Time Warner Inc is to create an on-line subscription service based upon its popular Pathfinder website by late summer and will license it to CompuServe Inc. The first part of the service, Personal Edition, was announced yesterday. As the name suggests, the service will provide users with personalized news on any topic compiled from the site’s sources for an as yet undisclosed fee. CompuServe users, including Wow and Sprynet subscribers, will have free access to the Pathfinder Personal Edition, which will incorporate the OM-Express software package (licensed from Open Ware Inc) which manages the downloading of information from the Web. Other features of the subscription service will be announced over the next few months. A Time Warner spokesperson told Computergram the Pathfinder site, launched 18 months ago, will still be free for Web browsers – its format will be merely modified to include subscription options. The company claims Pathfinder has generated $810,000 in revenue since it went live 18 months ago.
