The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch purchased a 250-seat Atex Mactive advertising system that will be used to manage ad production at The Dispatch, its Web site, and more than 30 other publications operated by the company.

The app will let The Dispatch oversee all of its ad functions, including classified, retail, preprints, Web ad order entry, Internet sales, contracts, billing, accounts receivable and business analytics.

The Analytix tool was among the most attractive features for the publisher, according to Joe Gallo, vice president and chief information officer for The Dispatch.

“It enables us to do a lot more analysis and business intelligence type queries on our application,” he said. “It will actually let the end user in the finance and sales department go in and quickly ascertain how a customer’s orders are tracking and (allow them) to do ‘what if’ scenarios. It’s a real-time way of peeling back a problem or discovering opportunities.”

The Atex Mactive software will replace a legacy Atex Enterprise app.

 

McClatchy outsourcing more ad jobs

Two more McClatchy Co. newspapers, The Tribune in San Luis Obispo, Calif., and the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader last week said they would outsource their ad production to outside firms.

The Tribune said it would begin using Express KCS to handle its production while the Herald-Leader picked Affinity Express Inc.

San Jose, Calif.-based Express KCS has operations in Gurgaon, India, while Elgin, Ill.-based Affinity operates digital production facilities in India and in the Philippines.

The Tribune said it is eliminating five positions in its 15-employee prepress department in the move, which will be complete this summer. McClatchy also uses Express KCS to handle ad production for its Bee newspaper in Sacramento, Modesto and Fresno, Calif.

The Herald-Leader didn’t identify how many ad production jobs it’s eliminating but did say it’s shutting down the majority of its ad design and production and shifting work to Affinity. Affinity already performs ad production for McClatchy papers in North Carolina and South Carolina, including The News & Observer in Raleigh and Charlotte Observer.

GateHouse, Hagadone upgrade ad, circ foundations

GateHouse Media last week signed on with Miles 33 and Digital Technology International for advertising and circulation apps, respectively. Miles 33 will provide advertising, ad tracking, and A/R foundations for the publisher, while DTI will provide its MediaPlus Circulation app. The deployments will be at the Rockford (Ill.) Register-Star, the Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y., and the Norwich (Conn.) Bulletin.

GateHouse is increasingly focusing on clustered environments for its papers (see related article, Newspapers & Technology, February 2008), and Chief Information Officer Paul Ameden said the software supporting the three dailies will reside on servers housed in a Rochester, N.Y. data center.

Meantime, DTI announced that Hagadone Newspapers of Couer d’Alene, Idaho, purchased its complete advertising suite, including AdSpeed, ClassSpeed for print and Web, and PlanSpeed.

Finally, Miles 33 announced its acquisition of Datamatix Ltd. Datamatrix’ Property and Motors Wizard apps allow newspapers to produce complex and composite ads from digital content supplied automatically by real estate agents and auto dealers. No financial details were released

Look for more on these deployments in the April issue of Newspapers & Technology.

Star-Ledger to close plant

The Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J., said it would close one of its two printing plants and consolidate operations.

The newspaper didn’t say which one of its facilities it will close, pending discussions with unions.

The paper operates two plants, one in Piscataway and the other in Montville, employing approximately 600 full and part-time workers, the paper said.

The Star-Ledger said management wants to close the targeted facility in early May.

Quark launches multichannel publishing app

Quark Inc. launched a new app, dubbed Dynamic Publishing Solution, in a bid to address the increasing demand by publishers for multichannel output, the company said.

Quark DPS — which leverages QuarkXPress — was engineered to let users quickly format and distribute content across multiple types of media, including print, the Web, mobile and electronic devices, Quark said.

Quark Chief Executive Officer Ray Schiavone told Newspapers & Technology that the move does not imply that the company plans to deviate from its core desktop publishing foundation.

“In visiting with clients over the past year, what I’ve heard continuously from them is that as they look at bringing in new products. There is consolidation that’s going to happen, so collaboration is very important,” he said. “Automation is paramount, content re-use is very important, especially as it pertains to multichannel publishing. All of those drivers led us to focus on how we could best expand beyond our traditional desktop publishing products and QPS workflow and build on our server products and associated technologies to provide the underpinnings for that.”

TKS lands first Berliner orders in Korea

TKS made its first Berliner press sales as Korean newspaper publisher JoongAng Ilbo tapped the vendor for presses and towers earmarked for three sites.

The publisher purchased two CT7100 UDH Berliner presses, each configured as six four-over-four towers and a double-delivery 2:5:5 folder, for its facility in Ansan, Korea.

It also purchased a second pair of CT7100 Berliner machines, each configured as four four-over-four towers and two four-over-one towers with a double-delivery 2:5:5 folder in Busan, Korea.

The last sale, in Kangnam, Korea, is a 12-tower CT7100, with eight of the towers four-over-four and the remainder four-over-one. It will be equipped with four single-delivery 2:5:5 jaw folders.

Meantime, TKS said it’s upgrading a press at the Daily News in Bangkok, Thailand, that will enable the newspaper to almost double its color capacity.

The project, which will permit the Daily News to print up to 40 pages of color in a 48-page production run, also includes an upgrade of the press’ folder, from 2:1 to 2:3:3, TKS said.

Spanish daily picks Protec

Spanish publisher La Gaceta de Canarias purchased Protec’s Milenium Cross Media software to support its editorial and Web content management.

The move is part of the publisher’s initiative to overhaul its image and have its Web sites easier to use, Protec said.

La Gaceta de Canarias has set up two headquarters, one in Las Palmas and the other in Tenerife, and will use Milenium to integrate the two offices and make it possible to share some editorial resources.

La Gaceta de Canarias has been closely connected to El Mundo, but in this new phase it will be completely independent and its number of pages will increase. La Gaceta and El Mundo will now be sold together, but as two different newspapers.

In Brief

CCI Sourcing named Bradley C. Dinkmeyer vice president, strategic accounts at the Atlanta-based outsourcing firm.

Palm Beach (Fla.) Newspapers named Doug Franklin publisher, succeeding Tom Giuffrida, who said he will be retiring May 1. Franklin currently serves as president and chief executive officer of Cox Ohio Publishing.

The McClatchy Co. named Mark Zieman president and publisher of The Kansas City (Mo.) Star.

Sun-Times Media Group hired Barbara Swanson as group vice president of advertising and marketing.

Tesa Tape Inc. added Scott Foster to its sales force. Foster is based in Dallas.

Integrated Color Solutions tapped Coralis in Sao Paulo, Brazil, to distribute its Remote Director software in Brazil, Argentina and Mexico.

www.icscolor.com

One hundred two high school students from across the United States who are interested in pursuing a career in journalism and have qualities of “free spirit” have been selected to participate in the annual Al Neuharth Free Spirit Journalism Scholarship and Conference program next week. Two top students each will receive a $50,000 college scholarship. The other 100 students will receive $1,000 scholarships each. The top winners will be announced at a Free Spirit Awards ceremony at the Newseum on March 19.

Pluck Corp., whose social network software is used by a number of newspapers, was purchased by Santa Monica, Calif.-based private venture firm Demand Media. No financial details were disclosed.

www.pluck.com

Canoe.ca, which provides content for Sun Media newspaper sites in Canada, will begin offering iMedia International Inc.’s Hollywood Previews under terms of a licensing agreement announced last week.

Canoe.ca will manage the XML-based content feed and make it available through its video channel, iMedia said.

Group M Inc., owned by former Newspapers & Technology columnist Rosemarie Monaco, received a Pinnacle award from the Rockland County, N.Y., Business Association for outstanding achievement by a woman-owned business.

The New York Times Co. purchased the News Chief Publishing Group in Winter Haven, Fla., from GateHouse Media Inc. The purchase did not include the News Chief’s production plant. Nelson Kirkland, advertising director of The Ledger in Lakeland, Fla., was named publisher of the News Chief, which will continue to operate under its own banner.

Freedom Communications Inc. announced it is working with OrangeSoda Inc. to provide search capabilities to companies advertising on Freedom’s Web sites.

 www.orangesoda.com

The 1,600 online newspapers hosted by TownNews.com are being upgraded to a load-balancing system from Zeus. The migration will allow Zeus to run administrative processes on different servers, segregate servers for beta testing, improve diagnostic services, improve load-balancing algorithms and use lighter weight and faster Web servers for serving images and other static content.

Dow Jones & Co. acquired Betten Financial News BV, a Dutch newswire that will be combined with DJ’s existing Dutch-language news service. No financial terms were disclosed.

AmericanTowns.com LLC launched a new version of its Web site, which lets consumers find and share local news and information.

www.americantowns.com