CCI NewsGate Data Center for McClatchy in Carolinas

By: E&P Staff Deciding to pool resources and information among its publications, McClatchy Newspapers signed a contract with CCI Europe for a NewsGate system. As a result, the Carolinas will become home to CCI's first NewsGate data center.

The McClatchy papers covered by the system are the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer and The Herald, Rock Hill, S.C. The Observer will serve as an information hub, going online this year, with the Herald moving to NewsGate and plugging in shortly thereafter. The arrangement has the potential for five other McClatchy papers in the Carolinas to do the same. The NewsGate data center will allow editors and all media staff to coordinate efforts in story planning and coverage, saving time and money while facilitating comprehensive regional coverage.

"We need systems that help us in the shift toward a 24-hour, Internet-oriented news cycle," Observer News Systems Director Neil Mara said in a statement. "What excited us about NewsGate is the degree of innovation in its media-neutral architecture."

NewsGate will enable McClatchy to enhance connections to existing media channels such as McClatchy Interactive, which provides Internet publishing systems for all the group's newspapers. "McClatchy plans to utilize common platforms such as NewsGate to promote content sharing and other synergies among its seven Carolina newspapers," Mara said.

The data center setup is expected to allow multiple newsrooms to exist within one NewsGate system, with staffs able to review sister papers' budgets and share all types of content dynamically.