Press Conferences Via Computer   

One of the nation's largest newspaper companies, Dow Jones, has ventured into the realm of multimedia with a video service that provides coverage of corporate and government press conferences, breaking news and interviews with executives and policymakers – all through subscribers' computer monitors. Dubbed the Dow Jones Investor Network and launched in September, the service was developed by the firm's Multimedia Group under Martin Schenker, a former Wall Street Journal senior editor.

Schenker explains that Dow Jones developed software to alert users with a message on their computers when an event is about to begin or ready for viewing; subscribers can then decide if they'd like to see it. If so, a corner of their monitor becomes a small screen (any running software is not affected) and video is sent to the monitor via cable after being received from Dow Jones through a fiber optic line or satellite feed. The corner picture can also be blown up to full screen.
The downside? Cost. The equipment needed is "not a trivial outlay," Schenker says, and early clients are expected to be large brokerage houses and banks. Besides the Investor Network, Dow Jones is also testing a multimedia news service with NYNEX, the New York-based phone company.