Southam, The Globe and Mail and ctv continue to evolve rather than ignore the significance of changing media technology by using resources collected anyway in the course of their primary newsgathering businesses.

Globe Information Services, a division of the Globe, has launched an information service called Info Globe Extra, for electronic business information retrieval, while CTV Television Network and Southam have entered into a partnership to produce an educational cd-rom.

Globe Information Services will provide users with current and relevant business information for an introductory price of $29.95 per month, and offers three specific services.

The Business Topic Research service retrieves business information from the Globe and The Financial Times of Canada, and allows customers to select a specific search topic.

The Company Profile service allows customers to get access to comprehensive information on 2,600 companies, including descriptions, financial statements, recent newswire and newspaper stories, trade press and management biographies.

The Electronic Personal Version gives customers access to full-text electronic versions of the Globe.

Canadian history

ctv and Southam are working with publisher McGraw-Hill Ryerson to produce an educational cd-rom containing pictures, graphics and sound that evoke Canadian history.

The cd-rom, called True North – Arrivals II, will contain archival tv footage, and newspaper stories accumulated over 30 years.

Like the original True North – Arrivals I, the cd-rom will focus on Canadian ethnic groups.

Arrivals II will be available to high schools throughout Ontario at a discount price, and through McGraw Hill Ryerson for $395.

It is expected the cd-rom, available for Windows and Mac environments, will be sold in stores starting some time in the next few months pending agreements with more than 200 content providers.