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| September 2000 |
Cross-media publishing systems cure the summertime bluesI can have it all. I want one terminal on my desk. I want to edit a story (or ad) once, then mark which portions will appear in my newspaper, my regional editions, my web pages, my AOL-TV pages, my cell-phone directory or my PDA screen. I want it to appear there with a flick and a click. I want related content pieces -- story, image, video, sound -- in one neat bundle, from venue to long-term storage. I want it now (actually four years ago). And I can have it now. Products and business changes announced this summer proved that there are cross-media publishing systems worthy of a long look. This year's multimedia makeover, Harris JazBox, sets off fireworks. Through incremental changes, Unisys and Digital Technology International have lovely multimedia approaches (as long as you like their publishing systems). SAXotech is talking turnkey e-commerce, ready to blend publishing and shopping tools in a software service bureau deal. It's a wonderful crop of systems. Finally. Maybe the wait was too long for avid buyers. Maybe that accounts for the yawns. Maybe now that everyone is used to eXtensible Markup Language (XML), open systems, central databases and Internet-inspired standardization -- which have been restructuring newspaper systems for the past three or four years -- the stuff of dreams has a "ho, hum, that old thing" tarnish. Come on! Let's buy something and make it go! The trouble is -- how to choose? Systems that separate form from content start to blur, just like Digital Asset Management systems (see The Cole Papers, August 2000). All the suppliers got XML tags and multiple, selectable media output. They all got web-like interfaces and desktop Internet. They all got standard platforms and cross-platform operating ability. They all claim first-name basis with Quark XPress, the Adobe Family, Microsoft, Macintosh, Odbc -- you know, the big names. Picking one supplier over another means understanding the deep-roots underlying technology that you can support. Then you need to trust your supplier and its ability to keep The Big Promise, "I'll always be there for you."
Bypass new-media bodies
Just as the major players are tucking their new-media content staffs back into newsrooms, systems are available that can feed multiple outlets with one staff. In general, the process is what you have imagined: Once the content creator completes a project (and for this example, let's stick to stories), he or she clicks "Print" and "Edition" for the newsprint product, then clicks "HTML" (HyperText Markup Language) and "Web Site Section" for the on-line edition in another part of the header. Once saved, the system ships a story toward templates for each medium, which recognize the editor's XML tags and applies the correct typesetter commands or HTML codes. Demonstrations showed story updates in five seconds between printed page and web site. Links to images, video and sounds are "click, click" decisions as well. That means the emphasis is on customization, or how to simplify a task for each worker, and work flow, or how many people work over a file before it's sent to customers. Because suppliers promise that their XML-central-database-automatic-coding keeps everything simple, you don't need those pesky new-media people diverting workflow into a new department. Voilá! Cost justification: Return-on-investment (ROI) for big operations, cost avoidance for small. The second shimmering idea was that the Web frontier has been conquered and new lands of opportunity await -- United States newspapers really should be ready to feed wireless and cable distributors. Thus the new acronyms: Wireless Access Protocol (WAP), WebTV and AOL-TV (America Online's plans post-Time Warner acquisition). Suppliers assured that they could insert the right codes at XML tag points for each venue. It's reminiscent of the ancient output ports -- you hand us format codes and we'll translate for any receiving device. But suppliers may not be speaking these new languages to appeal to the newspaper market. Thus, a lot of reference to "content management systems" instead of editorial or advertising systems. Europe's head start on wireless (because companies there adopted a cellular phone standard years ago, unlike the contentious U.S. cell mates) means suppliers are proving their products over there already. Two-thirds of 35 Publicus customers in Scandinavia are WAP-enabled by SAXotech, which has U.S. headquarters in Rockville, Md. It's not vaporware, either. One company has demonstrated creating a newsbite and delivering it to a Nokia cell phone.
Product lines come, product lines go
FutureTense, Vignette and Interwoven were big contenders against traditional suppliers for the new media mind. The former became the No. One new "strategic partner" for legacy front-end brands. Now, FutureTense has dissolved into its new owner's product, ContentServer, from Burlington, Mass.-based OpenMarket (http://www.openmarket.com/) and all the print-savvy veterans are gone. No alliances appeared, either. There were other blended families announced this summer, and not many changes in their cross-media capabilities as a result.
Other companies with cross-media publishing systems offered enhancements rather than new enchantments:
A flight-ready version of last year's fledgling web-browser interface fulfills the ability for remote reporters and editors to access, download and upload stories from anywhere there's an Internet cafe.
On the advertising side, Unisys has engaged Edgil Associates (http://www.edgil.com/), based in Chelmsford, Mass., to provide advertising order-entry, payment processing and search solution through a web browser, with its EdgBiz on-line transaction application. While you are on the Unisys web site, glance at the content section (http://www.unisys.com/biz/content/) as well. With "change management" and information technology outsourcing so big at Unisys, you can imagine what it plans to offer newspaper publishers for "look, Pop, no hands" software provision.
A new reseller relationship with InfiNet, the Norfolk, Va.-based one-time ISP turned ASP, will put ContentWare into more (and smaller) newspaper hands "later this year." InfiNet claims more than 300 on-line media sites and publishing affiliates (http://www.infi.net/splash0.htm).
Four components
Harris Publishing Systems Corp., the slow-but-steady developer from the Legacy Tribe, became a star attraction this summer as the import of its multidimensional JazBox was understood. As one of the last companies to retool, Harris availed itself of the best ideas and latest programming tools, and in true web-era fashion, the Melbourne, Fla.-based business overhauled its old line in just eight months. The new JazBox is an integrated set of editing, page-building, web-managing, archiving and editor-dazzling tools. Yet lots of the old jargon and tool names linger, a boon to Harris customers looking for an upgrade, not a revolution, in their content origination centers (or newsrooms). JazBox features four components: Newsjaz is the print-tradition production system, with design and text editor features; Webjaz covers on-line site design and element management; Datajaz is the production database with closing monitor, and Jazstor is the archiving portion. Nobody using the system, on-site or remote, will care about the distinctions. As the content creator jumps from window to window, the features are like rooms in one house, separate in function but still home. A window into the Internet provides direct access to references (like a dictionary and Who's Who) or original source material. Hop to the next window to call up today's menu of stories or images. Jump again to find out where an element appears on a page layout ... or the web site. "Tree-like" directories and drag-and-drop assignments make moving elements visually clear. Don't like the way a directory looks? Each user can create his or her personal look ... without the Information Technology group's support. What makes JazBox so exciting is that it makes every task look simple, with about every bell-and-whistle ever demanded by a newsroom denizen. Don't think your smaller operation can afford such elegance? Need other e-commerce features? Harris's subsidiary, Baseview Products Inc., based in Ann Arbor, Mich., was giving a trial run to an ASP version, called Jazshak. On the menu of rentable modules: Web publication; archives on-line; searchable classifieds; banner-ad management; customer demographic data; WAP support, and sales training. The extra value Harris offers is longevity, still a pretty good quality in this newborn-oriented industry. Until this release, Harris was proud of its staid, built-to-sell, reliable track record in a giant-killer market. Now the Establishment supplier has a New Age product, with a solid customer base to peddle among.
Snap together
Snap-together modules give a newspaper its own community publishing, chat, shopping, retailer outlets, etc. A nice touch: Bringing small advertisers together in a digital mega-mall, with one shopping cart and fulfillment process for several boutiques. Add a multimedia module for streaming video and audio. Clip on a multichannel module for personal digital assistant, e-mail, WebTV and wireless customers. Pop on the advertising module that lets advertisers themselves enter the text on-line. Publicus smooths entry to a new business, not just repurposing, and it's available by direct licensing or ASP contract. The Blade of Toledo, Ohio, is ready to go live with a system integrated between Publicus and the paper's existing NewsDesk editorial system from Advanced Technical Solutions of Wilmington, Mass., and classified system from AdVision from the former CText. More than three-dozen European customers has already done the shakedown cruise. In July, Pennsylvania-based Times News Inc. signed up for a 50-seat system, choosing SAXotech and Publicus for both print and on-line at its weekly group. Now it's up to customers to decide which of these systems is worth supporting with dollars, whether as a direct-buy or service-bureau deal. In a development environment where the last company in has the best shot at being the most advanced system, there are likely to be a few more surprises worth waiting for, if the suppliers are still around to cater to newspapers. -- Marion J. Love, mjl@colepapers.net
Atex Media Solutions Inc., From THE COLE PAPERS, September 2000, Copyright © 2000, All Rights Reserved.
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