CONTENTS:
“Welcome (and Unwelcome) Guests” photo exhibition
Introducing: ČTK Info-Graphics
10th Anniversary of the founding of NEWTON IT
New news websites from Neris
ČTK sells subsidiary ČEKIA
ČTK prepares multimedia editorial system
ČTK launches new website
Opening the Photobank to the public
Newsletter in PDF format
“Welcome (and Unwelcome) Guests” photographic exhibition
ČTK opened a photographic exhibition
dubbed “Welcome (and Unwelcome)
Guests” to mark the 87th anniversary of
its founding. The exhibition will be open
between October 27th and November
13 in the Jaroslav Fragner Gallery on
Prague’s Betlémské náměstí square.
The exhibition includes some 120 large
photographs of well known visitors to
the Czech lands from abroad in the 20th
century. ČTK decided to display the
wealth of its photo archive, which
includes more than five million
photographs. A book has been published
to go along with the exhibition, where
the number of photographs increases to
over 400.
American composer and conductor Leonard
Bernstein (1918 - 1990) – conducting the Czech
Philharmonic Orchestra in the Smetana Hall of the
Municipal House in Prague as part of the Prague
Spring music festival. (02. 06. 1990)
The Dalai lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader and
Buddhist philosopher, honouring victims of all wars
at the end of a multicultural reflection at the St. Vitus
Cathedral in Prague as part of the Forum 2000
conference. (05. 09. 1997)
ČTK was founded along with
Czechoslovakia on October 28, 1918.
The ČTK photographic department
began its systematic documentary
activities in the mid-1920s.
The archive has been gradually expanded.
However, pictures from every event that
in retrospect may seem important may
not be included. The same may be true
of pictures of visitors to the Czech lands
whose visits were not recorded because
other events seemed more important
for the press at the time or because the
visitors were not “welcome” at the time.
Despite these minor omissions, the ČTK
photo archive is absolutely unique thanks
to its contents and organisation.
Sonja HENIE (1912-1969), Norwegian figure skater
talking to a police officer in Prague. (01. 04. 1934)
Reichsprotector SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard
Heydrich during his taking office at Prague Castle,
State Secretary K. H. Frank at right. (28. 09. 1941)
Soviet leader Leonid Ilich Brezhnev hunting during his
visit to Czechoslovakia. (1967)
Learn more about the ČTK Photobank in issue #4
of the ČTK Newsletter.
Introducing: ČTK Info-Graphics
ČTK has been processing statistics
in the form of easy to use graphs
since 1992.
When Reuters released its first computerprocessed
picture of a MiG-29 on January
24, 1990, no one anticipated the flood of
uses for the graphic display of information
in the media. ČTK did not remain behind
in this trend.
A graphic profile of the Airbus A380 high-capacity jet
including a comparison with the Boeing 747 published
on 27. 4. 2005.
Basic information about Turkey and countries in the
European Union published on 29. 9. 2005.
The Info-Graphic department was formed
in 1992. It took some time before ČTK
began processing pictures of planes, cars,
economic indicators and development
curves electronically. The members of
the department first used sets of pens,
transparent paper and Propisot sets of
block letters. The graphics were then sent
to clients using the photo desk’s drum
scanner with its optical sensor that was
very similar to Edison’s phonograph.
In 1993, the first PCs arrived along with
the first scanner, a 300 dpi laser printer,
and Corel 3 software, which allowed
texts, graphics and photographs to be
combined on one page. The growing
number of themes covered by the graphic
department with the coming of the PC
meant a growth in the number of graphics
published in newspapers. New printing
technology, which made graphs easier
to read and more clear, also helped
facilitate the growth of popularity
of info-graphic news in print. The shift
made by the major Czech dailies from
black-and-white to colour formats also
increased the popularity of the graphics.
Production of Czech breweries published
on 24. 4. 2005.
A graphic description of the transfer of the Church
of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Most, north
Bohemia, 30 years ago published on 28. 9. 2005.
In 1998, ČTK published one full colour
graph per day. Gradually, newspaper
editors became used to several fullcolour
and black-and-white graphs per
day. By October 2000, this format had
become routine.
The Internet became another motor
in the development of info-graphic news,
first as a source of information for the
department, but gradually its production
found a home on news websites.
Today’s info-graphic production covers
everything from domestic and foreign
political events, economic indicators and
figures to events in sports and culture.
An oil tanker spill, development of trust
in the prime minister, current petrol
prices, inflation rates, the foreign trade
balance, Formula 1 tracks, and comparisons
of Oscar nominations are all events
covered by the Info-graphic department.
Several graphs per week are also offered
in Slovak covering events in Slovakia
and some graphs are part of the Englishlanguage
Business News bulletin.
ČTK also uses information from AFP
and AP as an up-to-date foundation for
its info-graphics.
Current petrol prices in individual regions in the
Czech Republic published on 26. 9. 2005.
Car sales in the Czech Republic in the first six
months of this year published on 14. 7. 2005.
Currently, about six graphs are produced
everyday, six days a week. Constant
subscribers also can access the Internet
databank which contains all graphic
production dating back to 1998.
What the plans for the future? Animated
info-graphics on the Internet and 3-D
holographic graphics in the daily papers
may not be all that far off.
10th anniversary of the founding of NEWTON IT
TEN YEARS AGO, NEWTON
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY,
S.R.O. WAS FOUNDED. IN 1997,
ČTK ACQUIRED 50 PERCENT
OF THIS COMPANY.
NIT offers an electronic clipping service from print media,
television news programmes and the main Internet news outlets.
NIT also uses this material to perform media analyses.
NIT is also active in Slovakia and Poland. Besides clipping
services in the Czech, Polish and Slovak media, it offers searching
for and processing articles published by the media in many other
countries thanks to cooperation with similar agencies abroad.
Media analysis is an addition to classic
media monitoring and looks at the
behaviour of the media from various
angles and according to the subject of
their reporting. It also maps themes,
contents and the time structure of
a certain subject during a set period of
time in a selected portion of the media.
Subjects of analysis can be institutions, individuals, events, themes or places.
Dozens of analyses are prepared every month according to regular schedules
or ad hoc and one-time analyses.
NIT celebrates the anniversary of its founding throughout this
year. As a gift to journalists and the public, it has launched
www.medianfo.cz, where it publishes the results of its selected
analyses of the media. The anniversary is also marked by the
publication of a book, “Ten Years in the Czech Media,” which
the Portal publishing house has just issued for NIT. The book
maps the development of the media in the Czech Republic from
various points of view as seen through the eyes of ten experts and
contains and interview with NIT director Petr Herian.
www.mediainfo.cz
As part of the celebration of the tenth anniversary of its founding and as a gift to experts and the general public, NIT has launched MEDIAINFO.CZ, which presents
the basic possibilities and advantages offered by media analysis. This website brings objective information about the content of the Czech media from an analytic point
of view and offers users a series of interactive functions.
New news websites from Neris
Neris, a subsidiary of ČTK for the Internet and new media, has
been operating two new news websites since the beginning of
May which greatly increased the offering of news outlets on the
Czech Internet this spring.
The first website is the Sportplus.cz (www.sportplus.cz) portal
owned by NetCentrum, which offers extensive news from sports
in the Czech Republic and abroad. The second website is for the
ČT24 24-hour news station (www.ct24.cz), which supports the
station run by public broadcaster Czech Television. The website
is operated by Neris in cooperation with Czech Television and its
media representative, ARBOmedia.
Neris provides content and editorial work in cooperation with its
partners for the new websites. Both servers have attracted a large
number of users since their launch and unexpected high visitor
rates. This interest in the ČT24 website demanded the almost
immediate massive increase in computing capacities in order to
meet user demands.
ČTK sells subsidiary ČEKIA
ČTK has sold its subsidiary ČEKIA, which it owned since 1999.
CEE DATA, which belongs to Central European Capital LLC,
has become the new owner of ČEKIA.
ČTK’s current strategy focuses on news services and ČEKIA was
specialised on information about companies, including analyses
and financial consulting.
ČTK will continue to cooperate with ČEKIA, for example in
the Prodata service where ČTK uses the ČEKIA database, and
ČEKIA will use economic news from ČTK.
ČTK prepares multimedia editorial system
A new editorial system is currently being tested in ČTK. The
development of this system, led by the IT department and
a number of editors, has lasted almost two years.
The main advantage of the new system is connecting visual and
text news, which allows for better planning, coordination of
work, and creating multimedia packages. We hope that this will
provide our clients with better and faster services.
The next issue of the newsletter will more thoroughly introduce
the new editorial system.
ČTK launches new website
We have updated our website to include examples of all our
services (shown in the ČTK Infobank environment) and other
improvements.
The Photobank is available to the public
FOTOBANKA.CTK.CZ
Beginning in April of this year, a public version of the ČTK
Photobank that is freely accessible to all Internet users has been
operating at fotobanka.ctk.cz. It offers thumbnail views of all the
photographs in the ČTK electronic archive in two sizes.
The opening of the Photobank to the public is meant to help
media that do not have a permanent contract with ČTK and
those institutions that only need photographs sparingly. The
public Photobank can be useful to the public for informational or
educational purposes.
Photographs cannot be downloaded directly from the public
Photobank and must be ordered through user shopping carts or by
phone or e-mail sent to the ČTK photo documentary department.
Seminar on the ČTK Infobank
We are offering our clients
a seminar on how to use the
Infobank either at our offices or
at the client’s place of work. The
topic of the seminar and the date
can be adapted to meet the client’s
needs.
(mail: docekalova@mail.ctk.cz,
tel.: +420 222 098 326)
CTK Newsletter No. 7/2005