Business Services Industry

Leading Analyst Firm Deploys Near-Time Premium to Monetize Content and Community

Business Wire, Sept 4, 2007

Shore Communications' New Online Community Offers Content Industry Professionals Access to Exclusive Industry Insight

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Today Near-Time announced that Shore Communications Inc., the award-winning research and consulting firm for publishing and content technology executives, has adopted the Near-Time Premium publishing platform to create ShoreViews, a new paid subscription content and collaboration service. Near-Time is a hosted collaboration and publishing platform employing wikis, weblogs, and other Web 2.0 technologies that represents a new way for the publishing industry to monetize content and community.

ShoreViews (http://shoreviews.shore.com) is a new online community enabling publishing, media and content technology professionals to share information and insights with other community members and Shore Communications' leading analysts. Powered by Near-Time, the ShoreViews collaborative web site provides exclusive research reports, event reports, new analysis and videos to members on a registration basis and a paid-access basis. Members in the ShoreViews community can post content, comments, and participate in exclusive webcasts and teleconferences. ShoreViews premium access is available for an annual fee of $997.

"We selected Near-Time Premium because it has the critical combination of user-friendly social media features, easy configuration, turnkey eCommerce and quick integration with other content sources." remarked John Blossom, President of Shore Communications. "Near-Time makes it easy for web novices and experts alike to create, edit, and collaborate on web pages and create content that is found - not forgotten," continued Blossom.

Shore Communications developed ShoreViews to offer premium services in a context that encourages collaboration and interaction amongst content industry executives. ShoreViews is a valuable resource for content industry executives who want to interact with leading analysts and other executives to gain insight on how to succeed in today's rapidly changing content markets.

"Quite simply, John Blossom gets it. Leveraging Near-Time Premium, ShoreViews speaks to the transformation taking place in the publishing industry," said Reid Conrad, CEO of Near-Time. "Together, Near-Time and ShoreViews are walking-the-talk for the publishing industry," continued Conrad.

Near-Time Premium lets publishers and consultants focus on content development and leveraging their expertise to the fullest extent. Near-Time Premium includes everything necessary to create and publish content, build community, and monetize access and interaction. Built on the Near-Time platform, Premium is the only turn-key Web 2.0 solution to create, publish, and monetize content online. Site owners can create multiple custom pricing plans based on monthly, annual, or one-time fee structures and receive 80% - 90% of all membership and subscription fees. Authors, publishers, consultants, trade associations, and membership based organizations all use Near-Time Premium to publish their content, strengthen their communities, and drive high-margin revenue.

About Shore Communications Inc.

Shore Communications Inc. provides consulting and research services to guide executives marketing enterprise and media publishing and technology products and services. Leading publishing and technology content technology executives engage Shore to get highly actionable strategic insights into how to succeed in today's business, scholarly and public content marketplaces from one of the content industry's most recognized and respected consulting teams. Shore's research, commentary, private consulting and confidential advisory services provide valuable insights into the products, practices and behaviors that maximize the value of content and related technologies through all stages of its creation, organization, marketing, deployment and use. Shore has been name twice by EContent Magazine as one of the 100 companies that matter most in the content industry. Shore's ContentBlogger weblog received the 2007 CODiE award for Best Media Blog from the Software and Information Industry Association. For more information, visit http://www.shore.com.

About Near-Time

Near-Time is the leading Web 2.0 platform for cross organization collaboration. Business professionals can quickly create rich interaction with their prospects, customers, partners and suppliers. Near-Time integrates wikis and weblogs to enable groups to work together more effectively in a secure, hosted environment. Near-Time users can securely share information, files and create group calendars. Near-Time is in use in over 40 nations by thousands of businesses, academic institutions, government agencies, and non-profit organizations, to maximize internal and external collaboration. Near-Time Premium leverages the Near-Time platform to enable organizations to monetize their communities and content. For more information, go to http://www.near-time.com/.>