Express Newspapers, one of the UK’s largest
newspaper companies, selects WoodWing

WoodWing Software has been selected by the UK publisher Express Newspapers to supply a 700-seat installation of Smart Connection Enterprise as the editorial platform for the Daily Express, the Daily Star, Ok! Magazine and several other publications.

With an average daily sale approaching two million copies, Express Newspapers is one of the largest newspaper publishing companies in the UK. After carefully evaluating the main suppliers of editorial solutions, the company decided to replace its existing QPS system with WoodWing’s Smart Connection Enterprise. At 700 seats, this is one of the larger members of the WoodWing family.

Smart Connection Enterprise fit the company's needs for an editorial system that is flexible and scalable. Also, for the Express one of the main selection criteria was Web and multi-media support. WoodWing’s blended media approach offered the required multi-channel publishing capabilities. Altogether, Smart Connection Enterprise was best suited to meet the ever-changing demands of the modern publisher.

“We are convinced the WoodWing system will give us the kind of performance we are looking for,” said Steve Draper, IT Director at the Express. “It is a young, forward-looking company which will work with us and our integrator Media Systems to deliver a system tailored to our needs. The flexible and open nature of the system was a key factor in the decision.”

“This is one of the largest and most successful publishing companies in the UK,” said Jeroen Sonnemans, WoodWing Europe’s Managing Director. “Their decision-making process was very thorough. The scale of the operation in terms of user numbers and multiplicity of sites dictated the need for an open, highly configurable yet robust solution; they knew precisely what they needed. Smart Connection Enterprise proves to be unbeatable in such cases.”

Media Systems Limited secured the contract, which combines Smart Connection Enterprise with Net Publish Enterprise, a content archiving solution from dutchsoftware.com, and a wire copy management system from FingerPost.

Publishing Software Industry Veteran Shawn Duffy
joins WoodWing USA

Shawn Duffy, the former Vice President of Sales at MediaSpan, has joined the staff of WoodWing USA as Vice President of Business Development, bringing with him an impressive background in the publishing software industry.

“Shawn’s experience in the world of publishing software is second to none,” said Brian Kruger, CEO of WoodWing USA. “He has an extensive background in sales and business development, and he has an excellent feel for what publishers and editors need to succeed. He’s going to do a fantastic job helping them discover everything that WoodWing has to offer.” Not only for WoodWing USA, but especially for our customers he is going to be a tremendous asset. We’re very fortunate to have him as part of the WoodWing team.”

After serving in the U.S. Army, Duffy received a degree in journalism from Central Michigan University. He began his career in the publishing software industry in 1993, working for Baseview Products (later part of MediaSpan Media Software) as Sales Director for the Great Lakes region. Duffy was later promoted to Vice President of Sales at MediaSpan.

“WoodWing is one of the most innovative players in the industry, so it’s easy to see why they’ve become so successful,” Duffy said. “What I’ve seen is that they listen to their customers, and respond accordingly. They never stop improving and enhancing their products. That’s the mark of an outstanding company, and that’s why I’m so excited to be part of the WoodWing family.”

Duffy will be specifically targeting corporate publishing and the newspaper market.

Viscion Media Group the first publisher in Singapore
to adopt WoodWing’s publishing software

Viscion Media Group has turned another page in the publishing industry by being the first company in Singapore to adopt the Smart Connection Enterprise (SCE) suite from WoodWing Software.

For Viscion Media Group, this solution is the perfect match to accommodate its rapid growth. Since reaching full operation about 11 months ago, Viscion has expanded its employee base from 5 to over 50 full-time staff and produced four magazines and one newspaper. By using WoodWing’s Internet-based real-time publishing platform, its team can work remotely from anywhere in the world with an Internet connection. “This is the office of the future today where teams can work effectively offsite and more efficiently,” said Viscion Media General Manager, Holman Chin. “Our investment in this software platform confirms our commitment to becoming one of the leading publishers in the world.”

Comments Alexander Knight, Sales Director WoodWing Singapore, “Without a doubt, Singapore is one of the most competitive publishing markets in the world. Here, Viscion stands out as a young and dynamic company with the vision to adopt cutting edge solutions such as ours. I remember visiting Viscion with our System Integrator Serioustec. We showed the company what we do, and an hour later, we had a deal. That’s how fast they work!”

“One of the reasons that SCE has become the publishing system of choice for major publishers around the world is that we never stop adding innovations,” said Remco Koster, Managing Director of WoodWing Asia Pacific. “With the latest version 5.0, we’ve added a host of new features that will benefit users and publications across the spectrum. We’ve put special emphasis on providing tools for convergence, allowing publishers to use all available forms of media — print, Web, audio and video — to tell their story. It’s a concept that we call ‘blended media’.”

Medical Group’s Diagnosis:
WoodWing at the heart of Publishing

The American College of Chest Physicians has selected WoodWing’s Smart Connection Enterprise editorial solution to produce its publications. The ACCP is a leading resource for the improvement of cardiopulmonary health and critical care worldwide, and the group produces several monthly magazines for the health-care industry.

Based in Illinois, the ACCP produces two primary publications. CHEST: The Cardiopulmonary and Critical Care Journal, is the official publication of the organization, reaching 23,000 readers every month. CHEST Physician, meanwhile, provides clinical information and the latest news about chest medicine specialties.

“WoodWing’s solutions will help with their workflow, saving them valuable time and money, making their operation more efficient.” said Brian Kruger, CEO of WoodWing USA. “This is further proof that Smart Connection Enterprise is a perfect solution for many different types of publications and organizations. It’s powerful and versatile enough to fit any operation.”

2007 - WoodWing’s year in review:
Ready for the future

In 2007, WoodWing delivered on its promise to provide the products, support and development direction that publishers can rely on to meet the challenges they face. It was a year in which WoodWing confirmed its position as the leading supplier of editorial platforms for large publishing companies such as Time, Inc. and Axel Springer.
Also, there was no shortage of achievements – lots of new customers, product upgrades and innovations, and unprecedented growth.

However, WoodWing’s greatest accomplishment of 2007 had more to do with the future than the present...

“The publishing industry is literally changing by the day,” said WoodWing CEO Hans Janssen. “We’ve always been successful at staying ahead of the curve when it comes to technology and product innovation, but I really think that we took that to a new level in 2007. We took a look at the future of publishing, at where this industry is heading, and we asked: How can we help our customers be successful in this new era?” The solution? It’s called “Blended Media,” and WoodWing turned that concept into reality in 2007.

“Gone are the days when a publisher relied solely on the printed page to reach the audience,” said Erik Schut, President of WoodWing. “These days, a publisher has to tell a story in a variety of ways – print, Web, audio and video. It’s an interactive, ever-changing process, and the most successful publications and companies will be the ones that take full advantage of it.”

To that end, WoodWing released version 5 of Smart Connection Enterprise, a greatly enhanced version of its powerful editorial solution. With the introduction of “Dossiers”, a solid foundation has been laid for a content-driven way of working, as all the elements of a single story (text, images, audio, video) can be bundled together easily. By year’s end, several publications had already started using version 5, and more are following. “This truly is the future of publishing,” Janssen said. “And we will be introducing even more innovation in 2008.”

With 2007 in the rear-view mirror, here’s a look at some of WoodWing’s notable milestones from the past year.

People
To support the growth, WoodWing made important personnel additions. Hans Janssen, who had been serving as IT Director of Telegraaf Media Groep, came on board as WoodWing’s new CEO. WoodWing expanded its sales capacity with new regional sales directors, hired extra marketing, administrative, financial and support personnel,and added talented new software engineers to its development team.

Magazines
Time Inc., the largest magazine publisher in the U.S., joined the WoodWing family in 2007, using Smart Connection Enterprise for the production of Time Magazine, Fortune, Sports Illustrated, People and Money. Time, Inc. joined a line-up of WoodWing magazine customers that now includes Gruner + Jahr, Axel Springer, Mondadori, Hachette Filipacchi, Condi Editiori, and Ringier, among others. There are now literally millions of people around the world reading magazines that are powered by WoodWing. But let’s not forget the numerous other magazines spread around the globe that became WoodWing customer in 2007. Amongst them the Viscion Media Group, WoodWing’s first customer in Singapore, which is one of the most competitive markets in the world.

Newspapers
During 2007, WoodWing gained market share in newspapers. A notable new customer is Express Newspapers in the UK, where the installation is about 700 seats for the Daily Express and Daily Star. Also interesting to note are the three newspaper startups on three different continents: De Pers in Europe, Kontan in Asia and Mi Diario in South America. Each time, the publisher selected WoodWing as its editorial system. In 2007, WoodWing installed its first newspaper solution for a customer in Russia.

Corporate and Specialty Publications
More corporate publishers are discovering the value of Smart Connection Enterprise for their in-house company publications. For example, HOCHTIEF AG, a German company, and the third-largest provider of construction services in the world, now has its publications powered by WoodWing. These include business reports, quarterly reports and environmental reports. Wellesley Information Services picked Enterprise for the magazines, technical journals, newsletters, books, special reports, training CDs, and other information products it publishes.

Product Innovation
The year’s product highlight was the release of version 5 of Smart Connection Enterprise, which includes support for Adobe’s CS3, as well as a host of new features. This version introduces WoodWing’s Blended Media, and will be increasingly important as WoodWing moves with the industry to multiple simultaneous publications. The enhanced Web Editor also deserves special mention. It delivers almost the same functionality through the web, as a stand-alone InCopy application.

Events
In 2007, WoodWing held its second Publishing Conference, which took place just outside Barcelona, Spain. A large crowd of industry professionals from around the globe gathered for three full days of product demonstrations, success stories and informative speeches — all of which centered around the future of the publishing industry. At IfraExpo in Vienna, Austria, WoodWing showed its vision on the future of publishing with the introduction of the new blended media features in Smart Connection Enterprise 5. At the same time, Smart Newspapers, a complete newspaper solution was introduced.

Honors
WoodWing collected its share of honors and praise. One of the most noteworthy accomplishments: The company was selected by Deloitte Holland as a “Technology Fast 50 company”. The contest spotlighted the 50 companies in the Netherlands with the highest growth rate since 2002, and WoodWing finished in the top 25.