DATE: Saturday, November 15, 1997           TAG: 9711150368

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LON WAGNER, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   40 lines

INFINET DROPS THREE POPULAR WEB SITES SITES DIDN'T MATCH COMPANY'S GOALS

In the olden days of the World Wide Web - three years ago - Norfolk-based InfiNet nurtured a Web site called Cool Site of the Day. It became a popular destination for Net surfers and scores of imitators popped up.

More recently, out of the same InfiNet department, sprang two other popular sites: Live Online, recognized as one of the best of thousands of Internet music sites, and Byte-Size Greetings, a popular e-mail card shop.

Despite the success of those sites, InfiNet decided this week to eliminate its Electronic Publishing Department, home to the small staff that maintained those sites and developed the concept for two of them. Eight jobs will be wiped out as of Jan. 1, though three employees have accepted other jobs with InfiNet, said Bee Andrews, publisher of the department. Andrews also will lose her job.

``It's a shame,'' Andrews said Friday. ``Everyday I would hear those guys saying, `Hey man, check out this site.' But the three sites don't fit into the mix.''

InfiNet decided that the department's work did not match its main thrusts as an Internet access provider and software developer for newspapers' online efforts, Andrews said.

InfiNet is owned by national media conglomerates Knight-Ridder Inc., Gannett Co. and Landmark Communications, the parent company of The Virginian-Pilot.

The Web sites themselves are expected to live on because they are recognized brands in the Internet community. InfiNet will first see if online publishing ventures of its parent companies are interested.

``Our parent companies are all Web publishers - the newspapers publish Web sites,'' Andrews said. ``It makes more sense to have these sites as part of a publishing organization.''

Cool Site of the Day was developed by Glenn Davis in the early days of the Internet's transformation into a visual medium. Davis would cruise the Web for hours each day and select a favorite site.

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