Forbes Subscribers to Get Web-Linking Scanners

Forbes magazine will spend about $1 million to give hand-held scanners to all 810,000 subscribers that will link articles and advertisements to Web sites, said James Berrien, president of Forbes Inc.’s flagship publication. Starting with the Sept. 11 “Best of the Web” issue, Forbes will print special bar codes in articles and many ads. Readers using the wireless scanners and Internet-linked personal computers can link directly to Web sites, Berrien said. Ford Motor Co. and Andersen Consulting are among companies that will run ads with an Internet link. Forbes subscribers will get either a scanner the size of a computer mouse, called CueCat, made by DigitalConvergence.com Inc., or a scanning pen made by A.T. Cross Co., the Lincoln, R.I.-based maker of Cross pens. Closely held Forbes, based in New York, is among the first customers of DigitalConvergence.com, a Dallas-based start-up that aims to sell as many as 50 million scanners to provide quick Web links.