New Contenders in the Editorial Systems Market - Impressed

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er on the left side of the screen. Page designs are controlled by templates that define the layout and can specify, for example, how many stories can appear in each zone within the template: top stories, news list, etc. Each story is given a priority, which helps determine its order on the page. If two stories have the same priority, the later one chronologically gets the top position. When the number of stories in a zone exceeds the number that is permitted, the system follows a userdefined instruction on where to send the surplus stories: to the news list, to another page, etc. Once a story is sent for publication, it can be previewed in place on its destination page by clicking the mouse. From that preview, which might show just the headline and the intro components, clicking on the story displays the full story with any associated photos, sidebars, etc. Photos can be added to a story by dragging them from their directory location directly to the story. Within the Headline program, it is possible to make some basic adjustments to photos, such as cropping and adding special effects. Another nice feature is automatic adjustment of a photo’s resolution to suit the specific requirements of its use. Along with sending a story to the Web, the operator can prescribe the time it will be published and when it will be removed from the site. Status and pricing. Headline is running in more than 80 sites in Sweden, all installed before the merger. Scoop hopes to have finished integrating the Scoop and Headline systems by Ifra (in mid-October), when pricing will be announced. Headline comes with a set of basic templates: front page, sub page, three teaser pages and an article template. Other standard capabilities include a button for searching content on the Web page, software for previewing pages for printing and a function for “sending a story to a friend.” Additional Web modules are optionally available, priced separately, to enable creating Web forms, running reader forums and discus- sions, sending electronic greeting cards, and supporting multiple-channel output (WAP, SMS, etc.). Other Editorial News InDesign update: AMC adds Word interface. Adobe has achieved its goal of establishing InCopy and InDesign as industry standards for editing and pagination, taking their place alongside Xpress, which continues to reap the benefits of having gotten there first. With most system suppliers offering both options, the primary remaining question is when the Adobe one will be available for customer use. The newest ones to arrive, from AMC and Saxotech, debuted at Nexpo; APT and Tera are among those still working on implementing InCopy and InDesign; only a few (Baseview for one) haven’t formally announced full support for InCopy, but surely it is coming. However, despite the benefits of using InCopy — especially the advantages of a tightly integrated program for writing to fit — any thoughts of eliminating Microsoft Word from newspaper workflows are premature. In fact, Word remains very much alive in the newsroom (where it has provided input to Xpress for years). In our previously mentioned report from America East, we covered an interface linking Word to InDesign from ATS. At Nexpo, AMC (Atex Media Command) added its capability as an option with its new Prestige 5 software. AMC’s Word-InDesign interface uses a similar approach to the Word-Xpress interfaces employed for years. Stories written in Word are H&J’d against InDesign page templates to determine the depth, using InDesign as the H&J engine. The Word user sees the results of H&J to determine the fit. If additional editing is done in Word, the Word H&J program is used, which will differ at least to some degree from the results obtainable in InDesign, since the two algorithms are quite different. To get a new H&J against the layout, the operator sends the story off again. AMC’s interface does more than just report accurate copyfitting information. It also supports the “Notes” mode that was a trademark of old Atex systems. Text placed in a “note” in Word is maintained as an InDesign note on the page. As an alternative to writing a story to fit the layout after a story has been assigned to a page, the Word operator can write a story to fit an InDesign shape before the story has been assigned to a page. Similarly, photos and captions can be associated with a story being written in Word, after which they automatically flow onto the page in InDesign when the story is placed on the page. AMC, which now offers Word, InCopy and CopyDesk for editing and Editorial Systems Volume 4, Number 13 • The Seybold Report • Analyzing Publishing Technologies 19
Editorial Systems InDesign and Xpress for pagination, used Nexpo to monitor customers’ thoughts regarding how they would deploy a system with all of those options. The consensus seemed to be that most people would still create stories in Word, but almost all said that they would use InCopy for editing after the story is submitted. “I think that if CopyDesk had been available to Atex (AMC) when we first put Prestige together, we would probably have seen a similar pattern with Quark installations also,” said AMC product manager Stewart Bowley. New corporate face at AMC. Besides the Word-InDesign interface, the biggest news at AMC (Atex) was in toplevel personnel, where John Hawkins replaced Robert Banner as CEO. Banner, who had served as CEO since the merger of Atex and Media Command two years ago, is credited with completing the initial phase of restructuring and will continue as a director and the company’s second-largest shareholder. For long-time readers of this publication, of perhaps greater interest might be the departure of Bernie Grinberg, founder of the Cybergraphic business that has been a critical component of the company since the merger. Also gone is Phil Lowe, who had played a similar role with the Matrix operation that supplied the circulation software now in the AMC product line. There was no explanation for the departures of Lowe and Grinberg, who had headed their respective business units at the time of the merger and continued in those roles following the merger. Lowe had recently been promoted to a position as second in command behind Banner before Hawkins was named to replace Banner. The abrupt change suggests that Hawkins, who had joined AMC a year ago, wanted to work with his own team. Before joining AMC, Hawkins had more than 30 years experience in the telecommunications and IT industries, including 19 with Philips Electronics. AMC said it will use his experience in acquisitions “to build and consolidate” AMC’s opportunities in the media market. The company didn’t elaborate. Hawkins’ team includes Alan Reardon, newly appointed corporate development director, and four regional CEOs: Joann Froelich for the Americas, Alfred Chong for Asia, Ross Wood for Australia and New Zealand, and David Hall for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Besides noting the changes in personnel, which have been labeled a “final consolidation” following the merger, AMC also insisted that there won’t be any consolidation of products and that both the Media Command and Atex editorial and advertising systems will remain in the product line. AMC is controlled by the Kistefos Norwegian investment group. APT rebuilds editorial system. Advanced Publishing Technology (APT) is rebuilding its editorial software using new development tools to make it more flexible and to speed the future development process. It will feature a three-tier architecture, a thinner client and a 100% scriptable server. Among the benefits will be true cross-platform functionality, with support for Windows, Macintosh and Linux, and a more flexible queue structure supporting a five-level, user-definable hierarchy. APT believes that the added flexibility, including scriptable business logic, will better address the needs of larger newspapers. The new structure will speed future developments fivefold, APT said. The project, which involves rewriting the software from the ground up, is expected to be completed by year-end. APT also reported that its integration of InCopy and InDesign into the editorial system is ready for beta testing. The plug-ins were developed by APT, not a third party. Meanwhile, Media General has ordered APT editorial systems for installation at its 20 community papers (not its Tampa, Fla., Richmond, Va., or Winston-Salem, N.C., sites). Five of the systems have been installed already. Four of the Media General papers are previous APT customers that will upgrade to the latest system (which is now called Falcon to match the naming scheme for other members of the product line). APT said its editorial systems have now been installed in approximately 120 sites, including about a dozen this year. Pongrass revamps architecture, signs U.S. agent. Pongrass Publishing Systems has restructured its editorial system to make it easier to deal with the need to support both InDesign and Xpress on multiple hardware platforms, which has become increasingly problematic. It involves incorporating an “insulation layer” to separate the program code from the specific requirements of the program. This layer, which Pongrass calls a cross-platform toolkit (XPT), “presents a common set of features to the client programs in the system configuration. A client program needs to be written once only, and XPT generates the multiple versions required.” The plan required rewriting its programs from scratch, which Pongrass is doing, starting with its Editorial and Ad-Tracking systems. One of the goals is to avoid the complications that result when Adobe and Quark issue new releases of their products. “Both Quark and Adobe change their APIs between releases, which means supporting separate versions for Quark 4.1 and 6, as well as InDesign 2 and CS,” Managing Director Les Pongrass noted. He’ll have a chance to employ the XPT approach with InDesign CS 2, which, we have heard from many developers, will require a significant amount of rewriting of code to achieve compatibility. Meanwhile, Pongrass reported receiving six orders for its new Editorial system, including four to be configured with InDesign and two with Xpress. They’re all replacing existing Pongrass editorial systems. 20 October 6, 2004 • The Seybold Report • Analyzing Publishing Technologies
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