What do Aftonbladet, Svenska Dagbladet and
Vasterbottens Kurirnen have in common other than unpronounceable Swedish names,
and a cold northerly climate?
 |
David Lightfoot |
The answer to this question is found in their
newsrooms. Each newspaper has answered the challenge of delivering the latest
news faster with fewer resources by harnessing high technology tools to meet
their individual needs. And each relies on technology provided by Swedish
editorial systems provider, Wilkenson Scoop AB.
The result? Their newsrooms are humming with
quiet efficiency, and editors are able to focus on their craft and resist the
economic pressure to integrate them into the production process.
At Aftonbladet, Scandinavia’s largest
circulation daily newspaper, the newsroom operates under immense pressure to
attract and satisfy readers. The 430,000-circulation Stockholm-based tabloid
exists only on street sales. It has no subscribers. Its editors know that 24
hours per day, 365 days per year, they must provide the latest news and
eye-catching headlines.
To streamline their workflow, copy desk staffers
combine traditionally separate editorial and design duties. They edit stories,
assemble art, write headlines, and design and paginate pages. Operating from
specially designed ergonomic worktables, reporters use portable laptop machines
that travel with them in and out of the office.
Using the 150-seat Scoop editorial system,
reporters can work in any location because the complete application is resident
on their laptop computers. Sports reporters for example, can complete their
stories in real time and the story can be on the page by the time they return to
the office.
 |
The
Vasterbottens Kuriren building in Umea, Sweden
Photo courtesy of Vasterbottens
Kuriren |
“This editorial system is remarkably easy to
use and has met all our expectations for reliability,” said Mattias Nyman, the
paper’s chief technology officer.
Another time-saving strategy at Aftonbladet is
making photographers completely responsible for their photographs. Aftonbladet’s
photographers only use digital cameras and are responsible for the quality of
the pictures and all preparatory steps prior to publication of those pictures.
The newspaper goes to press in five satellite
plants strategically located around Sweden, and the paper hits the streets. In a
concerted effort to stay on the leading edge, Aftonbladet is switching over to
Apple Macintosh OS X, and is one of the world’s largest newspapers to take
this step. They also plan to switch over from Quark Xpress to Adobe’s InDesign
for pagination.
At Svenska Dagbladet, a 220,000-circulation daily
based in Stockholm, editors and prepress supervisors use the PageTrack system,
also developed by Wilkenson, to ensure pages are assembled and paginated on
schedule.
PageTrack lets users check all pages on the
screen and all stages of the production process are readily apparent.
Graphic courtesy of Wilkenson Scoop AB
click
to enlarge image (76k)
PageTrack displays a thumbnail image of the live
status of every page in the newspaper on a computer screen. Editors and
production staff can monitor the status of stories and pages at all times. A
color-coded border signals if a page is not started, partially done or finished.
Clicking on a thumbnail provides a complete view of the page so editorial and
advertising content can be checked. Problems or bottlenecks can be quickly
identified. The system has also helped eliminate forgotten tasks, such as
writing a headline.
“The system has reduced many manual operations
and greatly reduced errors,” said Lars Bjuirling, product manager at Svenska
Dagbladet.
Perhaps the most ambitious integration of Swedish
technology is found in Umea, on the shores of the Baltic Sea, near the arctic
circle. There, 102-year-old Vasterbottens Kuriren faces the challenge of
publishing and distributing a daily newspaper for an area of 80,000 square
miles, about the size of Minnesota. The production facility prints editions of
both national dailies Dagens Nyeter and Expressen, and a competitive newspaper,
as well as its own 40,000-circulation daily product. Operating in such a
demanding environment made it essential that the editorial staff have the latest
tools available.
“The foundation of our system is Wilkenson’s
Newsplanner,” said Editor Joakim Sandberg. “That software integrates the
writing program used by reporters and editors with calendar-based story
assignment software. Newsplanner provides both an electronic bulletin board
where every one involved can post ideas and suggestions, a resource planner
linked to the calendar, and a display of the editorial decisions as they are
made in real time. This democratizes our decision-making process — everybody
knows what is happening at all times. No assignments should be missed, and it
saves many hours (compared to) the old way.”
Reporters working outside the newspaper operate
just as if they were there. They write stories on their laptop computers, attach
pictures where available, and transmit them to the editorial office on the
Internet via file transfer protocol. The story is immediately posted to the
appropriate folder in the editorial system. As an alternative, completed
articles can be sent to a folder via e-mail.
This newspaper has been totally paginated since
1995 and page makeup is accomplished using QuarkXpress, running on Macintosh
computers. There is tight integration between the MacEdit editorial application
and QuarkXpress, including picture handling. The editorial application is always
feeding back information from Quark, so publishing to the Web is made easier.
Vasterbottens Kuriren uses PageTrack in a similar
manner to Svenska Dagbladet. All pages are checked on the screen and all stages
of the production process are readily apparent.
“We have been fully digital for several years
outputting direct to plate,” said Anders Brodin, technical director for
Vasterbottens Kuriren. “The key to our ability to be competitive is directly
related to our efficiency in reporting and processing the latest news in a
simple and reliable manner, day in and day out.”
Wilkenson Scoop AB has over 110 newspaper
editorial customers in Europe and is currently moving into the North American
market.
“We have been focused on developing editorial
tools for newspapers for over 15 years,” said Ulf Wilkenson, owner of
Wilkenson Scoop AB. “We are continuing to invest in the latest technology, and
we are dedicated to providing our American customers with state of the art
products and services.”
Software Consulting Services L.L.C., based in
Nazareth, Pa., is the authorized reseller of Scoop products in the United
States. SCS announced U.S. sales of the Scoop editorial system at Nexpo in
Orlando, Fla., to the Lancaster (Pa.) Intelligencer Journal, New Era and Sunday
News, and the Lewiston (Maine) Sun-Journal.
David R. Lightfoot, is president of David R.
Lightfoot L.L.C., founded in 1966 to provide distribution and consulting
services to the North American newspaper industry. He can be reached at
410.643.2322 or via e-mail at drlight@toad.net.
