integrating them with ABCNEWS.com to offer a comprehensive mix
of local and national news.
With ABCNEWS.com, ABC will dramatically expand its relationship with
America Online, the world's leading consumer online service, with
approximately eight million subscribers worldwide. ABC News will be AOL's
premier television and radio news provider, giving AOL members a customized
version of ABCNEWS.com. ABC News and AOL will also extensively cross-promote
ABCNEWS.com on the air and online.
As part of its partnership with AOL, ABC and Starwave will develop daily
multimedia news slideshows exclusively for AOL, focusing on the breaking
domestic and international news of the day. In addition, ABC will develop
weekly events on AOL, including live chats featuring ABC News correspondents.
"Now, more Americans than ever will benefit from our branded news content,
real-time and on-demand," said Mr. Arledge. "AOL's success in penetrating the
mass market makes it all the more attractive for us to develop customized
programming for its extensive membership base," he added.
Bob Pittman, President and Chief Executive Officer of AOL Networks, said,
"This agreement with ABC expands the role of one of the world's leading
broadcast news networks on the largest Internet online service, as well as the
availability of world-class coverage of breaking news and multimedia
programming to our members where and when they want it."
As part of its relationship with ABC, Netscape will create a special ABC
News headline element on its home page. The more than four million daily
visitors to the Netscape Internet site will have easy, point-and-click access
to ABCNEWS.com, and will be able to read regularly updated headlines directly
from the Netscape home page. Netscape is the preferred provider of client and
server software for ABCNEWS.com. ABC's Internet site will be designed to take
advantage of the unique features of Netscape product offerings. In addition,
Netscape has designated ABC News as a premier general news channel for
netcasted content through Netscape's future Communicator component, code-named
"Constellation."
"This is another great win for users of Netscape client software and the
more than four million daily visitors to the Netscape Internet site as ABC,
one of the nation's most successful providers of news, leverages its expertise
for its new online news service," said Mike Homer, Senior Vice President of
Marketing at Netscape. "In addition, the announcement of this relationship
marks Netscape's continued success as the provider of industry-leading
software for major Internet and Intranet sites."
Starwave, the foremost Internet media and technology company, is
partnering with ABC News in a joint venture for the development, design and
operation of ABCNEWS.com. Starwave is also the producer of the most popular
Internet destination site, ESPNET SportsZone, in partnership with ESPN, and of
Mr. Showbiz, the highly acclaimed entertainment information site, both of
which will be supplying news content to ABCNEWS.com. "Starwave has a proven
record in designing and producing high-quality Web services," said Mr.
Arledge. "The company's leadership in the field was a key factor in choosing
it as a partner."
"Two years ago Starwave and ESPN teamed up to create the Web's most
popular and compelling news service of any kind, ESPNET SportsZone," said Mike
Slade, CEO of Starwave. "The combination of Starwave's unrivaled online
experience and the world-renowned expertise of ABC News will make ABCNEWS.com
the best source of on-demand news on the planet."
"We don't want people to just read about the news, they can do that
anywhere," said Mr. Arledge in describing ABCNEWS.com. "We want them to be
able to hear it, feel it, interact with it, and use the technology to help
them understand how it applies to their lives. We'll dispatch ABC's
correspondents and affiliates to beam back live, original, on-scene print and
audio reports for a you-are-there feel," he added.
Jeff Gralnick is the ABC News executive in charge of ABCNEWS.com,
responsible for overseeing all news product. Katherine Dillon is Vice
President of ABCNEWS.com, responsible for news production, and Bob Aglow is
the service's first Executive Producer. Tom Phillips, formerly Senior Vice
President of Products and Services for Starwave, is the President of the ABC
News/Starwave joint venture.
SOURCE The Walt Disney Co.
CO: The Walt Disney Co.
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