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Swiss Ringier publishes the country’s leading daily boulevard newspaper Blick. A publication with extremely high efficiency and flexibility demands. With Smart Newspapers, Ringier is ready for today’s requirements and future opportunities.
 

The leading Swiss publishing company Ringier could be a textbook case. Independent products with clear profiles, but with a strong focus on company-wide synergy effects. Firmly established at national level, but geared toward vast international expansion. A stable, maybe even conservative business and economic attitude, but open-minded and creatively adapting to rapidly changing markets.

Issues of the day
One of Ringier’s flagships is the daily boulevard newspaper Blick. The boulevard press is constantly swayed by the issues of the day. Within minutes, everything that was carefully planned can become irrelevant, and something else gets top priority.

The more hectic their business becomes, the more they need stable tools and functionality to win the everyday struggle for the most readers and the biggest scoops. There is simply no time for technology issues.

Extensive requirements
Ringier is well-known for its meticulous investment preparation. “We try to anticipate all possibilities and contingencies, thus avoiding any surprises”, the company explains.

Based on their extensive requirements, the editors and the board of the publishing company jointly selected WoodWing's Smart Newspapers. The true open architecture, great flexibility and reliable scalability were key elements in the decision process.

Smart Newspapers consists of modules, which are configured according to the needs of each individual publishing company. Advanced filtering ensures that employees only see items relevant to their particular roles and tasks. These settings can be easily modified at any time.

Flexible Web interface
Editors can use the latest technology to cooperate and communicate with external contributors and partners. Web-based interfaces play a crucial role, and are easily adjustable to accommodate any future developments. WoodWing's Smart Newspapers has been designed for seamless integration.

It is possible to connect other software solutions: page-planning, sales systems, archives or mixed-media solutions, either from the start or at a later stage. It was therefore not necessary to decide on all aspects at the implementation stage. Whether and how the various media, editors, sources and output channels should be synchronized, served simultaneously, summarized or employed independently could be determined later on.

Implementation
WoodWing’s partner A&F Computersysteme AG has taken care of the entire transition. A&F is the most successful system integrator for the graphic industry, boasting over 20 years of experience with the most modern publishing systems of more than 500 publications in Switzerland and Germany.

It would be an understatement to call it a calm implementation phase. But thanks to the exhaustive preparation, not even a trace of panic could be spotted. Everything had been carefully planned in advance, up to the last detail. After six weeks of intensive organizing, the production environment switched to Smart Newspapers.
Integrated electronic page-planning, using Dataplan’s Journal Designer, was new as well. Both the advertisement and editorial sections of Blick were now planned completely electronically. Pages were automatically entered into the production environment, with all advertisements fully in place.

Advertisement information is directly transferred to the accounting system. Each planning adjustment is instantly reflected in editorial production. Integration clearly improves efficient planning.

Equally new for Blick production was digital image workflow. Images are now handled based on their status, just like articles and layouts in the editorial system. The proper status change will automatically trigger transfer to the electronic image processing systems. Also in this case, a better image production overview ensures more efficient communication.
 

Seamless Online and print integration
Christian Glanzmann, Editorial and Media Production Systems Manager at Ringier, explains his vision: “Publishers should fundamentally reconsider their processes. Many are still organized around media formats. New generation media are produced automatically using content management databases. The question of print or Web-first publication, or of single- or multimedia is not a matter of principle anymore; it becomes part of a publishing strategy. A continuing challenge is  to decide which combination of output channels will best serve both the reader’s interest and the advertising customers. In other words: publication items and media formats become variables, the integrating content management and its tools become the proverbial tower of strength.”

Newsroom 2.0
The Swiss publishing company is now fully adapted to the new situation. The Blick team naturally but logically converged to a Newsroom, focusing on content rather than object production. Ringier says it has “created ‘the foundation of everything new’, which might become our ‘Newsroom 2.0’. Smart Newspapers is an outstanding tool for performing central tasks.”

The successful Blick implementation proved to be just the beginning at Ringier. Soon, more were to follow. The Schweizer Illustrierte, the Sonntags Blick (Sonntags Blick Magazin), Blick am Abend and CASH daily switched to WoodWing as well.