England’s Associated Newspapers Ltd. is replacing its aging editorial and content management foundation with front-end software from Atex.

ANL prints a number of major U.K. newspapers and magazines, including the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday, Evening Standard, Metro and a new free afternoon publication, LondonLite.

Atex’s software, which is based on Adobe InDesign and InCopy, will replace a 15-year-old Quark Inc. Quark Publishing System installation, according to Ian Cohen, ANL’s chief information officer. Some 1,000 users will ultimately have access to Atex software, which will also be used to manage content slated for ANL’s various Web sites.

Jeremy Willis, applications specialist for Atex and Ian Cohen,
chief information officer of ANL.
Photo: Atex
 

Cohen said ANL wanted software that could work with an “off-the-shelf” pagination tool to improve editorial flexibility. The publisher was already a large user of Adobe’s Photoshop and Illustrator apps, so migrating to an Adobe pagination engine was an “early decision,” he said.

Other modules to be implemented include Atex Web Client, which enables stories and pictures to be written to fit and delivered to the database via a browser; Page Tracker and Web Builder.

Managing integration

Workflow, allowing content to be shared across the group’s print and new media titles, will be managed by Atex’s relational content management database software. The system will provide a centralized  content repository and manage data for all ANL publications, Atex said.

Atex will also be responsible for managing the integration between its software and ad planning, page transmission and picture desk apps already in use at ANL.

“We are delighted to have been awarded this major contract from one of Europe’s most prestigious media groups,” said David Hall, Atex’s chief executive officer for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

The Atex apps will initially be installed at Metro and then rolled out throughout ANL’s national titles.