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).

Media contact: Michael Steidl, IPTC Managing director, Phone: +44(20)3178-4922, Email: office@iptc.org