LONDON, September 17 /PRNewswire/ --     Reducing the cost and complexity of sharing news is a crucial topic of
discussion among news providers and web site owners, and there is no better
source of advice than an International Press Telecommunications Council
(IPTC) seminar.

An important IPTC information session will be held at IFRA Expo 2008 on
29 October in beautiful Amsterdam, and news industry technical leaders are
invited to attend.

Entitled "Simplifying News Exchange with IPTC G2-Standards," this
fascinating 3-hour session will focus on the business-to-business transfer of
news and finding better ways to handle the ever-growing volume of text,
photos, videos and other products of modern multimedia journalism. Perhaps
not surprisingly, the latest IPTC standards will be explained, including
recent improvements to the famous IPTC photo metadata.

The centerpiece, however, is IPTC's newest G2 family of news exchange
standards. Using the latest XML techniques and leveraging IPTC's more than 40
years of experience, IPTC G2-Standards represent an efficient way to combine
news content and metadata -- adding value for news publishers, business
partners and consumers. The session will also include a discussion of IPTC's
widely used suite of metadata, the NewsCodes, which is ideally suited for
enriching XML content.

This won't be an abstract technical discussion of theoretical future
developments. IPTC G2-Standards are in use today, and the speakers will talk
about real-world applications and concrete ways that the news industry can
use IPTC G2-Standards to save development time and resources. Attendees will
also have a chance to ask questions and meet IPTC representatives.

Whether an IT manager or software engineer at a newspaper, news agency,
web site or system vendor, this session will be an invaluable part of the
IFRA Expo 2008 experience. It's free for all IFRA Expo2008 attendees, and
refreshments are provided.

The session begins at 13:30 on 29 October 2008 at RAI Convention Center,
Room P.

About IPTC

The IPTC, based in London, UK, is a consortium of the world's major news
agencies, news publishers and news industry vendors. It develops and
maintains technical standards for improved news exchange that are used by
virtually every major news organization in the world. Information on all IPTC
standards such as the family of G2-Standards, the Photo Metadata standards,
NewsML 1, NITF, SportsML, IIM standards and the NewsCodes together with a
list of existing members and information on how to join is available at
http://www.iptc.org

About IFRA

IFRA (http://www.ifra.com) is the worldwide research and service
organisation for the news publishing industry. With headquarters in
Darmstadt, Germany, it has acted since 1961 as the platform for
decision-makers from the newspaper industry. IFRA offers its services
primarily to its more than 3100 members in nearly 80 countries. A Board,
comprising publishers as well as central, regional and specialised committees
drawn from IFRA member companies, steers the work of the international
newspaper community. IFRA's research work provides the basis for this and
results in standardisation projects as well as international and regional
exhibitions, conferences, workshops, study tours, training events, Newsplex
consulting and international competitions. IFRA Magazine, the international
magazine of newspaper business, strategy and technology, is published in
several languages in both print and online versions (
http://www.iframagazine.com). IFRA is also running IFRA Search, a vertical
search engine for the news publishing industry (http://www.ifrasearch.com).

About IFRA Expo

The IFRA Expo - "the annual event of the news publishing industry" - held
at major European venues, is the world's most important trade exhibition for
newspaper companies and their partners. IFRA Expo 2008 will be held from 27
to 30 October in Amsterdam under the motto "Get the Big Picture!"
(http://www.ifraexpo.com).