NewsGator and NetNewsWire –

Q: What is NetNewsWire?

Brent: NetNewsWire is the premier desktop RSS reader for Mac OS X. According to some statistics, it’s the most popular desktop RSS reader on any platform, even though it’s Mac-only. It’s also one of the earliest desktop RSS readers – the first public version was released July 2002.

Q: How does NetNewsWire fit into NewsGator’s plans?

Greg: Over the last 2.5 years, we’ve built a comprehensive RSS aggregation platform. We have clients for the web, for email clients, for mobile phones and PDAs, and even for your TV. With the acquisition of FeedDemon a few months ago, we added the industry-leading Windows desktop aggregator. NetNewsWire really completes this story for us – we now have the best client on the Mac, which lets us serve this exciting part of the market as well. And make no mistake – we’re very excited about the Mac. Just looking at our data shows a huge penetration of RSS tools among Mac users – clearly you’re all early technology adopters, and that gives us a unique opportunity to try out new leading-edge stuff with you.

Q: NewsGator looks like a Windows company — why are you interested in a Mac client?

Greg: I wouldn’t call us a “Windows company” at all – our first product happened to be for Windows, but we certainly support other platforms. Our NewsGator online runs on all popular browsers including Safari, our email edition runs with any email client on any platform, and our mobile edition runs on any modern HTML-capable device. We’re committed to providing the best user experience on every device – and NetNewsWire certainly covers that requirement for the Mac.

Q: Brent, I thought you loved being an independent developer. How could you work for another company?

Brent: I did love being an independent developer, absolutely. But I also love the idea of being able to take NetNewsWire to the next level and work with a bunch of smart folks who share the vision of RSS everywhere. While there is still so much we — my wife Sheila and I, Ranchero Software — could do as a small independent company, we couldn’t possibly do everything NewsGator is doing. We couldn’t, on our own, deliver syncing across all these devices and platforms, even though our customers were asking for it. Since us buying NewsGator wasn’t completely realistic, we decided to join NewsGator. ;)

Q: What will current NetNewsWire users get out of this deal?

Brent: Here’s what we have planned. Existing NetNewsWire full-version customers will get a free 2-year premium subscription to NewsGator Online. This subscription will include access to NewsGator’s online platform, including synchronization with NetNewsWire and other premium features. This will also include all updates to NetNewsWire for two years. All this will be available as of the next release of NetNewsWire.

Q: Oh no. Does this mean NetNewsWire is going to become a subscription product?

Greg: No. We are in the process of re-working the way we sell all of our products, based on the huge amount of feedback we’ve gotten about the subscription models. I’ll say it here one more time – starting with each of their next releases, NewsGator Outlook edition, FeedDemon, and NetNewsWire will all continue to work after your subscription expires; however, as long as your subscription is active, they will have access to enhanced features and functions available via the NewsGator Online platform. I’d be more clear, but we’re still working out the details…but we’ll be forthcoming with more information as soon as we have it ready.

Q: What will happen to NetNewsWire Lite? Will Lite users get any benefit from this?

Brent: NetNewsWire Lite will still be free, and will continue to be enhanced. And existing Lite users will actually get quite a few benefits – including synchronization with NewsGator Online (for free!), and access to NewsGator’s technical support team.

Q: What will happen to MarsEdit and the various freeware apps (BigCat, Huevos, TigerLaunch)?

Brent: We’re looking for new homes for all of these applications, and they’re in various stages. Our primary goal is to make sure existing customers are taken care of, and have a migration and upgrade path forward. As soon as we have more details, we’ll let you know!

Q: Will NetNewsWire still include the synchronization – .Mac, FTP, Bloglines – that it currently has?

Brent: The focus will be on NewsGator synchronization, because that’s how we can provide the best syncing. It will work across multiple devices and platforms — even including a web version. The existing syncing implementations will get bug fixes, but rather than scatter our energy across different types of syncing, we’ll concentrate on syncing via the NewsGator Online platform.

Q: Is Brent moving to Denver? Or Tennessee?

Greg: Yes!

Brent: No, I’ll be staying in Seattle.

Greg: Darn it, I’m 0 for 2. Denver’s not such a bad place, you know. We have 4 seasons and everything!

Brent: As a Macintosh user interface designer I like to simplify whenever possible. Four seasons is two too many. Seattle has two seasons, rainy and dry — anything more is too complex for new users. ;)

Q: Will there be a Mac version of FeedStation?

Brent: We haven’t decided yet. However, if we do a Mac version of FeedStation, it will not be yet another not-so-good Windows port — it will be completely a Mac app, written using Cocoa, using code already in NetNewsWire and whatever new code is needed.

Q: Did the Intel switch play a role in this decision?

Greg: No, although the timing was certainly coincidental. I think Apple may likely increase their market share as a result of the switch, but we believe the Mac market as it exists today is interesting enough to make significant investments in.

Brent: And I should mention that we have internal builds of NetNewsWire that run on the Intel-based Mac. Thanks to help from folks at Apple, we’ve had this working for months!

Q: Does this give NewsGator the highest combined market share of all RSS companies?

Greg: From the data we’ve seen, the answer is yes.

Q: Are you planning to make NetNewsWire a front end for NewsGator Enterprise Server?

Greg: Through the “magic” of our API platform, once NetNewsWire is fully integrated with our online synchronization platform, it will be only a trivial change to modify it to work as a client for NewsGator Enterprise Server.

Q: Will I be able to use NetNewsWire in one place, FeedDemon in another, NewsGator Outlook edition in another — and still be able to use NewsGator Online when I’m at my mom’s house?

Brent: Yes! That’s the beauty of the NewsGator platform, and one of the things that really drew me to the company. You can use any NewsGator product, at any place, on any device, and they will all synchronize content so you don’t have to read the same stuff twice. So use Outlook at work, NetNewsWire at home, FeedDemon on your laptop, NewsGator Mobile edition on your phone, and NewsGator Online at your mom’s house.

Q: Will there be private-label Mac clients, a la News Hound?

Greg: There has been a ton of interest about exactly this. Now that we have the talent and technology in-house to build them, we expect we will indeed make private-label applications available for the Mac.

Q: Will Brent be the only Mac user at NewsGator?

Greg: No! I have a shiny new Powerbook sitting right next to me. Seriously, though, we’re starting to circulate Macs throughout the office to certain folks…so Brent is definitely not the only one.

Q: If the support staff are all Windows users, how will they support NetNewsWire users?

Brent: NewsGator’s support team is coming up to speed very quickly on NetNewsWire; I don’t anticipate any problems whatsoever. And like Greg said, I’m not the only one who uses a Mac. In fact, I already have people emailing me asking how to do x, y, and z on their Macs – hello, switchers!

For more information on NetNewsWire please visit http://ranchero.com/netnewswire