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By Steve Horton
iProduction

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ST. PAUL, MN – October 7, 2002 – St. Paul software firm iProduction has developed Notice Manager™, a new Internet software application that enables newspapers to automatically convert public notices from their original press-ready formats into searchable web pages.

“Notice Manager gives newspapers an affordable way to publish notices on the web quickly and easily,” said iProduction President Stephen M. Laliberte. “With this system, a newspaper can publish a complete index of public notices on the web in as little as 30 minutes.”

Public notices are often required by government agencies in association with estate filings, legal name changes, public hearings, copyrights, adoptions, and the like. Printing public notices has historically been a very steady business for newspaper publishers. Newspapers that publish the notices on their web sites can reduce the risk of business loss from agency self-publishing, Laliberte said.

Laliberte said the first installation of Notice Manager™ was completed in September for Gazette.net, a Maryland-based newspaper web site. The Gazette delivers 35 weekly editions to more than one million readers in Montgomery, Frederick, and Prince George’s counties, which surround Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Maryland. The Gazette system is located at www.gazette.net/legals

How Notice Manager™ Works
Most newspapers use desktop publishing systems to prepare their publications for printing. Notice Manager™ imports XML files from these systems and converts them into web pages automatically. Notice Manager™ also creates searchable archives of the notices as each new issue of the newspaper is published. Staffers familiar with the web can learn Notice Manager™ in about an hour.

Notice Manager™ is a module of the iProduction Internet Publishing System™. Sibling modules manage content, circulation, email, advertising, calendars, surveys, polls, directories, and catalogs.

About iProduction
iProduction is a privately held Minnesota company located at 3570 Lexington Avenue in St. Paul. iProduction is an application service provider (ASP), meaning that publishing companies who use iProduction systems pay monthly usage fees rather than buying iProduction systems outright. iProduction also licenses its software to larger publishers who can reduce overhead by hosting many web sites on a single publishing system.

In addition to newspapers, the company’s clients include newsletters, industry journals, and magazines. Company president Stephen M. Laliberte founded iProduction in 1994.