Newsbytes News Network, called "an Associated Press for tech-information junkies" was founded in May, 1983 in San Francisco, California by broadcast journalist Wendy Woods Gorski, who remained editor in chief for the 19 years. Continually published from 1983 to 2002, Newsbytes covered breaking news in consumer technology including

computing Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computer, computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and the development of both computer hardware, hardware and softw ...

interactive media Interactive media refers to digital experiences that dynamically respond to user input, delivering content such as Text (literary theory), text, images, animations, video, Sound, audio, and even Artificial intelligence, AI-driven interactions. O ...

telecommunications Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...

and

cybersecurity Computer security (also cybersecurity, digital security, or information technology (IT) security) is a subdiscipline within the field of information security. It consists of the protection of computer software, systems and networks from thr ...

, spanning the formative years of

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

and the advent of

personal computers A personal computer, commonly referred to as PC or computer, is a computer designed for individual use. It is typically used for tasks such as Word processor, word processing, web browser, internet browsing, email, multimedia playback, and PC ...

. The

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

Company acquired Newsbytes in 1997. The archive of Newsbytes stories is currently on the Lexis-Nexis research database under the code NWSBYT Predating the Internet, Newsbytes News Network came to be considered a “boot camp“ for online journalism. Its alumni have gone on to work for CNet, ZDNet,

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

, and

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

. At the height of its popularity in the mid-1990s, Newsbytes was published by over 180 media outlets and produced almost 100 technology news reports daily. Its success was buoyed by enthusiasm for news about emerging technologies. Newsbytes was able to offer instantaneous delivery of technology information before the invention of the Internet.

History

Wendy Woods Gorski had the idea to create an online publication out of what she was already writing daily for her broadcast news position in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. As a reporter and editor working under the name "Wendy Woods," she compiled news leads for her assignment editors at CNN (San Francisco Bureau) and KGO-TV (ABC) in 1982 and realized these news story ideas could be of interest to the general public. These summaries included contact information for the sources. Newsbytes officially launched in 1983 as a "user publishing" feature on an online service called The Source, owned by Reader’s Digest, based in McLean, Virginia. "Newsbytes", began to earn royalties and an audience. In its first few years, the weekly stories were written with a style that reflected television writing: succinct stories with an irreverent flair. "(Newsbytes) reflected her personality. It was, in some ways, the very first blog. It was infused with her being and when I joined her in 1985 I took that lesson to heart, putting my personality into my own work from

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

", said Dana Blankenhorn, one of the service’s early writers. By the end of the first year Steve Gold, a journalist in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

, England, joined the company and contributed European technology news. Gradually the service evolved from summaries to fleshed-out stories and included the work of multiple reporters in different US cities and countries. Newsbytes stories were aimed at a broad cross-section of both business and consumer users of information technology, which contributed to the service’s wide appeal. Newsbytes was advertiser-free which gave it the added advantage of public trust and objectivity in a niche industry. During its nearly two decades of existence, Newsbytes News Network stories were syndicated to some 180 magazines, newspapers, newsletters, and online services worldwide. Among the largest online services were

Compuserve CompuServe, Inc. (CompuServe Information Service, Inc., also known by its initialism CIS or later CSi) was an American Internet company that provided the first major commercial online service provider, online service. It opened in 1969 as a times ...

America Online AOL (formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City, and a brand marketed by Yahoo! Inc. (2017–present), Yahoo! Inc. The service tra ...

, BIX, ZiffNet, The Information Access Co.,

Dow Jones News Dow may refer to: Business * Dow Jones Industrial Average, or simply the Dow, an American stock market index * Dow Inc., an American commodity chemical company ** Dow Chemical Company, a subsidiary, an American multinational chemical corporation * ...

/Retrieval, PointCast, and other information providers located in the

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Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. A Toronto-based company called Clarinet prepared the wire feed for Unix systems that went directly to corporate information technologists. Weekly estimated readership reached 4.5 million. In 1987, Wendy Woods Gorski teamed with Peter P. Vekinis, an entrepreneur at the time. Peter originated the Workwriter computer package, was owner of the Technology Channel, creator of the Picosat satellite system, and designer of a C language compiler for the Amstrad 6128personal computer system. Peter and Wendy designed the content-specific format, created "push news" to clients (an unknown feature at the time). Peter devised a system where news would be delivered to the clients' remote printers, connected via modem so that breaking news would be delivered instantly. The company also expanded distribution to

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains computer data storage, data computers can read, but not write or erase. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold b ...

subscriptions and

email Electronic mail (usually shortened to email; alternatively hyphenated e-mail) is a method of transmitting and receiving Digital media, digital messages using electronics, electronic devices over a computer network. It was conceived in the ...

subscriptions. Nels Johnson, a San Francisco-based programmer, created software that allowed PC owners to process the news feed offline and display headlines or full stories. Wendy also created a weekly TV newscast for The Computer Show at a San Jose television channel. Woods also continued to be a correspondent for Computer Chronicles, a PBS program, from 1984-1990. Peter left Newsbytes in 1990 to pursue other interests and sold his share of the company to Steve Gold, an early Newsbytes contributor and co-owner.

Move to Minnesota

Wendy and husband Nick Gorski moved the company headquarters and family to

Stillwater, Minnesota Stillwater is a city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Washington County, Minnesota, Washington County. It is in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, on the west bank of the St. Croix River (Wisconsin-Minnesota), S ...

in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area in 1993. Newsbytes was operated out of the carriage house behind their Victorian home at 406 West Olive Street from 1993 through 2002. In the mid-90s, Steve Laliberte, also living in Minnesota and the former director of McGraw-Hill’s competing BIX service, became a Newsbytes co-owner. He created Newsbytes News Network’s website, on the emerging

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

to make subscriptions available to the general public. Innovations included 15-minute delayed quotes for the stock price of publicly held companies via links in the stories, complete keyword search of archives, and additional news feeds from The Business Wire.

Business Model

Newsbytes News Network’s financial success stemmed from events made possible by the computer revolution itself. Advantages over traditional print media were electronic distribution (no print costs), the speed of distribution (instantaneous), and a decentralized newsroom of correspondents who worked from their home offices worldwide. The company’s business model consisted of licensing the news stream, media partnerships (Ziff-Davis Publishing, McGraw Hill,

USA Today ''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...

and Retrieval,

Newsnet NewsNet (stylized as NEWSnet) was an American news-oriented free-to-air television network and newscast production company owned by Bridge News, LLC, which itself is owned by Manoj Bhargava's Bridge Media Networks. The network was structured ...

, Dialog, and Applelink), and online downloads. Through multiple media and channels, Newsbytes was distributed to a wide variety of media outlets. Newsbytes became an LLC in 1996

Sale to the Washington Post

In 1997, Newsbytes News Network LLC was sold by partners Wendy Woods Gorski (editor-in-chief), Steve Gold (UK bureau chief), Joshua Schneck (marketing director) and Steve Laliberte (technology director) to

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

Company for an undisclosed fee. Wendy served as editor-in-chief of the publication at the Washington Post Company's Post-Newsweek Interactive division until the company discontinued the news service for financial reasons on May 31, 2002, just one year before its 20-year anniversary. At the time, the Post said the closure was due to having too many websites. "We currently publish two technology Web sites for the Washington Post Company and we are consolidating our online tech coverage," said Washtech/Newsbytes Publisher Valerie Voci at the time. Wendy said of the closure at the time that Newsbytes "was a long fun ride. I would like to think that we made a bit of the same history that we were writing about." The 150,000-plus news story archive is still available on the Lexis-Nexis database service.

Awards

Newsbytes coverage won the 1994 Dvorak Award for Outstanding Online News Service and won five annual Best Online Publication awards from the Computer Press Association in the 1980s and 1990s.

References

External links

*{{official website, https://web.archive.org/web/19961111231237/http://www.newsbytes.com/ (archived) American journalism organizations Organizations based in San Francisco 1983 establishments in California