CompuServe shelves marketing plan
CompuServe postpones an aggressive marketing campaign designed to snare new customers to its updated service.
The online service, which is lagging behind America Online, has chosen to focus on promoting its new service to existing customers via CD-ROMs and disc distribution, Bloomberg news service reported yesterday.
CompuServe plans to resume its campaign later this fall. Executives had earlier said they planned to spend $175 million to $200 million on the campaign.
The updated service includes Microsoft's latest version of Internet Explorer browsing software as well as Netscape Communications' Navigator browser.
CompuServe has also thrown in more links to the Internet and plans to bundle the bulk of its information with Internet software.
The effort is part of CompuServe's planned move to become an Internet-based server, rather than a proprietary network service, by early next year.