THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 10, 1994 TAG: 9411100590
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 47 lines
InfiNet L.C., a Norfolk-based company that provides access to the rapidly growing global web of computer networks known as the Internet, plans to expand into the Washington area beginning Dec. 1.
InfiNet also has signed an agreement to put for-sale listings of William E. Wood and Associates, Hampton Roads' largest residential real-estate agency, on the Internet. The agreement is similar to a contract InfiNet signed in June with GSH Real Estate.
Richard B. Thurmond, William E. Wood's president, said his agency will likely start putting its listings out over the Internet within the next three weeks.
InfiNet's Washington expansion, announced Wednesday, is its largest since Landmark Communications Inc., parent of The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star, bought a controlling interest in the computer operation late last year.
``We expect to do very, very well there,'' said Tom Manos, InfiNet's president. ``Somewhere down the line, we'll be in Baltimore, too.''
In the Washington venture, InfiNet formed an alliance with two other media companies: the Journal & Express Newspapers, a chain of 17 papers that circle Washington, and Capital-Gazette Newspapers, publisher of a daily newspaper in Annapolis, Md., and the Washingtonian magazine. Landmark is a 49.9 percent owner of Capital-Gazette.
The two media partners will help market InfiNet and provide classified ads, local news and information that will be available to subscribers of its on-line services.
Competition in Washington will be tougher for InfiNet than what it faces in other markets where it is already operating in conjunction with Landmark media properties - Hampton Roads, Richmond, Roanoke, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Nashville, Tenn., and Las Vegas, Nev. There are two well-established local providers of Internet access in Washington, and The Washington Post is planning an on-line newspaper service.
The size of the Washington market and the fact that residents there are among the nation's most intensive home-computer users make going there worth the risk, Manos said. by CNB