• Introduction & FAQ
• News
• Graphics
• Photos
• Illustrations
• Caricatures
• Pages
• Packages
HELP!
• Search Tips
• Sales Staff
• Editorial Staff
• Tech Support
• Software
• Terms & Conditions
Click on a link in the box at right for technical information about each product, or click on a link below for answers to frequently asked questions:
- What is the purpose of this MCT Web site?
- What services are on this MCT Web site?
- What are Editor's Picks?
- How do I get access to images?
- How do I get access to stories?
- How do I get an MCT username and password?
- What do I do if I've forgotten my password?
- What is MCT Regional News?
- What kind of computer system do I need?
- In what file formats is content available on this MCT Web site?
- How do I preview visual material on this MCT Web site?
- How do I download content?
- How do I set my browser to save JPG files to disk instead of opening a huge image into my browser window?
- How do I set my browser on the Macintosh to open Zip files?
- What do I do if I have a question about editorial content?
- What do I do if I have a technical problem downloading from this MCT Web siteor my password doesn't work or I've lost my password?
- Can I get photos of MCT News Service columnists?
Q: What is the purpose of this MCT Web site?
A: This is a Web site operated by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services to deliver MCT editorial content to MCT customers.
Q: What services are on this MCT Web site?
A: All daily MCT services and an archive of more than one million stories and images are available on MCT Direct. This includes:
- News Service, breaking news, business, sports and features for print and online publishers. We move more than 250 stories per weekday and offer an archive of more than 500,000 stories.
- MCT Regional News, regional and business stories for print and online publishers, more than 100,000 new stories a month and an archive of more than 500,000 stories. Publications that contribute to the service have access to the content at no charge.
- News Graphics, daily news graphics for print and online publishers. Archive of more than 36,000 graphics is available.
- Weekly Features, weekly feature graphics on a variety of topics, including health, nutrition, fitness, science, entertainment, women and science experiments for young readers. Archive of more than 8,000 graphics is available. Graphics are available in Illustrator, JPG, SWF and PDF formats.
- Graficos en Español, selected MCT daily and weekly feature graphics in Spanish. Archive of more than 6,000 graphics is available.
- Photo Service, all MCT daily photos, including news, sports, fashion, travel, food and other features, to accompany stories on the News Service. Mug shots of all MCT columnists are on MCT Direct and can be downloaded without a subscription to the Photo Service. Archive of more than 330,000 photos is available.
- Illustration Bank, stand-alone illustrations and illustrations that go with stories moving on the News Service. Archive of more than 9,000 illustrations is available.
- Faces in the News, one new color caricature per week of a personality in the news. Archive of more than 1,300 caricatures is available.
- OnePages, attractive, easy-to-use paginated pages on a variety of topics, including weekly pages on kids' content and NASCAR racing, as well as spot pages on news, sports, business and feature topics.
- MCT Kids, attractive, easy-to-use, paginated pages and packages of individual art and story elements that appeal to three distinct groups of young readers.
- Packages, weekly packages of stories and art help you target special groups of readers. Topics include outdoor recreation (Adventure), high-end shopping and trends (Trendsetter), consumer technology (Plugged In), 18-34 year olds (What's Next), Holidays and parties (monthly -- Entertaining), practical tips (News2Use) and Love and Relationships.
A: The Editor's Picks pageincludes links to visual content and stories on this Web site for ...
Today's Top News Events, a daily listing of photos, graphics, Web packages, news animations, illustrations, caricatures and other items from MCT's large online archive that are relevant to the top stories of the day.
Featured Content, special project packages of visual content from several MCT services.
Q: How do I get access to images?
A: Anyone can read budgets and advisories for images on this Web stie or preview images on the site. No user ID or password is needed to preview images. To download and publish MCT images, however, you must have an MCT user ID and password. To get an MCT ID and password, contact our sales staff.
Q: How do I get access to stories?
A: There are two text services on this Web site: the MCT News Service and MCT Regional News.
For the News Service, you must have an MCT user ID and password to view budgets or see results of database searches for stories. You can purchase News Service stories either by subscription or a la carte. With a subscription to the News Service, you can download and publish stories that are 30 days old or less for a single flat weekly rate. Subscribers will be charged a la carte (one-shot) rates for stories from the archive.
Customers who have an MCT user ID and password, but do not have a News Service subscription, will be charged a la carte (one-shot) rates for both live and archive News Service stories.
For the Regional News Service, you must have an MCT user ID and password and be a contributor to the Regional News service to see stories or search the Regional News database. Contributors to Regional News can download and publish Regional News stories, both live and archive, at no charge.
Q: How do I get an MCT username and password?
A: Go to MCT Registration to start the process.
Q: What do I do if I've forgotten my password
A: Go to the MCT Password Reset to get a new one.
A: This service is unique: contribute your content, get access to stories -- and share in our profits.
With more than 400 contributors and 100,000 Regional News stories delivered a month, we offer a plethora of timely stories from your region that you won’t get from AP or other wire services.
Regional News offers news and features about state government, politics and higher education; high school and college sports from schools in your region; and commentary on regional issues, all from the leading newspapers and best-known journalists in your region. You’ll also get coverage about your state from news organizations around the country.
In Regional News/Business, you will get business news about the industries most important to your readers, including information that does not usually merit national wire-service coverage but is vital to those tracking specific companies or industries such as personnel moves, labor developments, new products, incorporations, bankruptcies, real estate transactions and construction activity.
As a contributor you also get free access to our online archive, which includes more than 500,000 stories.
Contributing to Regional News couldn’t be easier — you sign up, we’ll do the rest. We automatically gather published stories from your Web site. You’ll receive quarterly royalties. You can also receive Regional News in your front-end system for a small monthly fee.
For more information about contributing or acting as a distributor, US publication phone (316) 688-1233 or e-mail us at romendell@earthlink.net. Outside the US, call the sales staff.
Q: What kind of computer system do I need?
A: To download and use content from MCT, we recommend the following system configuration:
Power Macintosh running Mac OS X or later, or Pentium III PC running Windows XP or later.
Internet access via high-speed network connection (T3, T1, DSL or cable modem) or individual dial-up connection (56kb modem will work though at least broadband or higher is preferred).
Web browser such as Firefox 2 or later, Microsoft Internet Explorer version 7.0 or later or Safari version 3 or later.
Less powerful computer systems may be used, especially if only previewing content, but performance may be slow.
Graphics files are created in Illustrator CS2 and also posted as JPG, PDF and SWF files. Photos, illustrations and caricatures can be edited in Photoshop. You will need QuarkXPress 6.5 or InDesign CS2 or later to edit OnePages.
Q: In what file formats is content available?
A: MCT visual material is delivered in the following formats:
News Service Stories and Regional News Stories are available in XML, which is HTML compatible, or ASCII. Use your browser's "File > Save As..." command to save stories in the format of your choice.
Graphics are created in Illustrator CS2 and are available in JPG, PDF and SWF formats.
To open graphics on a PC, you must use Windows 95 or later and Illustrator CS2 for the PC.
Illustrator CS2 graphics are posted as binhexed StuffIt archives, so you must use StuffIt Expander to decompress them after downloading.
Photos are in JPG format. Adobe Photoshop is generally the best application to view and edit photos. The MCT photo files work in most archiving systems. Captions may be viewed via Photoshop's File Info window, the SCC caption filters or an AP LeafDesk. No decompression is needed.
Illustrations and Faces in the News are in JPG format. They may be opened by any application that supports standard JPG images. The captions may be viewed via Photoshop's File Info window, the SCC caption filters or an AP LeafDesk. No decompression is needed.
OnePages are in QuarkXPress, InDesign and PDF format. Page elements such as placed EPS and JPG files are bundled with the QuarkXPress/InDesign files in a folder. Pages are posted as binhexed StuffIt archives, so you must use StuffIt Expander to decompress them after downloading.
Q: How do I preview visual material on this Web site?
A: You can preview images by clicking on the "Preview" links in the daily advisories or search results. Each preview is in a new browser window, so it's easy to look at several previews on your screen at the same time.
There is no charge for previewing material from any MCT visual service whether or not you have a subscription to that service on MCT Direct.
A: To download content, you must have an MCT user ID and password.
For the News Service, you can download stories by clicking on the slug of the story if it appears in color as a hyperlink, or on the "TEXT" or "HTML" links below each budget item or by clicking the "Download Text" or "Download HTML" links in the search results. This will open the story in a new browser window. Then use your browser's "File > Save As..." command to save the story to your computer. When you buy a story a la carte, after you click the download link, you will see a window that tells you how much you will be charged for the story. Click "Accept" to make a purchase.
For Regional News, contributors can download stories by clicking on the "Download Text" or "Download HTML" links. This will open the story in a new browser window. Then use your browser's "File > Save As..." command to save the story to your computer.
To download visuals on a Macintosh, click drag the "Download" link. This will cause the file to download to your desktop and decompress automatically. For Illustrations, Photos, and Faces in the News, drag-and-drop the "Download" link to your desktop; no decompression is needed. If images or paginated products do not uncompress automatically, use StuffIt Expander.
To download visuals on a Windows PC, right-click the download link. In the pop-up menu, select "Save Link As..."; In the dialog box that appears, set Format to "Source" and click "Save."
For image and paginated products, use StuffIt Expander after downloading to decompress.
Q: How do I set my browser to save JPG files to disk instead of opening a huge image into my browser window?
A: This is a problem only if you click on JPG images (illustrations, caricatures or photos) to download them. You can avoid the "big browser image" problem. By default, browsers are configured to handle JPG images by itself, opening a new browser window to display the image. If you would rather that your browser save JPG files to your hard drive when you click on such links, follow these steps:
1) Select "Preferences..." from the Edit menu. From the Category list in the Preferences dialog box, open the Navigator category and select the subcategory Applications. Then select "JPEG Image" from the list of descriptions and click the "Edit..." button.
2) In the Edit Type dialog box, select the "Save to disk" option and click "OK." Click "OK" in the Preferences dialog box to confirm the change.
Q: How do I set my browser on the Macintosh to open Zip files?
A: By default, your browser expects you to have and use ZipIt to decompress Zip files. However, if you have installed StuffIt Expander, you can configure Netscape to automatically decompress Zip files with StuffIt Expander upon download. Here's how:
1) Select "Preferences..." from the Edit menu. From the Category list in the Preferences dialog box, open the "Navigator" category and select the subcategory "Applications." Then select "application/zip" from the list of descriptions and click the "Edit..." button.
2) In the Edit Type dialog box, click the "Choose..." button.
3) In the dialog box that pops up, locate StuffIt Expander and click "Open." Click "OK" in both the Edit Type and Preferences dialog boxes to confirm the change.
Q: What do I do if I have a question about editorial content?
A: Call our editorial offices in Washington, D.C. Please see our editorial contacts page.
Q: What do I do if I have a technical problem downloading from MCT or my password doesn't work or I've lost my password?
A: Please see our technical support page.
Q: Can I get photos of MCT News Service columnists?
A: Yes, just go to the Columnists' Photos page in the MCT Photo Service area. Columnists' pictures are free. Instructions for downloading are on the page.
