CommTek Communications Corp. will launch a new consumer
magazine in January, TV Online, which will focus on the convergence between
television and the Internet, the company said.
"Sometimes, it takes a publication to anchor a new
technology," said Phillip Swann, editor and publisher of TV Online and vice
president of new media for CommTek. "The Internet is still such a jungle of
information that people are looking for a little guidance and more focus."
CommTek also publishes satellite-television-programming
guides Satellite Direct and Satellite Orbit, in which the TV Online
concept was tested earlier this year.
But unlike its other publications, TV Online will
not run program listings. Instead, feature stories will direct readers to related Web
sites.
"The magazine will be very entertainment-driven,"
Swann said, adding that its goal is to help readers to learn how using the Internet over
television can help to enhance their entertainment choices.
The monthly publication will carry an annual subscription
fee of $19.95. Swann said the company will explore possible co-marketing arrangements with
cable operators and other companies involved in interactive television ventures.
TV Online has already signed up 350,000 subscribers
through initial marketing deals with companies with ties to the interactive-services area.
Swann would not say which companies helped CommTek to target those first subscribers.
