Content:
Photobank – agency authors’ representation
Novelties according to clients’ suggestions included in the Infobank
Training on searching in the new Infobank version
Novelty in Protext – search according to companies
We introduce CTK services - this time the European Union Database product
Photobank – agency authors’ representation
In
an effort to offer the richest possible and thematically varied photo
material in the electronic photobank, which is part of the CTK
Infobank, CTK represents foreign authors when selling their
photographs.
This principle is nothing new in the
practice of foreign agencies, but in ČTK conditions it is. It is
mutually advantageous - authors have more opportunities to address a
wide scale of clients through CTK, the agency for its part makes the
payment for a photo only after it has been really bought.
Thanks to the digital environment it is
quite easy. The author does not lose his original negative or slide,
because the digital form is sufficient for a photo to be entered in the
photobank. This means that the author can continue to simultaneously
sell his photographs by himself. The accounting software automatically
registers each sale and at the end of the month generates the total
number for royalty settlement.
The author need not waste his time
offering his photos to particular editorial desks but his photographs
are permanently contained in CTK’s presentation. In this form he has an
open access to other countries as well because CTK naturally cooperates
with a number of media not only in Europe, but practically all over the
world.
By now more than 80 authors have already
signed an agreement with CTK on representation in the sale of
photographs. Among them are outstanding photographers Jaroslav Kučera,
Petra Růžičková, Oldřich Škácha, Pavel Vácha, or Liba Taylorová living
in England and Jan Halaška from the USA.
Through this activity CTK not only
expands its current offer but in some cases it obtains very valuable
historical materials which can no longer be made because the portrayed
persons have passed away. Such is for instance a unique set of
photographs by Karl Kestner which systematically maps all significant
artists of the second half of the last century.
The access to these photographs is
completely standard for the Infobank users, they are not covered by any
special regime, they only extend the already varied portfolio of CTK’s
photographs offer.
Novelties according to clients’ suggestions included in the Infobank
In the Infobank text databases a new
possibility of working with files – the choice Box – has been added.
With this choice the marked news items or documents are stored under
the icon Cart into a “locker” called Box. In the Box it is possible to
gather text files selected from various news as well as documentary or
archive databases of the Infobank.
To make the displaying of the results of a selection clearer and
especially with regard to easier work with the displayed text we
have created the display heading List.
The found out lists of news items are displayed in the whole (not
divided) window and the concrete selected news items are then displayed
in a separate window. From this window the news items are easier to be
downloaded, copied, stored, re-sent.
Football-league database modification
For sports desks as well as the other users of the CTK Infobank who are
interested in Czech football, we have prepared a new version of the
league football database. The database enables access to data on the
1st league from 1993 until the end of the current season. The main
priority of the database is gaining complete ground material on every
match played, individual teams, players or coaches with minimum effort,
as well as immediate updating and access to the relevant CTK football
news service. We will enable you on agreement to test the database for
two weeks free of charge.
PDA Infobank version
The Infobank has been accessed to portable
devices with a small display – so called PDA Infobank version. This
version contains a new simplified text interface optimized for field
work and with a slower connection to the Internet. The PDA version has
been debugged for Pocket Internet Explorer of the Pocket PC 3.0 system.
Please contact the CTK sales executive to secure access to it.
Training on searching in the new Infobank version
If you are interested to participate in the training, please register at e-mail:
docekalova@ctk.cz, (PHONE 222 098 326).
Persons interested in the training will be included in the nearest date in 2004.
We are looking forward to you in CTK, Praha 1, Opletalova 5.
Novelty in Protext – search according to companies
We
have newly included in the Protext service pages searching according to
companies which have used this service several times in the past.
More than 50 companies are listed and
further added continuously. All press releases published in Protext by
particular companies are stated as well as the logo of a majority of
them and business information, the source of which is the CEKIA agency.
Search is located on the main page at the top left.
The commercial service CTK Protext is destined for publishing full texts of press releases in the original unchanged form.
News items published as Protext go
automatically together with the ordered CTK news services to almost all
media in the Czech Republic, major foreign media, civil service bodies,
companies, financial and advisory institutions. At the same time all
press releases are published on websites www.protext.cz and by clicking
from the agency site www.ctk.cz. The published news is accessible free
of charge. By means of this service both companies and individuals and
public institutions can inform the public.
Results of “Press releases and national institutions”
research.
National institutions and the way they
publish the full texts of their press releases in agency services were
subject to a research which the Alliance of European News Agencies
(EANA) carried out among its members in October. The research showed
that national institutions use the paid distribution of press releases
at 80 per cent of news agencies, whereas 50 per cent of these news
agencies established a special column for the original texts of
national institutions within the framework of the paid distribution of
press releases. News items published in this way are always clearly
marked as original press releases of the ordering side.
We introduce CTK services - this time the European Union Database product
The European Union Database is the first
so-called summary database in the Infobank offer in which we have put
together various sources. The database is a joint daily updated product
of the documentary, home, foreign, business, graphics and photo news
desks.
Buying access to the database the user
gains access to information containing namely the characteristics of
the EU bodies and institutions (including internet addresses), a
chronology of EU relations with the Czech Republic and some other
countries, a chronology of the major developments in the Union,
fundamental documents of the European Union, including those which
concern enlargement, excerpts or descriptions of documents for an
easier and faster orientation, and basic political and business data on
the member and candidate countries. Available in the database are also
researches of public opinion related to the Union, biographies of EU
key personalities (including photographs) and its member as well as
candidate countries, information on EU finances (structural funds,
budget etc.), data on the European Monetary Union (including
photographs and infographics), Union programmes, a dictionary of
enlargement and also naturally the latest news items on Union
developments.
If the user is not interested in such a
broad range of information, CTK offers only a part of the European
Union database called Facts on the EU, which is a sort of a daily
updated encyclopaedia of the main terms and events in the Union. It is
possible to easily and quickly search for data on European bodies and
institutions, policies (transport, agricultural, regional etc.),
programmes (for instance in education) as well as basic treaties (among
others the EU Treaty, the Treaty of Accession, the draft European
Constitution). Main events, arranged according to spheres (for instance
the environment, health and consumer protection, economic competition)
and EU relations with some countries (Czech Republic, Slovak Republic
Hungary, Poland, the USA, Russia etc.) or groups of states (the
Mediterranean, ASEAN) are also daily updated. A special attention is
paid to EU enlargement (including transitional periods of the Czech
Republic and other candidates, and structural funds). The majority of
documents also feature the Internet address and references to other
related material.
