Two Knight Ridder newspapers have signed contracts for AdBase advertising systems from Mactive Inc.

The contract from the St. Paul Pioneer Press and the Duluth News Tribune, both in Minnesota, is the fourth Knight Ridder contract since the company named Mactive as its advertising systems vendor in September 2001.

A shared database for both publications will be located in St. Paul. A 147-seat system in St. Paul and a 58-seat AdBase system in Duluth will handle classified and retail ad order entry. The newspapers will also use Mactive’s PageLayout application for classified pagination, layout and page dummying, as well as the vendor’s Money Manager accounts receivable application.

The newspapers will use AdBase-E for Web order entry. The applications — based on an Oracle database foundation — will run on Sun servers and accessible on Microsoft Windows 2000 clients.

Meantime, Gazette Communications of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, also said it would begin using AdBase to handle its ad production.

The Gazette is distributed in 16 counties in eastern Iowa.

“Early on our team was biased in favor of upgrading our (existing) system,” said Wendy Wagner-Bahl, information technology director for Gazette Communications. “As the evaluation progressed with demos and site visits, more of the team began to favor Mactive.”

Gazette Communications purchased a 68-seat AdBase system for classified liner and display ad input and AdBase-E for Web ad order entry for both commercial and private party use. The Gazette’s system will be configured on Microsoft NT servers with an Oracle database and Windows 2000 clients. The AdBase system will interface with the newspaper’s Data Sciences Inc. accounts receivable system from and Alps classified pagination systems.

Finally, The (Portland) Oregonian, a Newhouse publication, purchased a 160-seat AdBase system for classified liner input, display ad input, classified pagination, accounts receivable and Web order entry.

“We look forward to the implementation of Mactive’s integrated systems to provide improved customer service and an increased revenue stream,” said Carl Howard, the newspaper’s director of computer services.

The Oregonian will run Sun servers with an Oracle database and Windows 2000 clients.