Some
newspapers like to roll their own when it comes to online content management.
Others choose a preconfigured package of software to try and meet their needs.
The
Vindicator in Youngstown, Ohio, is one daily that’s opted for the second
alternative.
The
newspaper (daily, 67,365; Sunday, 96,760) uses preconfigured Web content
applications from Harris & Baseview, said Jason Holmes, MIS/prepress
manager.
The
Vindicator already uses Harris & Baseview’s NewsEdit Pro IQue software as
its editorial front-end, so using the vendor’s BITS suite of online management
apps was a natural migration, he said.
BITS,
or Baseview Internet Technology Services, is comprised of modular applications,
allowing newspapers to add capabilities as necessary.
The
Vindicator’s Web site has been operational since January 2000 and BITS
replaced homegrown apps that formerly powered the site.
“Content
can be sent to the Web site simply by changing a database attribute, such as
‘status,’ within the NewsEdit client,” Holmes
said. “The rest, such as HTML creation, remote database insertion, etc.
is automated.”
In
the background
Automation
occurs using a back-office, all-purpose tool from Baseview called Transporter.
Scripts also increase the amount of automation available. Holmes said the
Vindicator also wants to use the real estate Multiple Listing Service module, as
well as the Business Directory and UPickem sports contest modules in the near
future. To date, online classifieds have been the biggest moneymaker but the
paper has extensive plans to expand online offerings in the coming year.
Another
BITS user is The Daily Messenger in Canandaigua, N.Y., where Information
Technology Director Dan Gnagny oversaw a project that altered
www.dailymessenger.com to a subscription site.
Visitors
can read brief teasers of stories, but have to be a subscriber to the print
product or pay for an online-only subscription in order to read stories on the
Web. Since converting the site and experiencing a dramatic drop in Web site
traffic, the paper has seen subscription levels rise and Web hits grow to more
than 1,300 unique, paid visitors each month.
Before
deploying BITS, The Messenger (daily, 12,792; Sunday, 13,740) used apps from
PowerOne Media, Gnagny said.
“At
that time, Baseview was able to offer us a paid subscriber model and PowerOne
wasn’t,” Gnagny said.
The
BITS apps are hosted by Baseview, thus freeing The Messenger from having to
administer the software internally. According to Gnagny, the hosting and
management fees from BITS are being paid entirely through the subscription
charge, leaving other revenue sources to contribute profits beyond that.
Early
user
The
Blade in Toledo, Ohio, meanwhile, uses outsourced software from Saxotech Inc. to
run its Web operations, said Mark Woodruff, director of digital media
operations.
The
Blade (daily, 138,435; Sunday, 185,309) was the first U.S. newspaper to use
Saxotech’s Publicus online management app, rolling it out in September 2000.
An article open in the Saxotech Publicus editing interface. The Blade in
Toledo, Ohio, was the first U.S. newspaper to use Publicus.
Graphic: Saxotech
Woodruff
said the deployment was a bit bumpy, primarily due to translation and cultural
obstacles.
“The
Publicus development team stepped up to facilitate the installation process,”
Woodruff said. “They frequently modified the software to accommodate our
publishing requirements and expectations.”
Because
the software is template-driven, a high degree of automation was expected.
Content flows from The Blade’s news desk into Publicus templates. The process
requires very little technical expertise, Woodruff said.
Saxotech
hosts the software for The Blade.
Self-publishes
The
Ledger in Lakeland, Fla., (daily, 75,140; Saturday, 94,150) has used Publicus in
place of a larger staff to increase the time devoted to developing new online
products and refining existing ones. In fact, according to Barry Friedman,
electronic media editor, there is only one full-time producer devoted to
updating and managing the site, www.theledger.com.
“The
site pretty much self-publishes itself in the morning,” Friedman said. “If a
visitor comes to the site between six and seven in the morning they might not
see the edition exactly as we want it, but it’s pretty close.”
After
the automatic process runs, any clean-up is conducted through online
administration tools. Before Publicus, the order was reversed: most of the work
had to be done at the creation stage, not after the fact.
Weighed
heavily
The
ability to handle the conversion of content from QuarkXPress pages weighed
heavily in the decision to adopt Publicus, Friedman said.
At
this year’s Nexpo, Saxotech and software
developer, PCI, said they’d meshed their software to permit users to
automatically extract content from QuarkXPress documents and transform it to XML,
the native format of Publicus. The software works on both Macs and PCs.
Currently,
The Ledger is using BoxTool from Morris Digital Works to move Quark content into
Publicus.
