Survey of Newspaper Production Flow for E-paper - Kungliga ...

Survey of newspaper production flow for e-paper
Abstract
This Master’s Thesis presents the Master’s Project where a survey was performed regarding
production flows for a future newspaper product, the e-paper edition. The Master’s Project
was commissioned by the Swedish Newspaper Publisher’s Association (Tidningsutgivarna),
intended to perform a case study regarding a potential e-paper production flow at Sundsvalls
Tidning. The Swedish Newspaper Publisher’s Association together with the Royal Institute of
Technology, University of Halmstad and seven Swedish newspapers, among them Sundsvalls
Tidning, run the Swedish part of a European research and development project under the
ITEA label aiming at finding new ways of distributing and consuming the future newspaper.
This project is called DigiNews and aims to investigate the possibilities for creating a mobile
newsreader based on e-paper technology.
The Master’s Project performed a survey to secure what content management systems a
typical Scandinavian mid-sized newspaper (Sundsvalls Tidning) uses and how these systems,
both internal and external could also be part of a future e-paper production flow. Can these
content management systems and external content suppliers deliver content in suitable file
types so that a future e-paper management system could transform them into an e-paper
edition?
The survey was conducted by studying literature in the form of books, online articles and
through interviews with relevant persons. The Master’s project chose to interview employees
at Sundsvalls Tidning and content suppliers that contribute to the products at Sundsvalls
Tidning of today. The chosen employees at Sundsvalls Tidning were interviewed regarding
their area of expertise.
The survey showed that the content management systems are all capable of delivering suitable
file types. However, some systems can only deliver suitable file types after system
adjustments. Up till today there are several different file types delivered by the external
content suppliers. The interviews with the external content supplier’s shows that they are all
able to deliver their content in file types more suitable for the intended purpose. To get these
suitable file types it requires that Sundsvalls Tidning reaches an agreement with the different
suppliers, since the existing agreements probably do not cover other formats than the ones
used today.
When all content intended to shape the e-paper edition is available in suitable formats, an
e-paper management system is supposed to produce the product. Before such management
system can be developed, there are several issues to solve for the DigiNews project. What file
type should be used to display the finished e-paper product? The involved parties should
agree on what advertisement formats to use in the e-paper edition. If Sundsvalls Tidning and
the Swedish newspapers in general decide to develop an e-paper production system, it is my
opinion that it is important for them to create a system that produces a unique product. In a
news thirsting society of today I think it is important to create a product that offers the
customers something unique.