Clickshare Service Corporation Finds That Its Time Has Come

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April is far from a cruel month for Clickshare Service Corp., the Internet venture founded here six years ago. Historically, April has been positively benevolent. Last April, for example, the long-developing digital content purchasing clearinghouse, announced it had secured $500,000 in financing from private investors. So far, the company has raised $2.5 million from investors, including $1 million secured in November. And the recent stock market shudder has created a climate in which Clickshare can flourish, by underlining the need for Internet businesses to charge for content, rather than relying on online advertising. “With last April’s stock market crash, online advertising fell apart,” said company founder William P. Densmore Jr. “People who really believe in the value of information are gravitating to Clickshare.” The changed economic climate — with the failure of numerous dot-coms and the fading of online advertising — put businesses on notice that they need to charge for content, and so, said Densmore, “Clickshare’s time has come.” This April, the company is expecting to announce a significant client, which Densmore would describe only as “a national distribution magazine.” “We’re going through a soft launch, not ‘Lights, Camera, Action,’ ” said Densmore. Clickshare President Helen B. Fields, reached by telephone, said, “Clickshare is leading the next stage of the Internet economy. “People are starting to charge for content,” said Fields. “An executive vice president of a large magazine publishing company said, ‘The question isn’t if people are going to charge, the question is when and how,’ and we are helping them do that.” “We have a very bright future. Our reception in the marketplace more than I ever imagined. We’re in the right place at the right time. People are calling us.” Densmore spoke earlier this week at the company’s offices at 75 Water St., above Alton & Westall real estate brokers. Down the street, at 173 Water St. are the software engineers, and soon, across the street in the former General Cable building, file servers. Last Friday, the company held an open house at its Portland, Maine, headquarters, 477 Congress St., suite 1300 on the 13th floor. Densmore sees a bright future for the company. “Definitely, definitely. It’s so much the right way of doing it.” Clickshare is leading the next stage of the Internet economy; people starting to charge for content. An executive vice president of large magazine publisher said the question isn’t if people are going to charge, but rather when and how; and “we are helping them do that.” With Clickshare’s proprietary technology, a consumer — that’s most of us — can have an account at one web site, but buy various kinds of information — music, text, video, software, games — from affiliated web sites but pay an aggregate, single monthly bill at the site chosen as the Clickshare Service Provider. This provider can be a bank or a telephone company as well as a publisher or entertainment company. Clickshare bills itself as the first Internet customer-relationship exchange for digital-content purchasing, privacy-protected demographics management and personalization. Through Clickshare, Internet web sites can turn users into paying customers, but won’t have to hand over the names and addresses to anyone else. That Internet technology allows companies to sell digital information to each other’s customers without having to share the names, addresses or credit data of those customers. With user permission, profile and preference information can be shared. Although newspapers are a mainstay of Clickshare’s market strategy, consumers can choose other agents to handle their billing. And the company requires no end-user software. And this arrangement allows publishers, for instance, to charge consumers for content that has probably been provided free. Clickshare will receive a small share of every transaction. Densmore recalled that the genesis of Clickshare was during his years as publisher and editor of The Advocate, which he owned, with his wife Betsy Johnson, from 1983 to 1992. During his last year at The Advocate, he formed an alliance with Channel 13, helping the Albany, N.Y.-based television station gather news in Berkshire County. “I wondered how newspapers would survive high-speed Internet digital information,” he said. When he went from The Advocate to Turley Publications in Central Massachusetts he met, through their kids’ mutual day care center, Dave Oliver, research lab director at the University of Massachusetts. Oliver, like Densmore, was interested in the survival of newspapers in the Internet era, and he created “the same architectural concept being accepted now,” said Densmore. “His solution has stood the test of time.” Fields, both a veteran of dot-com marketing and a former journalist, said “Clickshare is not solely a technology. Our major role is getting newspapers to next level. That’s a gift I can give back to journalism.” Clickshare has among its 20-some initial customers, The Corpus Christi (Tex.) Caller-Times, which is using the service to enroll its print subscribers for digital content. And Iowa’s Sioux City Journal, part of Hagaddon Newspapers, will use the service for its Gateway Computer Resource Center. That center is to contain all the Journal’s online stories about the local computer maker and retailer dating back to 1996, free for current print subscribers, and pay-for-view to other Clickshare members. And Clickshare has formed an alliance with Advanced Publishing Technologies Inc. of Burbank, Calif., with a base of more than 150 U.S. dailies for its pre-press and accounting software. Densmore said he does not expect an expansion of employees in Northern Berkshire. The company currently employs about a dozen, and these represent seven native languages: English, Afrikaans, Taiwanese, Hebrew, Mandarin, Dutch and Spanish. Dirk Swart, now a consultant to Clickshare, learned of the company two-and-a-half years ago, logging onto the Internet from Capetown, South Africa, when he was looking to see “if anyone had the same idea I had, and if there was existing technology so I wouldn’t have to develop the technology by myself.” Swart met Densmore, and Clickshare, at a conference in Boston two years ago, then recently, learning that Clickshare was hiring, arrived here three weeks ago. At the company’s technical support offices at 173 Water St., Vice President of Technology Richard Lerner called Clickshare “exactly the model the Internet needed for payment.” “We’re installing our first major client,” he said, “and that will mean tens of thousands of users.” Fields was formerly vice president for global marketing with Korn-Ferry International, Futurestep Inc., which operates the Futurestep.com web site. From 1991 through 1998, she was group publisher overseeing 13 law and business newspapers for the publicly held Daily Journal Corp. of Los Angeles. Chief executive officer is James B. Shaffer, former CEO of Guy Gannett Communications Inc. of Portland, Maine, a diversified media holding company with operations in seven states. Four of his last five positions were turn-arounds, and three of the last six were in a financial capacity, including chief financial officer of the Los Angeles Times from 1983 to 1989, and executive vice president of the Chicago Sun-Times. Investors include David Duffield, founder and chairman of PeopleSoft Inc., Sam S. McKeel, retired publisher of The Philadelphia Inquirer and Chicago Sun-Times, and Thomas J. Rehwaldt, a cofounder of The Chicago Reader and Washington, D.C., City Paper.
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Weekend Outlook: Wilco Weekend & Summer Fun

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
It's Wilco Weekend in North Adams and an estimated 10,000 people will be descending on the city. The band curates the every other summer three-day Solid Sound festival at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. It's too late to get tickets — the event's sold out! — but you can hear some of the performances in the downtown area. Or, you can listen for free on NEPM (New England Public Media) 88.5.
 
Check out the other events happening this weekend including parties, craft, and more

Friday

Karaoke Night
Dalton American Legion
Time: 9 p.m.

Sing your heart out at karaoke night.

More information here.

Berkshire Prides Birthday Bash
Stationary Factory, Dalton
Time: 7 p.m.

Celebrate 10 seasons of Berkshire Pride with a birthday dance party. There will be games, treats, face painting and more.

More information and tickets here.

Musical Bingo Fundraiser
Adams Theater
Time: 6:30 p.m.

Enjoy an evening of fun, music, and bingo with DJ Bizz to help support the theater's summer season.

More information and tickets here.

Summer Movie Night at Clapp Park
Clapp Park, Pittsfield
Time: 8:30 p.m.

Bring your own chairs and blankets to enjoy "Zootopia 2" and you will also be able to buy popcorn and soda.

More information here.

'A Hundred Words for Snow'
'62 Center, Williamstown
Time: 2 & 7:30, Friday-Saturday
 
After her father’s unexpected death, 15-year-old Rory discovers that he was planning a trip for the two of them to the North Pole. So, she picks up his ashes, her passport, and her mother’s credit card, and sets out to make good on his plans. Produced by the Chester Theatre Company. 
 
Tickets and more information here.
 

Saturday

Summer Reading Kickoff Party
Milne Public Library, Williamstown
Time: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Celebrate summer at the library with musical performances, lawn games, crafts, and free ice cream.

The balloon twisting workshop and the adult Escape the Mummy’s Tomb will need to be signed up for.

More information here.

Hudpuckers & Team Contraband car show
Wahconah Park, Pittsfield
Time: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

For the second year, join Hudpuckers Pub for its annual car show with also motorcycles and trucks.

More information here. 

Craft Lab
Berkshire Athenaeum, Pittsfield
Time: 2:30 to 4 p.m.

Drop into the library every Saturday and Monday for a free craft, this Saturday is painting rocks.

More information here.

Bennington Pride
Pleasant Street, Bennington, Vt.
Time: 10 to 4
 
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