ATS Ad and News Systems in Production

By: E&P Staff Advanced Technical Solutions Inc. of Acton, Mass., announced that since its 2003 introduction, the AdsOnLine ad-submission system is used at five sites and is being installed or taken live by five more customers, including one group of dailies in several states.

ATS also released AdFax remote ad management, announced two MediaDesk editorial implementations, and reached an overseas reseller agreement for MediaDesk.

In addition to the San Francisco Chronicle, Newspaper Agency Corp. (JOA for The Salt Lake Tribune and The Deseret News), The Scranton (Pa.) Times, The Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C., and The Janesville (Wis.) Gazette, AdsOnLine was also purchased by The Press of Atlantic City in Pleasantville, N.J., The Birmingham (Ala.) News, Rockford (Ill.) Register Star, Houston Community Newspaper Group, and New York Times Regional Newspaper Group.

AdsOnLine securely connects with a front-end system to accurately price, compose, and schedule ads for reliable acceptance of online payment. Its architecture is built on scalable Java and JSP technologies used widely for server-based Web applications and that allow for multiple platform support for various front-end advertising systems.

The new AdFax system uses the AdsOnLine database and information. Eliminating the need for multiple paper-based fax machines, it receives faxed ads electronically, scans the images with standard optical character recognition software, converts images into text files compatible with a newspaper's existing front-end system, links customer-account information, and automatically faxes confirmations to advertisers.

Advertisers can review and edit their ads on AdCheck workstations and send them directly to the advertising front-end system, where they are completed by sales representatives. The Scranton, Charleston, Janesville, Birmingham, Rockford, Houston and the New York Times group bought AdFax systems.

For the newsroom, ATS said Capital-Gazette Communications is running live with its MediaDesk editorial system, which is integrated with Adobe Systems' InCopy and InDesign software. The MediaDesk database, at The Capital, in Annapolis, Md., is shared over a wide-area network supporting both reporting and page design at four remote locations. Combined circulations of The Capital, Maryland Gazette, Bowie Blade-News, Crofton News-Crier, West County News and South County Gazette run to 144,000 copies.

Vermont's Rutland Herald and The Times Argus also are in production with a MediaDesk Editorial system and are archiving text and photos to a MerlinOne system (serving both sites) that was purchased through ATS. Combined seat count for the two sites is 52 (32 writers, 20 editor/designers).

Managing content from all sources through the editorial and production processes for print and electronic publishing, MediaDesk is designed to accommodate work flow in multitasking and collaborative environments.

The system's PageManager and Tracker features facilitate monitoring of page space and production progress, while MediaDeskPrintServer enables quick release of pages from newsroom workstations. Multiple editors may work in parallel on different stories, on the same page, at the same time. With messaging, editors can communicate with others instantly and offer remote assistance from their workstations. Modularity and flexibility make the system adaptable when work-flow changes are required.

MediaDesk utilizes a Sybase, MS SQL, or Oracle database and can be used in Windows and Unix operating systems.

Last month, ATS announced it had reached agreement with Advanced Publishing Systems in Melbourne, Australia, authorizing APS to resell the entire suite of MediaDesk editorial content-management solutions. MediaDesk ads an editorial component to APS offerings that focus on booking, customer relations management and layout.