Swiss media company Ringier masters
“Blended Media” as it switches to WoodWing

WoodWing Software calls it “blended media,” the concept that publishers can seamlessly reach their audience using all forms of media — print, Web, audio and video. Ringier AG, the largest publisher in Switzerland, has mastered the concept while switching its titles over to WoodWing’s editorial solution.

Ringier has already installed WoodWing’s Smart Connection Enterprise solution at several of its publications, including CASH daily (Switzerland’s largest economics publication) and Sonntags Blick (the country’s largest Sunday newspaper, with a circulation of more than 265,000), along with Schweizer Illustrierte, al dente, Shopping and Sport Blick.

Later this year, all of Ringier’s publications will have made the switch to WoodWing, including Blick (the No. 1 of paid daily newspapers in Switzerland) and SPORTMagazin.

With the assistance of WoodWing integrator A&F Computersysteme, the switch has been smooth and seamless. And officials at Ringier are noticing immediate gains in workflow efficiency.

“Now that they’ve installed WoodWing’s solutions, Ringier has seen how easy it is for them to publish content to the Web or print,” said Jeroen Sonnemans, Managing Director of WoodWing Europe. “That’s one of the biggest improvements they’ve noticed since switching to WoodWing, and it’s what the concept of ‘blended media’ is all about.”

In Ringier’s internal publication, DOMO, company officials rave about the improvements they’ve seen in the publications that have already switched to WoodWing.

“The biggest plus is that the principle of ‘Web first’ can be adhered to,” the article said. “Whether a story will appear in print or on the Web, it’s a matter of a push of the button. In the WoodWing setup, a status has been introduced that will publish the content of an article on the internet. The author can directly continue to work on the same article to finish it for print, which will appear later … the online editor is very enthusiastic about this feature.”

Ringier officials give high marks to the automation provided by WoodWing, noting that time-consuming, manual tasks have now been fully automated. Planning has been improved with the introduction of JournalDesigner, which has been tightly integrated into the WoodWing solution.

With Ringier’s publications on board, there are now six newspapers in Switzerland that have made the switch to WoodWing.

WoodWing Asia Pacific hires Sales Director for Japan

Joel Ingulsrud, a 20-year veteran of the Japanese digital media industry, has joined WoodWing Asia Pacific as its new sales director for Japan. Ingulsrud will be responsible for helping WoodWing thrive in one of the most vibrant publishing markets in the world.

Ingulsrud most recently worked for Adobe Systems as product manager for the Japanese edition of Acrobat. He began his career in the late 1980s as a Japan market entry consultant.

“The Japanese publishing industry is huge, so we know there’s tremendous potential there,” said Remco Koster, Director of WoodWing Asia Pacific. “Joel’s knowledge of the Japanese market is outstanding, and we’re confident that he’s going to do an excellent job helping us expand our customer base there. It’s especially beneficial that he has such an in-depth knowledge of the entire Adobe product line.”

Born and raised in Japan, Ingulsrud worked in Silicon Valley for fifteen years before moving his family to suburban Tokyo in 2006. He said he’s anxious to help Japanese publishers succeed through adoption of WoodWing’s editorial solutions.

“The potential for growth here in Japan is great,” Ingulsrud said. “I’m looking forward to collaborating with Adobe, especially my good friends on the InDesign and Japanese typography teams, as we move the market forward. I particularly relish the flexibility WoodWing provides for me to make things happen.”

In his new role Ingulsrud will be working closely with KG Solutions, WoodWing’s distribution partner in Japan, to further strengthen the existing network of system integrators, and deliver solutions uniquely tailored to the needs of Japanese publishers.

La Crítica of Argentina takes off with WoodWing

A new daily newspaper, La Crítica of Argentina, hit the Buenos Aires streets on March 2, selling out its 100,000-copy press run, and livening up the debate over politics, football, and in particular the future of Argentine media and journalism.

La Crítica is a venture launched by Jorge Lanata, perhaps the most recognized journalist in Argentina. Lanata is a radio and TV celebrity, and now he is setting out to prove there is a place in the urban media market for new newspapers that can make the most of the opportunity to blend paper and ink with a dynamic Web presence.

La Crítica elected WoodWing Software’s Smart Connection Enterprise, so the crack editorial team could focus on the content, instead of being bothered by workflow and technical issues.

The WoodWing integration is being handled by Dot Zero, a consultancy company led by technologist and journalist Marcelo Cutini. Cutini commented that the challenge at La Crítica is the the pace in the workplace. Digitized text, audio, and video have to be blended sensibly, and mobilized into different media settings under tight deadline pressure. "We love this challenge, and WoodWing's Software is a good fit for this kind of challenges," Cutini said, "but we haven't been sleeping a lot in the last few weeks."

La Crítica is the first WoodWing newspaper in Argentina, but it is the fortieth paper in the region to adopt Smart Connection Enterprise. Steve Schaffran, general manager of Woodwing Latin America, commented on the challenge and opportunity of working in the Argentine spotlight. "La Crítica is exactly the kind of customer where our software shows it strengths. We're determined to make this a huge success," he said.

About La Crítica
La Crítica of Argentina is edited by 2.0 Papel SA. Jorge Lanata is the Editorial Director, and the staff numbers more than 150 writers, editors, photographers, designers, proofreaders, and producers. The launch of La Crítica was celebrated by 1,500 people who gathered at the Faculty of Law at the University of Buenos Aires, to fete the arrival, at dawn, of the first edition.

Smart Connection Enterprise helps Educational
book design at Bill Smith Studio

Bill Smith Studio, a New York design house specializing in educational publishing, has joined the many corporate customers who have installed WoodWing Software’s Smart Connection Enterprise editorial solution.
Bill Smith Studio is one of the leading design partners in the educational-publishing industry.

Bill Smith Studio recently installed 50 seats of Smart Connection Enterprise, primarily to work with one of WoodWing’s largest book-publishing customers, the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Bill Smith Studio is a major vendor for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, handling the design of numerous books and other publications for the K-12 educational market.

Officials at Bill Smith Studio have been impressed with Smart Connection Enterprise’s capabilities. “It truly is an innovative solution, to be sure,” said Eric Murray, Production Manager at Bill Smith Studio.

“Bill Smith Studio works with the biggest names in educational publishing,” said Brian Kruger, CEO of WoodWing USA. “We know from experience that Smart Connection Enterprise is going to streamline their workflow and will offer many improvements in efficiency. I’m confident it will exceed their expectations.”

Enhanced version of Smart Speller released

The Smartest spell-checker in the industry just got a bit smarter. WoodWing Software’s Smart Speller plug-in has been enhanced to include several new features, including the ability to check expressions and combinations of words.

Smart Speller is available in a wide variety of languages that goes far beyond the set of languages supported by Adobe InDesign and InCopy. It uses the award-winning technology of the *TALŌ language institute, the world leader
in language tools for the professional publishing industry.

Several key enhancements have been made to Smart Speller, including the ability to check expressions and other combinations of words; the ability to spell-check punctuations; the addition of updated dictionaries; the addition of dictionaries for several new languages; and an enhanced preferences dialog box that allows the user to easily designate specific language settings.

The new version of Smart Speller not only does an excellent job of checking the spelling of a particular word or compound, but it can also look at the word in context, to make sure it’s the right word in the right place.

“Anyone who has been using Smart Speller will directly appreciate the enhancements that have been made,” said Erik Schut, President of WoodWing Software. “And if you’ve never seen Smart Speller in action, this is the time to check it out. The technology used by the *TALÅŒ language institute is unsurpassed. Smart Speller really helps eliminate the possibility of making any sort of a spelling error, improving the quality of the publication and speeding up the production process.”

A free 30-day trial version of the software can be downloaded here.

Norwegian University Newspaper chooses WoodWing

WoodWing Software has landed its first newspaper customer in Norway - Studvest, the student newspaper at Bergen University. Studvest serves the 30,000-student university community in Bergen, and is available at all the academies and cafés in the area. The 7,000-circulation weekly will be published using WoodWing’s Smart Connection Enterprise editorial solution.

The newspaper uses Adobe InDesign and Mac OSX, and the staff was looking for an open-source editorial system that worked seamlessly with that set-up. That led them to Smart Connection Enterprise.

“Smart Connection Enterprise is becoming increasingly popular among college and university newspapers around the world,” said Hans Janssen, CEO of WoodWing Software. “In addition to the power and flexibility it offers, one of the reasons it’s favored among student publications is because it’s very easy to learn and master. As student publications always have a high turnover rate, that’s a strong selling point.”

Officials at Studvest were impressed with all the features of Smart Connection Enterprise, but what truly sold them on the system was its innovative Web editor. The newspaper’s journalists and freelancers work out of several locations, so the ability to contribute to the publication via the Internet was vital.

“Especially a Web interface for our 31 journalists was extremely important for us,” Erlend Røsjø, IT Manager at Studvest, confirmed.

The deal was set up through Paradigm AS, an Authorized WoodWing Solution Partner in Norway. Kjell Fabian Mechlenborg Furu of Paradigm said the installation process has been going well. “We are delighted to have Studvest as a customer,” he said. “Their knowledge of open-source technology and publishing is outstanding, and with their fresh ideas, they truly represent the future of the industry.”