Our History

The Baseline story began in 1980, when New York-based author and film academic James Monaco (How To Read A Film), attending a demonstration of the technology being developed by fledgling electronic publisher Lexis/Nexis, learned that an article of his had been reprinted in The Washington Post. Jim’s subsequent vision of studio executives using a Lexis-type configuration of terminals hardwired to phone lines to access the filmographies of working professionals led to the creation of Baseline Inc. in 1982. Within a year Jim had a staff of dedicated film buffs crammed into a New York City office suite, keying film data into Alpha Micro terminals running a pioneering database program called STAR. Calling themselves “Baseliners” this team established a tracking system and set of editorial policies that are largely intact to this day.