Later this summer, The News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash., will complete its migration to a new editorial management app from Unisys Corp.

The McClatchy Co. newspaper (daily, 128,511; Sunday, 144,707) will mesh Unisys News Content Manager-Hermes 10 with Adobe InDesign and InCopy in a bid to gain greater control and flexibility over news content and page layout, said Teddy Levenson, pagination systems manager.

As part of the integration of Adobe InDesign into the Unisys workflow, the Smart Connection palette (upper right), which is used to query the database, is dynamically refreshed to show the changing status of pages and objects. The Placed Elements palette (lower right) aids the designer by showing the workflow for each page element.



Unisys’ dynamic Smart Connection palette is integrated in Adobe InCopy to give writers and editors a WYSIWYG view into the database as a result of their queries. Workflow information is automatically updated.
Graphics: Unisys

The new software will replace Quark Inc.’s Quark Publishing System.

“We decided to go with Unisys on the news side because of its flexibility on a cross-platform basis, Levenson said. The paper also hopes to tap the app to support zoning strategies.

The rollout will begin this month as News Tribune editors and reporters start using InCopy. Pagination, using InDesign, will occur later this spring. Rollout is expected to be complete in late June or July, Levenson said.

In addition to using the software to produce The News Tribune, staffers will be using the app to write and design two weeklies.

Extensive search

Levenson said The News Tribune evaluated editorial management software from six vendors before choosing Unisys. The paper also debated whether to stay with QPS, Levenson said.

“We were actually thinking of going with Quark again and just using what we call ‘super glue software’ to hook all our systems together,” she said. “But Unisys really came up with a package that we liked.”

Levenson said the process of integrating the new software has been “a bit painful.”

“It’s a grueling process and it’s an interesting process because publishing systems - well for newspapers specifically, departments are very separate,” she added.

Levenson advises rallying departments into a team effort for this type of workflow change.

“To get to full pagination you’re basically asking for cooperation from everybody to change something about their workflow - and that’s a very difficult thing. You end up being a psychologist if not a psychiatrist.”

As bumpy as the migration might be, the newspaper expects the final result to yield big dividends.

“It will eventually increase our revenue and decrease our financial output,” Levenson said.

When complete, 135 users will have access to the new software. Wire service and remote communications management will be handled by another Unisys app, News Gathering Manager.

The apps will run on Sun Microsystems Inc. servers.

The News Tribune is the latest McClatchy unit to deploy Unisys software. The developer is also anchoring editorial management at McClatchy’s Bee Newspapers in California - The Sacramento Bee, The Fresno Bee and The Modesto Bee.