Now the Post is moving Arc into a new phase, talking of a connective effect that could impact the face of the business formerly known as "Newspapering." "Arc is reaching a critical mass of most of the advertising markets in the United States, the major markets," Shailesh Prakash, chief product and information officer for the Post, told me recently, listing off cities where it has customers - New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Dallas, Washington. Post publisher Fred Ryan positions the networking moves this way: "We're not pitching ourselves as a replacement. We're pitching it as an upgrade. It is something that can do more than the system that many publications now have in place." Ryan characterizes Arc's journey: "We've looked at Arc as a viable business for quite some time, but I think we're at the stage now that we could say that it is a thriving business. There's incredible demand from not just legacy news organizations, but from digital native organizations and brands as well." It's set for major growth: Prakash says that by Q1 2019, Arc "Will power over 400 websites and serve over 10 billion page views per month as ongoing implementations go live." Beyond the U.S., it currently serves top-three news and information sites in Argentina, France, Canada, New Zealand and Spain. In September, Arc announced both The Dallas Morning News and Spain's influential PRISA Noticias, publisher of El País, as customers. Why are publishers adopting Arc? Major chains and titles - including Bonnier Co., Tronc, Advance Local, The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Canada's Globe and Mail, Latin America's fast-growing InfoBae, and the New Zealand Herald - cite both the economics and the Post's deeper understanding of the news business in the digital age as drivers. Acting on similar principles, digital news veteran Merrill Brown has recently launched The News Project Inc. "What we're building is 'news business in a box,' Brown says."It costs too much to launch and operate news sites. Read more