The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 95

LOS ANGELES TIMES MONDAY, JANUARY 27. 1997 D7oc MULTIMEDIA: GTE Leaves Multimedia to Focus On Its Standard Lines est possible audience, the CD-ROM titles are screened by a multide-nominational panel of religious experts that includes a rabbi, two pastors and a theologian. Half a millennium after it was first put in print the Bible still represents one of every three books sold in this country, according to Little Ark. Since people of the Jewish, Christian and Islamic faith all look to the Old Testament the potential market for the titles is huge. Little Ark also hopes to tap nonreligious famines who want to teach their children about the Bible.

-LESLIE HELM tap the religious market Comp-ton'i New Media, for example, has the title "Children's Bible Stories." But the Random HouseBroder bund combination should be able to spend more on developing and marketing quality titles than other publishers. The project was the inspiration of Doug Carlston, chairman of Broderbund, whose father had been a priest Little Ark turned to Red Rubber Ball, the multimedia division of Atlanta-based Nicholas Frank a producer of Christian television and interactive music video titles, to develop the titles. To ensure they reach the broad titles. Random House and Broderbund Software, the two companies that linked up to create the pioneering "Living Books" series, will announce Tuesday the launch of "The Story of Creation" and "Daniel in the Lion's Den," the first two of a planned series of five or six religious titles the companies expect to release this year. The titles are being published by Little Ark Interactive, a new division of the companies' Living Books joint venture that was created to develop and sell children's titles based on the Old Testament Little Ark is hardly the first to Continued from D3 back in 1990.

Or, to put it another way, the development and distribution of CD-ROM games may not fit into the company's business plans today, as Nordman says, but that has more to do with the bad times afflicting the entire CD-ROM market than to any real change in GTE's business. Employees in Carlsbad declined to talk about their predicament, but Nordman said they were not surprised to learn of the shutdown. GTE had been cutting back its GTE Interactive Media staff from a high of about 120 over the last year. GTE initially tried to find a buyer or a partner for GTE Interactive Media that would have allowed the unit to remain open, but to no avail. Some companies have expressed interest in acquiring some of the 10 to 15 game titles that GTE distributed, Nordman said.

Company executives refused to say how much was lost on the Carlsbad operation over the years. -KAREN KAPLAN Multimedia Gett Religion: With sales of Christian books and music booming throughout the couAry, it's hardly surprising that leading CD-ROM developers are now looking to religion to sell more RESEDA Saturday, February 1 10am-5pm, 3 Admission SHERMAN SQUARE ENTERTAINMENT CENTER Im 101 (mat Ut tt fattt ttnnp, go mrti Swim ad rip. So Nod 0 Cay a 1W0 Sara DUENA PARK Sunday, February 2 10am-5pm, 5 Admission SEQUOIA CONFERENCE CENTER TM to tact id til 1 fnem eo tut mm ras umoma. v-MAanrrua MMMK1 WHOUUUWOKI MMmmr tmu mn wiuq in SM Only Virgin Atlantic Offers on -Stop Check-In. Leave it to Virgin Atlantic to make even checking your bags relaxing.

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