Atex Launches Advertising and Content-Management Solutions

By: E&P Staff Atex, Reading, United Kingdom, has launched products and upgrades for content management and advertising, and has announced it will partner with Ektron Inc. of Nashua, N.H., to distribute that company's CMS400.NET Web site management system.

For the newsroom, Atex upgraded the Hermes content-management system, developed by Unisys Media, which Atex acquired last November. A departure from the print-layout model of previous versions, Hermes 11 offers a media-neutral approach designed to manage print and digital workflow for multiple distribution channels. Its Media Desktop user interface is a dashboard application that permits users to manage content, resources and production in multimedia formats.

Reporters and editors can use Media Desktop to search internal and external databases, create and edit media-neutral content, track and preview pages, and establish priority hierarchies for objects and pages. The Media Planner collaboration tool can be used to manage planning, assignments, budgets and staff allocation.

Adobe's CS2 InCopy and InDesign have been incorporated into Hermes l1 to permit users to automatically update InDesign pages when other appliciations update content on the pages, and to take advantage of InDesign's quality-check feature. The quality check reviews pages and content for correct color space and color matching, linked images, digital rights status, advertising/text overlap, and even spelling.

On the web side, Atex will integrate Ektron's CMS400.NET system, which is used to power some 20,000 sites and includes Web 2.0 content-management features designed to improve customized sites and optimize customer interaction.

CMS400.NET allows users to categorize content using built-in navigation support. The system gives site visitors fast, accurate search results and tools such as comments, content rating, related stories, and polls. Users can create online communities, communicate with site visitors, and increase reader loyalty with subscriptions, alerts and RSS feeds for syndication. Users also have tools to study reader habits and identify business opportunities.

Atex will integrate CMS400.NET with its editorial content-management system to permit two-way flow of information between a newspaper's Web site and print system. It will support multiple distribution channels, including print, online, e-mail, SMS messaging, videocasts and podcasts.


New Ad solutions

Atex upgraded its Mactive 3.0 advertising solution to make it more user-friendly, and it introduced a customer self-service portal where advertisers can place, price, preview, proof and pay for their own classified and display ads. Atex acquired Swedish publishing system developer Mactive earlier this year.

In the latest Mactive version, on-screen tabs have been reorganized, and search capabilities and drag-and-drop graphics handling have been improved on the AdBooker user interface. Users will find all searchable fields on the first tab of the window, and can search by customer, order or ad information, and can define their own multi-field searches. Booking information has been gathered in a single location, allowing uses to view advertiser, order, ad and run-schedule information in one place. The pagination and layout modules now support PDF files, which require less space and transfer faster.

The system's AdSales application gives users greater CRM capabilities, and a new Internet tab allows users to book ads for Web pages, and then track when and where the ad is viewed.

Atex also launched an Enterprise Edition of the Mactive AdBase solution. The new application, AdBaseE, is a self-service solution that gives advertisers the opportunity to place ads via a Web browser.

Java-based AdBaseE is customizable and supports private-party, commercial, contract and agency advertisers. It includes an interactive calendar and upsell tools, and can give advertisers a real-time price quote along with a WYSIWYG preview, online ad proof, and e-mail confirmation. The secure site allows advertisers to prepay ads with credit and debit cards.