20 Dec 2002: Dow Jones Newswires Starts Test of XML-Based News Feed
Dow Jones Newswires has made a test feed of its new XML-based news service available to market data redistributors for integration with their services. The new service – Dow Jones NewsPlus – aims to provide an interactive interface for the company’s news, commentary and analysis services.
The NewsPlus service will offer Dow Jones news clients a substantial enhancement over existing services. Through the use of XML tagging, Dow Jones news editors will be able to add value to selected news items. Benefits will include selection and ranking of the most critical market-moving stories, news summaries, and links to the complete story and related information. This additional information will include press releases, industry news and fundamental data.
Dow Jones is currently working with redistributors of its news services on integrating the XML feed into their delivery platforms. Dow Jones news is distributed by most of the major market data suppliers, including Reuters, Bloomberg, Thomson Financial and Moneyline Telerate.
Thomson Financial will be the first redistributor to offer the Dow Jones NewsPlus capability. The company plans to integrate Dow Jones NewsPlus into its Thomson One desktop display application. Thomson One is an integration framework for delivering a broad range of information services. The full Dow Jones NewsPlus feed is schedule for delivery in the first quarter of 2003.
The Dow Jones NewsPlus services will eventually be made available through a direct Dow Jones web site. The feed is flexible enough to handle versions of other Dow Jones Newswires services, integrate into other sites and create custom versions for large users with links into users’ proprietary information.
The Dow Jones NewsPlus home page will also include stock and bond market updates, links to critical topics like politics and economic indicators. It will also provide an interface to select news features, such as columns, analysts’ commentary and Dow Jones Market Talk, a high-end news analysis service.
Dow Jones has been a pioneer of so-called ‘smart news’ services. In the early 1990s, it used sophisticated monitoring technology to launch its Professional Investor Report, which tracked market movements and followed up with reports about the reasons for the price change. While it has long required its editors to tag stories for categorization and commingling into specific services or subject channels, XML now provides a standardized and cost-effective way of allowing staff to add value to news services.