THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 22, 1997 TAG: 9702220256
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 84 lines
In Internet years, Norfolk-based InfiNet is a graybeard. The nationwide Internet services provider has been ushering computer users into cyberspace for about four years now - if you include the short time that its predecessor company, Wyvern Technologies Inc., spent on its own.
That makes InfiNet one of the elder players in its field.
So it's fitting that the company's latest reorganization has resulted in a new senior-management structure that's rather traditional-looking.
InfiNet has a CEO-COO structure. The chief executive officer has been, and remains, David Richards, whose title is, technically, president. The chief operating officer is Bob Gilbert, who assumed his newly created position Feb. 14.
Gilbert is a former manager at Miami-based Knight-Ridder Inc., which is one of the three media conglomerates that owns InfiNet. The others are Norfolk-based Landmark Communications Inc., parent of The Virginian-Pilot, and Arlington-based Gannett Cos. Inc.
Gilbert worked as an InfiNet executive vice president prior to his promotion. In his new role, he'll oversee InfiNet's day-to-day operations, leaving Richards to concentrate on strategic planning.
``We are at a point in the business where there are so many things going on keep track of the day-to-day stuff,'' Gilbert said.
``It's a good sign of maturity,'' he said of the new arrangement.
Gilbert's promotion caps a series of recent senior-management shifts at InfiNet. The company picked up a new chief financial officer, Steve Fuschetti, from Gannett late last year. And three vice presidents moved to other positions at associated companies: Gordon Borrell to a job as vice president of new media for Landmark Publishing; Mike Anderson to The Virginian-Pilot as human resources director; and Peter Ill to Trader Publishing Co. as vice president of electronic media. The Norfolk-based Trader, which is best known for its nationwide chain of Auto Trader publications, is 50 percent-owned by Landmark.
Gilbert characterized the changes as common in an industry as rapid-paced as electronic services. They happened to coincide, however, during what has been a particularly turbulent period for Internet services providers.
The well-publicized problems of America Online Inc., the nation's largest on-line service provider, have scurried many AOL subscribers into the hands of the so-called ISPs, such as InfiNet.
Though he declines to disclose InfiNet's subscriber count, Gilbert concedes that the rush of new customers has strained the company's resources. InfiNet, for instance, had an electronic-mail outage last week. It quickly fixed the problem and apologized to subscribers.
Gilbert said one of his main goals will be improving InfiNet's ``customer care'' effort. Among InfiNet's 212 full-time employees in Norfolk are more than 60 technical-support representatives who handle customer-service problems around the clock. Gilbert said they've spent more time per call over the past year as more customers lacking computer skills sign up for Internet access.
InfiNet provides this service to consumers through a nationwide network of newspaper affiliates. InfiNet decided early in its life, when it was wholly owned by Landmark, to focus on serving papers. That strategy was solidified as Knight-Ridder and, later, Gannett bought stakes in the company. Gannett and Knight-Ridder are the largest and second-largest newspaper companies, respectively, in the United States.
Now about 75 papers, including The Virginian-Pilot, use InfiNet to provide Internet access to consumers. Another 35 papers purchase some other Internet-related service from the company.
InfiNet's other products include specialized content services like Auto Online and Real Estate Web, which the papers use to lure auto and real-estate advertisers to place online ads.
And it provides so-called ``hosting'' services. Newspapers pay InfiNet to store and distribute their content to people who surf the Internet's World Wide Web. InfiNet has a big investment in computer servers to handle this business.
Late last year, InfiNet backed out of one other line of business: designing individual Web pages for newspapers and other businesses. Gilbert said the company decided that this service could be better handled by the newspaper affiliates on a market-by-market basis.
Gilbert said there's plenty of business to chase in InfiNet's remaining fields. ``There's such a land grab going on,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
HUY NGUYEN/The Virginian-Pilot
InfiNet's chief operating officer is Bob Gilbert, a former manager
at Miami-based Knight-Ridder Inc., one of InfiNet's three media
owners.
KEYWORDS: INTERVIEW INFINET INTERNET