11 news agencies found MINDS International network * Joint research and development of digital publishing solutions for the media industry

Helsinki (Finland) 19 November (PROTEXT/ots) - 11 leading news agenciesfrom Europe and the USA have founded "MINDS International" as a network forinternational cooperation. MINDS International will act as a research anddevelopment unit for innovations in the field of digital information andcommunication solutions suitable for the media industry and will stronglysupport technology exchange between the agencies. MINDS has its seat inFrankfurt, Main (Germany).

MINDS will mainly deal with innovative approaches in the field of mobileand online news services. "There is great potential for media in any kindof digital publishing services. For traditional media like publishers it isimportant to invest in such innovative business opportunities. By bundlingtheir strengths, the MINDS agency partners want to offer media companiesaccess to knowledge, innovative services and new business models in thisdynamic and permanently developing business area," says WolfgangNedomansky, managing director of MINDS International.

The founding partners of MINDS are (in alphabetic order) ANP (Netherlands),AP (USA), APA (Austria), APcom (Italy), Belga (Belgium), CTK (CzechRepublic), dpa (Germany), Lusa (Portugal), NTB (Norway), SDA and Keystone(Switzerland) and STT (Finland). As for digital news markets, it is a keystrength of MINDS to make the very different knowledge of these leadingnews agencies available internationally.

The board of MINDS is chaired by Malte von Trotha, chief executive officerof dpa and Peter Kropsch, managing director of APA as his deputy. Membersof the board are also Helen Vogt from NTB, Bernard Maissen from SDA and JanStejskal from CTK.

"With Wolfgang Nedomansky MINDS has gained a very experienced news agencymanager as its managing director. Nedomansky has been leading APA´sfinancial news services uccessfully for many years. His activities andcontacts on an international level contributed a lot in getting MINDSstarted," says Malte von Trotha.

The roots of MINDS go back to an EU-funded project on innovative mobilenews services, carried out in 2004 and 2005. In future MINDS will supportthe exchange of knowledge and technology between its partners and help themto capitalise innovative business models in their specific markets.Emphasis will be on enhancing the network especially with partners fromadvanced digital news markets such as Asia.

MINDS’ Mission Statement: MINDS International is a network and platform ofequal news agencies sharing ideas and exchanging knowledge to put businessconcepts forward in order to raise revenues and save costs in digitalmarkets.

Contact:

Wolfgang Nedomansky

Managing Director

MINDS International

Phone: +43 664 3907910

E-mail: wolfgang.nedomansky@apa.at

Web site: http://www.minds-international.com

Mobile site: http://mobile.minds-international.com

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