The "Green Book" Goes Green

DOmedia, an online marketplace for buyers and sellers of out-of-home and alternative advertising media, acquired the Buyers Guide to Outdoor Advertising. The guide is usually referred to as the "Green Book" because of its green cover and it contains listings for hundreds of out-of-home media properties across the U.S., including rate and contact information for each location.

Interestingly, the book will become truly "green" under its new ownership. DOmedia plans to convert the print publication to an online only resource. All media and contact information for Green Book clients will now be accessible via the DOmedia website.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. This acquisition follows DOmedia's merger with Out of Home Connect in March. This latest deal will certainly help DOmedia achieve its goal of becoming a main source of information for the out-of-home industry.

Both buyers and sellers using the Green Book will undoubtedly benefit from the publication's transition online. Both segments will likely yield more productive results.

However, it's difficult to ignore the irony of the Green Book going "green." For most publishers, transitioning their products from print to online is a cost issue. Yet, most customers are accepting of the switch because of the ease-of-use and convenience that online versions afford. I'm sure most publishers (or their customers) never gave much thought to the fact that such a business strategy was good for the environment as well. It's a nice added bonus.

Dow Jones Launches Alert Widgets for Factiva

Dow Jones & Company last month launched new alert widgets in Dow Jones Factiva that will enable users to post and share business news and information on company portals, intranets, wikis and team sites. Wikis can be used to provide access to more consumer-based sites such as weather and entertainment, but Dow Jones boasts that how this offering is unique in that it facilitates the sharing of news from sources such as The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires.

Dow Jones Factiva users (which includes users of Factiva.com, Factiva Search 2.0 and Factiva iWorks) can create up to 20 alerts with Factiva widgets, and display either headlines or headlines with snippets. When a widget is posted, Dow Jones Factiva users can click through to read full-text articles that are updated every 15 minutes. The widgets can also be posted to any personal page, such as iGoogle, Netvibes, Blogger and Pageflakes.

This is a very innovative idea that proves you can put high value tools on top of basic textual news stories, not just data. Overall, this makes the information more usable for Dow Jones customers since they can easily integrate it into their workflow. More and more users are demanding such functionality from their content-related tools these days. By providing them, Dow Jones will certainly promote an increased use of and reliance on its offerings.
Yet, most importantly, this new feature enables users to share content more easily. Such functionality will benefit Dow Jones as it will effectively draw more eyeballs to the company's news content.

Owen Media Partners Launches Canadian B2B Database

Owen Media Partners Inc. has launched All Canada B2B 1 Million, a marketing and research database that contains listings of more than one million Canadian businesses. The new database serves as extension of another Owen Media property, ProFile Canada B2B Top 40,000, a marketing and research database that includes listings of more than 40,000 of Canada's leading companies, most of which are privately owned.

Both database products are available in marketer (exportable) and researcher (non-exportable) editions. According to the company, the marketer editions allow users to search, view and export data directly to their desktops. The researcher editions lack such functionality. Both databases are updated continually.

This new launch should definitely benefit Owen Media in the long and short term. Sales and marketing professionals are constantly seeking new and reliable sources that will direct them to viable new business opportunities. And Owen Media's new database certainly has the potential to become such a source.

All Canada B2B 1 Million should serve as a solid complementary product to Owen Media's Top 40,000 product, since it provides such a large, extensive view of Canadian companies of all sizes and prominence.

Sales and marketing professionals may have a tough time deciding which database to tap into, and as a result they may opt to do what Owen Media undoubtedly hopes for--purchase both products simultaneously. The new database with definitely help increase customer interest in the Top 40,000 product, as some customers may prefer to narrow their target list to those top tier companies.

While it doesn't seem that Owen Media could launch anything more comprehensive than the B2B 1 Million book, the company is not likely done creating new databases for its customer base. It will be interesting to see what the company launches next.

mIn and NextMark Merger Yields More Robust Mailing List Industry Solution Provider

Marketing Information Network (mIn), a data card content and list research solutions provider, and NextMark Inc., a direct marketing tools and resources provider have merged to create a more powerful company in the marketplace.

The companies' existing businesses will be consolidated under a new business unit and retain the Marketing Information Network name. The newly created unit will manage front office operations (sales, service and support) for the products and services the companies provide the mailing list industry. They currently serve more than 400 clients.

By combining their resources, mIn and NextMark have created a valuable integrated solution that brings the best they offer individually together for the benefit of customers. Creating a complete solution for customers in today's marketplace is required. They want and need service providers that can help them accomplish all of their goals.

Sometimes companies have the capabilities and resources to become one-stop shops; sometimes they don't. Both mIn and NextMark recognized that the companies could be much stronger and more relevant in their market if they pooled their resources to provide improved products and services for their customers. The new company is certainly poised for future growth.

OCLC, Google Form Partnership

OCLC, a non-profit library service and research firm that provides services such as computer-based cataloging and library management, has partnered with Google to exchange data that will facilitate the discovery of library collections through Google search services.

OCLC member libraries that participate in the Google Book Search program (which makes the full text of more than one million books searchable) can share their WorldCat-derived MARC records with Google to help users more easily find library collections through Google. (OCLC's WorldCat is a network of library content and services).

Google will link from Google Book Search to WorldCat.org, which will drive traffic to library OPACs (online public access catalogs) and other library services. Google and OCLC will share data and links to digitized books. WorldCat metadata will be available to Google directly from OCLC or directly through member libraries that participate in the Google Book Search program.

It's so important that, with the wealth of information available online, library content doesn't get lost in the shuffle. Google and OCLC are making sure that doesn't happen. This alliance will make that valuable content even easier to find, and generate more interest in libraries both online and off.

OCLC is well-known for its support of the library system, so forming this partnership with Google only further demonstrates that commitment. The press release announcing this partnership notes that OCLC has already formed alliances with other entities to increase the prominence of libraries on the Web. It also notes that additional, similar alliances are yet to come. It would be more surprising if other partnerships weren't on the horizon for OCLC.