Darmstadt, 20 January 2006 -- The AdsML Consortium has released new versions of its standards for bookings and materials delivery for newspapers and magazines as part of the publication of AdsML Framework 2.0 Release 6. Both proposed standards are open for public review and comment and are available through the Consortium’s Web site at www.adsml.org. The Framework release includes legacy copies of all previously released schemas and documentation, including standards already approved. “This new release sets guidelines for the ad industry about how to deal with two key areas of advertising workflow – inserts and content delivery,” says Harald Löffler, president, AdsML Consortium and research manager, Ifra, a sponsoring member of the Consortium. “Both areas are complex and their fulfillment requires great accuracy, from the moment space is booked, on through production — where all ad and insert components must come together seamlessly — and delivery. Missed deadlines can result if even one element goes astray. This release of the AdsML Framework resolves challenges in both these crucial areas.” Bookings standard supports display advertising, inserts The latest AdsML Bookings Specification provides a consistent way to implement and manage the advertising ordering process. It supports insert, classified and ROP advertising orders — including quotes, reservations, orders and status messages and the appropriate responses — for newspapers and magazines. Other types of advertising can be handled using a generic subset of the specification. The information exchange process supports both synchronous and broadcast exchange protocols along with an exchange choreography that prevents messages from being processed out of order. “With this new version of AdsML Bookings, we have addressed virtually all known open issues,” noted Tony Stewart, director of consulting, RivCom Inc., and chair, AdsML Technical Working Group. “Except for minor fixes, we don’t expect to change the schema again this year. We encourage developers to use this release as the basis for production implementations.” Publishers, materials delivery agencies drive materials standard design After more than a year of development, the proposed materials delivery standard is ready for the first round of public evaluation and comment. When approved, the standard will govern the way ad content is delivered to publishers electronically. "Every facet of the advertising supply chain has publicly announced their need to implement Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)," says Alan Darling, executive vice president of Vio Worldwide. "This new release of AdsML is the tool set that can be used to create solutions for the print media segment right now. Immediate savings can be made in every step in the supply chain by implementing AdsML-based EDI. These savings will more than pay back the initial investment in the technology and will continue to repay that investment into the foreseeable future." Vio Worldwide offers software products, network provisioning and management services for the distribution and management of advertising and digital media across the graphic arts supply chain.