We describe the type system component of a database management system that supports a multimedia news-on-demand application. The type system is an object-oriented one that represents document structure according to the SGML and HyTime standards. End-users access the news database by using a visual query interface. We also describe current work to generalize the database type system to accommodate arbitrary SGML/HyTime compliant multimedia documents. Such a generalized type system would support a broad range of multimedia applications.