Wire service offers news electronically for businesspeople who can't get papers.

For traveling bankers who need access to the latest news and stock market quotes, relief has arrived.

A newly launched "electronic newspaper," called Infowire, delivers crucial news anywhere, anytime. Published by CPC Communications Inc., the service features up-to-the-minute world news, business and national news, closing stock prices, SEC headlines, and sports news.

The daily 10-page condensed newspaper can be received via facsimile anywhere in the world. Infowire reaches business offices, cruise ships, resorts, and hotels in out-of-the-way places that do not have access to major city newspapers. It is also available at transit points where traveling businesspeople and news junkies can access the service.

'Out of the News Loop'

"The service is for people who find themselves out of the news loop," said Paul Schaye, the New York-based publisher of Infowire and executive vice president and senior operating officer at CPC Communications.

The service is primarily aimed at bankers, brokers, and institutional investors who spend substantial amounts of time on the road or just out of the office en route to meetings. Therefore, business and financial news accounts for 80% of articles placed on Infowire.

Traveling bankers can access Infowire by telephone and arrange for the newspaper to be faxed to a different location each afternoon. Subscribers are given an identification number that they use to direct the paper's transmission.

Banks already using the service include Bankers Trust Co. and Industrial Bank of Japan. Mr. Schaye said the Infowire sales staff is close to securing contracts with a number of other large banking institutions.

One of the clearest benefits for banks is the stock service, which allows subscribers to track shares in portfolios held by the bank, its clients, or their own account. Stocks tracked are specified by the reader and can often run into several pages of quotes.

To complement the daily price table, Infowire also tracks and prints any news items written about the specified stocks so that subscribers may make informed and timely investment decisions.

"The stock quoting service is customized to provide the opportunity for bankers and investors to be preemptive in their investment decisions," Mr. Schaye said. "It wakes up the dormant investor to do something."

Infowire can also act as an important sales tool for traveling bankers, such as portfolio managers and capital markets participants. By having access to realtime financial market news and data, a banker can keep customers aware of changes and opportunities in the markets.

News originates from the some of the largest information-gathering organizations in the world including Reuters, The Associated Press, and Chicago-based Tribune Service. An editorial staff of six in Washington, combs through an array of news stories throughout the day and selects those of interest to Infowire's readers. Infowire also employs a correspondent who covers breaking news and other developments at the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Infowire, which costs $99 a month, currently has a little over 1,000 subscribers, though the company expects that number to swell with the addition of the new stock quote service, according Mr. Schaye.

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