- What is KRT Direct?
- What services are on KRT Direct?
- What is NewsCom?
- What are Editor's Picks?
- How do I get access to images?
- How do I get access to stories?
- What is KRT Business News?
- What kind of computer system do I need?
- My organization already has access to a KRT service via Associated Press or NewsCom. Does that qualify us to download from KRT Direct?
- In what file formats is content available on KRT Direct?
- How do I preview visual material on KRT Direct?
- How do I download content?
- How do I set my Netscape browser to save .jpg files to disk instead of opening a huge image into my browser window?
- How do I set my Netscape browser on the Macintosh to open Zip files?
- What do I do if I have a question about editorial content?
- What do I do if I have a technical problem downloading from KRT Direct or my password doesn't work or I've lost my password?
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Can I get photos of KRT News Service columnists?
Q: What is KRT Direct?
A: KRT Direct is a Web site operated by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services to deliver KRT editorial content to KRT customers.
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Q: What services are on KRT Direct?
A: All daily KRT services and an archive of more than 500,000 stories and images are available on KRT Direct. This includes:
" News Service, breaking news, business, sports and features for print and online publishers. We move more than 300 stories per weekday and offer an archive of more than 120,000 stories.
" KRT Business News, business and business-related stories for print and online publishers, more than 20,000 new stories a month and an archive of more than 700,000 stories. This service is only available on KRT Direct to publications that contribute to the service.
" News Graphics, daily news graphics for print and online publishers. Archive of more than 30,000 graphics is available.
" Weekly Features, weekly feature graphics on a variety of topics, including health, nutrition, fitness, science, entertainment, women and science experiments for young readers. Archive of more than 3,000 graphics is available.
" Graficos en Español, selected KRT daily and weekly feature graphics in Spanish. Archive of more than 1,500 graphics is available.
" Grafiken auf Deutsch, selected KRT daily and weekly feature graphics in German. Archive of more than 1,500 graphics is available.
" Web-Ready Graphics, Flash versions of all news and feature graphics for online publishers. Archive of more than 2,000 graphics is available.
" Photo Service, all KRT daily photos, including news, sports, fashion, travel, food and other features, to accompany stories on the News Service. Mug shots of all KRT columnists are on KRT Direct and can be downloaded without a subscription to the Photo Service. Archive of more than 100,000 photos is available.
" Illustration Bank, stand-alone illustrations and illustrations that go with stories moving on the News Service. Archive of more than 3,800 illustrations is available.
" Faces in the News, one new color caricature per week of a personality in the news. Archive of more than 1,000 caricatures is available.
" OnePages, attractive, easy-to-use QuarkXPress paginated pages on a variety of topics, including weekly pages on golf, NASCAR racing, as well as spot pages on news, sports, business and feature topics.
" KRT Kids, attractive, easy-to-use, QuarkXPress paginated pages and packages of individual art and story elements that appeal to three distinct groups of young readers.
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Q: What is NewsCom?
A: NewsCom is a password-protected Web site operated by a company called NewsCom that provides access to visual and text material from more than 50 information providers, including KRT. The URL is www.newscom.com.
Access to NewsCom requires a separate user ID and password. Your KRT billed for searching for or previewing KRT material on NewsCom, but you will be billed for all material downloaded from NewsCom.
A subscription to a KRT service on KRT Direct does not cover downloads of material from that same service on NewsCom.
For more information about NewsCom or to become a member, visit www.newscom.com.
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Q: What are Editor's Picks?
A: The Editor's Picks page on KRT Direct includes links to visual content and stories on KRT Direct for ...
"Today's Top News Events, a daily listing of photos, graphics, Web packages, news animations, illustrations, caricatures and other items from KRT's large online archive that are relevant to the top stories of the day.
"Featured Content, special project packages of visual content from several KRT services.
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Q: How do I get access to images?
A: Anyone can read budgets and advisories for images on KRT Direct or preview images on the site. No user ID or password is needed to preview images. To download and publish KRT images, however, you must have a KRT Direct user ID and password. To get a KRT Direct ID and password, contact our sales staff.
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Q: How do I get access to stories?
A: There are two text services on KRT Direct: the KRT News Service and KRT Business News.
For the News Service, you must have a KRT Direct user ID and password to view budgets or see results of database searches for stories. You can purchase News Service stories either by subscription or a la carte. With a subscription to the News Service on KRT Direct, you can download and publish stories that are 30 days old or less for a single flat weekly rate. Subscribers will be charged a la carte (one-shot) rates for stories from the archive.
Customers who have a KRT Direct user ID and password, but do not have a News Service subscription on Direct will be charged a la carte (one-shot) rates for both live and archive News Service stories.
For the Business News Service, you must have a KRT Direct user ID and password and be a contributor to the Business News Service to see stories or search the Business News database. Contributors to Business News can download and publish Business News stories both live and archive, at no charge.
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Q: What is KRT Business News?
A: This service is unique: contribute your content, get access to stories about thousands of companies and a wide range of businesses and industries -- and share in our profits.
Business News offers timely business, financial and related news from more than 230 U.S. and foreign English-language newspapers and news services, as well as regular columns and commentary on business subjects. We deliver more than 20,000 stories a month with information that only local newspapers can provide:
" More detail about local companies -- including major corporations -- and regional business
" Information that doesn't merit national wire-service coverage but is vital to those tracking specific companies or industries, including personnel moves, labor devlopments, new products, incorporations, bankruptcies, real estate transactions, construction activity, and travel and tourism.
" Articles about small and medium-size companies, including those privately held that are generally covered only by local newspapers.
" Free access to our online archive, which includes more than 700,000 stories. The more stories you send, the more money you make.
For more information about contributing or acting as a distributor, phone or e-mail us at
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Q: What kind of computer system do I need?
A:To download and use content from KRT Direct, we recommend the following system configuration:
" Power Macintosh running Mac OS 8.5 or later, or Pentium III PC running Windows 98 or later, with at least 64 MB RAM and enough video RAM (VRAM) to display at least 16-bit color ("thousands of colors").
" Internet access via high-speed network connection (T3, T1, DSL, cable modem or ISDN) or individual dial-up connection (28.8 modem will work though 56kb is preferred).
" Web browser such as Netscape Navigator 4.6 or later or Microsoft Internet Explorer, version 5.0 or later.
Less powerful computer systems may be used, especially if only for previewing content, but performance may be slow.
To view some samples on KRT Direct, you must use a browser that is JavaScript-enabled, typically Netscape 4.0 or later or Internet Explorer 4.0 or later. Some content also requires the QuickTime or Flash plug-ins.
Graphics files are created in FreeHand 9 and may also be edited in Illustrator 10. Photos and most illustrations and caricatures can be edited in Photoshop. You will need QuarkXPress 3.3 or later to edit OnePages. You will need QuickTime to play animations.
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Q: My organization already has access to a KRT service via the Associated Press or NewsCom. Does that qualify us to download from KRT Direct?
A: No, you need to have a separate subscription for KRT Direct.
To obtain a KRT Direct ID and Password, contact your KRT sales representative.
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Q: In what file formats is content available on KRT Direct?
A: KRT visual material is delivered in the following formats:
News Service Stories and Business News Stories are available in XML, which is HTML compatible, or ASCII. Use your browser's "FIle > Save As..." command to save stories in the format of your choice.
Graphics are created in FreeHand 9.
To open graphics on a PC, you must use Windows 95 or later and FreeHand 9 for the PC. For graphics from our archive created before December 1998, PC users must rename the document, adding the suffix .fh9 to the name of the file, to conform to Windows naming conventions.
Graphics are posted as binhexed StuffIt archives, so you must use StuffIt Expander to decompress them after downloading.
Photos are in .jpg format. Adobe Photoshop is generally the best application to view and edit photos. The KRT photo files work in most archiving systems. Captions may be viewed via Photoshop's File Info window, the SCC caption filters or an AP LeafDesk. No decompression is needed.
Illustrations and Faces in the News are in .jpg format. They may be opened by any application that supports standard .jpg images. The captions may be viewed via Photoshop's File Info window, the SCC caption filters or an AP LeafDesk. No decompression is needed.
OnePages are in QuarkXPress format. Page elements such as placed EPS and .jpg files are bundled with the QuarkXPress file in a folder. Pages are posted as binhexed StuffIt archives, so you must use StuffIt Expander to decompress them after downloading.
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Q: How do I preview visual material on KRT Direct?
A: You can preview images by clicking on the "Preview" links in the daily advisories or search results. Each preview is in a new browser window, so it's easy to look at several previews on your screen at the same time.
There is no charge for previewing material from any KRT visual service whether or not you have a subscription to that service on KRT Direct.
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Q: How do I download content?
A: To download content from KRT Direct, you must have a KRT Direct user ID and password.
For the News Service, you can download stories by clicking on the slug of the story if it appears in color as a hyperlink, or on the "TEXT" or "HTML" links below each budget item or by clicking the "Download Text" or "Download HTML" links in the search results. This will open the story in a new browser window. Then use your browser's "File > Save As..." command to save the story to your computer. When you buy a story a la carte, after you click the download link, you will see a window that tells you how much you will be charged for the story. Click "Accept" to make a purchase.
For Business News, contributors can download stories by clicking on the "Download Text" or "Download HTML" links. This will open the story in a new browser window. Then use your browser's "File > Save As..." command to save the story to your computer.
To download visuals on a Macintosh, click drag the "Download" link. This will cause the file to download to your desktop and decompress automatically. For Illustrations, Photos, and Faces in the News, drag-and-drop the "Download" link to your desktop; no decompression is needed. If images or paginated products do not uncompress automatically, use StuffIt Expander.
To download visuals on a Windows PC, right-click the download link. In the pop-up menu, select "Save Link As..."; In the dialog box that appears, set Format to "Source" and click "Save."
For image and paginated products, use StuffIt Expander after downloading to decompress.
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Q: How do I set my Netscape browser to save .jpg files to disk instead of opening a huge image into my browser window?
A: This is a problem for Netscape users only if they click on .jpg images (illustrations, caricatures or photos) to download them. You can avoid the "big browser image" problem. By default, Netscape is configured to handle .jpg images by itself, opening a new browser window to display the image. If you would rather that Netscape save .jpg files to your hard drive when you click on such links, follow these steps:
1) Select "Preferences..." from the Edit menu. From the Category list in the Preferences dialog box, open the Navigator category and select the subcategory Applications. Then select "JPEG Image" from the list of descriptions and click the "Edit..." button.
2) In the Edit Type dialog box, select the "Save to disk" option and click "OK." Click "OK" in the Preferences dialog box to confirm the change.
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Q: How do I set my Netscape browser on the Macintosh to open Zip files?
A: By default, Netscape expects you to have and use ZipIt to decompress Zip files. However, if you have installed StuffIt Expander, you can configure Netscape to automatically decompress Zip files with StuffIt Expander upon download. Here's how:
1) Select "Preferences..." from the Edit menu. From the Category list in the Preferences dialog box, open the "Navigator" category and select the subcategory "Applications." Then select "application/zip" from the list of descriptions and click the "Edit..." button.
2) In the Edit Type dialog box, click the "Choose..." button.
3) In the dialog box that pops up, locate StuffIt Expander and click "Open." Click "OK" in both the Edit Type and Preferences dialog boxes to confirm the change.
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Q: What do I do if I have a question about editorial content?
A: Call our editorial offices in Washington, D.C. Please see our editorial contacts page.
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Q: What do I do if I have a technical problem downloading from KRT Direct or my password doesn't work or I've lost my password?
A: Please see our technical support page.
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Q: Can I get photos of KRT News Service columnists?
A: Yes, just go to the Columnists' Photos page in the KRT Photo Service area. Columnists' pictures are free. Instructions for downloading are on the page.
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