Knight Ridder Digital
Twenty-eight daily full-text Knight Ridder publications from media markets throughout the U.S. will now be available to LexisNexis customers, many on the same day or within a day of publication. The offering includes major metropolitan papers such as The Miami Herald, The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News, the Detroit Free Press, The Charlotte Observer, the Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minnesota), and The SanJose Mercury News.

"Our agreement with LexisNexis is another major step in creating new revenue streams from Knight Ridder Digital content," said Ken Doctor, vice president of content services at Knight Ridder Digital. "LexisNexis is one of the premier information services in the world, and now for the first time Knight Ridder content will be available to its business, legal, academic, and government desktop users. Those users will be further introduced to our most important newspaper brands and be able to link directly to them. We believe that in addition to customers finding our content through our destination sites, our content must actively find customers through other established channels of sales and distribution. The LexisNexis channel is a key, and we expect the partnership to grow over time."

A new, centrally administered information services contract will give Knight Ridder professionals access to the LexisNexis suite of information solutions. According to the announcement, the contract brings wide exposure to LexisNexis research databases to the desktops of thousands of professionals at Knight Ridder, including nexis.com for journalists and editors conducting research, lexis.com for Knight Ridder's legal staff, customized solutions for professionals in Knight Ridder's corporate offices, LexisNexis Political Universe for Knight Ridder's Washington Bureau, and access to select Online Public Records and LexisNexis Company Dossier products across the U.S.
 

Due Diligence Services
The NFC, a member of LexisNexis, is an internationally recognized leader in customized fraud and risk-management solutions, according to the announcement. It provides a variety of fraud-prevention and -detection services and performs both online and comprehensive off-line investigations to industry and government agencies in the U.S. and internationally.

The NFC's enhanced due diligence product is an enterprisewide application to verify information by using the Internet to get customized reports. According to the announcement, it improves case management by allowing a customer's authorized personnel to subscribe to the NFC service via the Web, enroll approved company users, order and submit the required information for due diligence work, and track the status of search requests using just a Web browser.

"Risk and fraud are not always obvious. Quite frequently, deliberate deception and misrepresentation are used to victimize businesses, exposing them to potentially devastating financial losses," said James H. Vaules, NFC's CEO. "Now LexisNexis business customers can order the NFC-enhanced due diligence services directly from their LexisNexis account executive. They then can take advantage of an easy-to-use Web interface to order and track the progress of due diligence work."

The NFC's due diligence investigative reports, which are custom-prepared by NFCinvestigators and research analysts, can combat fraud by providing new information and identifying intentional deceptions and unintentional inaccuracies in information used for making business decisions. These decisions typically involve risk assessment, litigation, regulatory compliance, criminal and civil liability, asset protection, competitive analysis, and government licensing. Enhanced due diligence can also be used when evaluating a potential new customer, contractor, vendor, partner, or acquisition candidate.

Standard searches can be enhanced by a number of optional searches that can be selected based on the client's specific business needs. Prices for standard due diligenceappear on the Web site, where clients also can track the status of their search requests and store investigative results for case-management purposes. Reports on domestic subjects are accessible online usually in 2 to 7 business days.

Source: LexisNexis, Dayton, OH, 800/227-9597, 937/865-6800; http://www.lexisnexis.com.