GLOBE LAUNCHING SCREEN SAVER NEWS SERVICE
By Adnews Staff
The Globe and Mail has teamed up with PointCast Inc. of California to launch a Canadian news network on the Internet this summer. Computer users will not have to call up the site themselves. Once they have downloaded the free software and installed it on their hard drives, it will automatically bring up the PointCast Network (PCN) as a screensaver consisting of continually updated news flashes and ads. The Globe is licensing PointCast's technology and hopes to make money by selling ads. Users can customize the service to receive only certain types of news. The Globe began running ads on its own pages last week to promote the service. The ads were created in-house. A.C. Nielsen of Markham, Ont. will audit PCN. It will issue reports to advertisers on the number of viewers reached, the number of commercials run and other such information.