21 Oct 2002: IPTC Approves NewsML Version 1.1 Specification

After a long silence, the International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC) has approved Version 1.1 of the NewsML specification for handling XML-based news services. A revised XML DTD and XML Schema are now available on the project website.

NewsML provides a framework for the interchange and management of news: NewsML is primarily intended as a format for the interchange of news. However, it may also be used as a format for news storage and as a support for the creation, editing, management and publication of news in a networked computing environment.

The NewsML Schema Version 1.1 represents the same document structure as the NewsML DTD version 1.1. In addition, it provides control over element and attribute content in accordance with the NewsML Specification.

IPTC has also published updated V1.1 NewsML Functional Specification and IPTC NewsML NewsAgency Implementation Guidelines documents. According to the IPTC, NewsML is “a compact, extensible and flexible structural framework for news, based on XML and other appropriate standards and specifications.

“It supports the representation of electronic news items, collections of such items, the relationships between them, and their associated metadata. It allows for the provision of multiple representations of the same information, and handles arbitrary mixtures of media types, formats, languages and encodings. It supports all stages of the news lifecycle and allows the evolution of news items over time. Though media-independent, NewsML provides specific mechanisms for handling text. It allows the provenance of both metadata and news content to be asserted.”