More than 40 representatives from the world's major news agencies approved the new standard following months of development and suggestions. NewsML 1.1 will better allow news agencies and recipients -- such as web sites and newspapers -- to determine the source of a news item, and whether the item is ready for publication.

Members also welcomed IPTC's new managing director, Michael Steidl of Austria. Mr. Steidl succeeds David Allen of the United Kingdom, who is retiring after nearly 15 years at IPTC.

Mr. Steidl has extensive technical and journalistic background, and was most recently a freelance consultant specializing in news agency publishing systems. His duties at IPTC will include day-to-day operations and he will represent IPTC at conferences and news industry meetings.

Mr. Allen help guide IPTC from the age of teletype to XML and Web-savvy news software. He announced his retirement earlier this year, and after a 6-month search the IPTC management committee selected Mr. Steidl from a field of nine candidates.

In other actions, IPTC lent its support to a Japanese-sponsored standard for sharing TV and radio programming information. The standard, tenatatively known as IPTC-Broadleaf, is intended to simplify the formatting of programming data, including such information as channel, start and end time and program details. The data is bundled in a specially designed electronic envelope. IPTC-Broadleaf is an abbreviation for Broadcast Listing Envelope And Format.