I want a breakdown of the current pricing models used by the following companies:
dialog
factiva
hoovers
lexis-nexis
brightplanet

Hello jespol,

Here are the pricing guidelines for the services you've asked after:

Dialog
http://www.dialog.com

Dialog offers free access, record specific pricing, and customized
rates, as well as a "flat rate" plan:

Free Access (credit card number is required for ID)
http://products.dialog.com/products/dialogselect/

Record Specific Searches (8 pages of prices, in .PDF format)
http://products.dialog.com/products/dialogselect/dsweb_pricing.html

Datastar, DialogDatabase and DialogSelect price lists (.PDF, several
pages each)
http://www.dialog.com/support/pricing/

Customized Plans Inquiry
http://www.dialog.com/contacts/forms/member.shtml

Factiva
http://www.factiva.com

Factiva offers a Standard Flat Fee pricing based on article usage, and
Enterprise Flat Fee pricing based on 50 users:

Factiva Pricing
http://www.factiva.com/factiva/pricing.asp?node=com12

Other pricing plans are available only by contacting their sales
department with your company's specific requirements:

Factiva Sales by Phone - 1.800.369.8474

Factiva Sales Inquiry Form
http://www.factiva.com/moreinfo/index.asp?node=contact1

Hoover's
http://www.hoovers.com

Hoover's is a bit more straightforward with its pricing options. 
Basic searching is available for free, and three packages are also
available:

Hoover's Online Subscription Options
http://www.hoovers.com/hoov/join/index.html

Lite Access - $49.99/month or $399/year
Pro Access
Pro Plus Access

Pricing for the Pro and Pro Plus subscriptions was not available
online, but a call to John in the Sales department (1-888-310-6087)
revealed that the Pro subscription is $1,995 per year for a 1-5 user
license, and the Pro Plus subscription is $4,995 per year, also for a
1 - 5 user license.

Lexis-Nexis
http://www.lexisnexis.com

Lexis-Nexis offers pay as you go access for single document viewing,
as well as daily and weekely access to several databases:

LexisNexis by Credit Card
http://web.lexis.com/xchange/ccsubs/cc_prods.asp

Other services are tailored by name, occupation, industry or task, and
are highly specific depending on the details you provide.  You can
start here to determine the product that suits your needs:

Products and services
http://www.lexis-nexis.com/productsandservices/

...and price lists for available services are here:

Pricing
http://www.lexisnexis.com/academic/Catalog/price_lists_domestic.htm

BrightPlanet
http://www.brightplanet.com

BrightPlanet offers several different plans - pricing is dependent
upon number of users, you must contact the company with pertinent
details, as pricing calculators are not yet available online.  The
person to contact is Amy Faeth at 605-336-1746 or
amy@brightplanet.com.

Deep Query Manager 
http://www.brightplanet.com/products/dqm.asp

Deep Web Directory
http://www.brightplanet.com/products/dwd.asp

Pricing for BrightPlanet's LexiBot, a desktop search tool, is
available online - $289.
http://www.lexibot.com/

I hope this is the information you're looking for!  If you need
further assistance, please don't hesitate to ask!

missy-ga

---

Clarification of Answer by missy-ga on 28 Nov 2002 11:56 PST

Hello jespol,

In order to learn about feature/price combinations, you have to make
arrangements to speak with a salesperson at each company.  There are
no lists, as each company tries to tailor it's services to the
individual customer - Lexis-Nexis alone has nearly a thousand feature
combinations.

Pricing is not revealed until you tell the salesperson what features
you're interested in.

--Missy

good but needed more insights into feature/price combos