FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 18, 2002
The Plain Dealer in Cleveland Goes Digital with iTearsheets

Online software developer Shoom, Inc. (www.shoom.com) announced today the signing of a multi-year agreement with the Plain Dealer in Cleveland, a Newhouse newspaper. Shoom will provide iTearsheets, a web-based system for digitally delivering tearsheets as proof of publication for print advertisers. 

“We are delighted to be working with such a respected organization,” said Dan Cole, President of Shoom, Inc. and the system’s principal designer. “As a leading adopter of the Shoom iTearsheets service, The Plain Dealer has taken a big step toward improving the tearsheeting process for the advertising community as well as publishers.”

The process of creating digital tearsheets starts at the newspapers, where ad-related data and the newspaper pages, at RIP, are captured digitally. These data files are transmitted to the Shoom processing center, where they are validated, processed, posted to an online database and archived. A thumbnail image of each newspaper page is created, and the files are tagged with codes to make them accessible via keyword search. 

When processing is complete, the full contents of the newspapers are posted to the Shoom iTearsheets website as true digital representations of the pages as they were published. An e-mail notification is sent to the advertiser with a URL link to his or her account summary page. From the summary page, the user can directly access the ad pages, measure ads digitally, review them for quality and compare them against the insertion order.

“Electronic tearsheet delivery is an idea whose time has come,” according to Cole, "the Shoom iTearsheet service could not have been effectively executed even a few years ago. The combination of high-speed Internet connectivity, tremendous processing speeds, robust databases and low cost storage make this application possible now…and its functionality and cost-benefit will continue to improve as we move forward."

In releasing it’s digital tearsheet service, Shoom hopes to institute a uniform standard for digital proof of publication, thereby advancing the movement toward standardization within the newspaper advertising industry. Many analysts believe that this sort of standardization is vital to the long-term success of the industry.

Shoom, Inc. develops and markets Web-based solutions for clients worldwide. The company's team of marketing professionals, database developers and software engineers combine their skills with proprietary development tools and modules to build infrastructure software integrated with web backend systems. 

The company was formed early last year when the Digital Services Division of TransData International Inc. (TDI) merged with Web developer Shoom.net LLC. Please contact us, Shoom, Inc. 
(www.shoom.com) at sales@shoom.net, 800-446-6646, 3800 Barham Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90068.