Francis Lundh wanted his developers focused on building the subscription business. Too much of their attention was going toward the technology behind article pages and homepages.
As chief product officer of Scandinavian publishing group Mentor Medier and CEO of its technology company, Unite, Lundh saw an opportunity to change that. The group’s newspapers—including Vårt Land, Morgenbladet, Dagsavisen, Sweden’s Dagen and Klar Tale—needed publishing tools that gave journalists more control while requiring less custom development.
Mentor chose Labrador CMS, a cloud-based content management system that combines article creation, homepage editing and website delivery. By putting those functions in Labrador’s hands, Lundh could concentrate Unite’s development resources on subscription technology. “We don’t wanna spend any of our developers doing that,” he said of building and maintaining the publications’ article pages and homepages.
The relationship also became a business opportunity: Unite partners with Labrador to offer its subscription and reader-engagement products alongside the publishing platform. For Lundh, the move was a decision about where his team could create the most value—a question familiar to publishers balancing the demands of daily production with the need to grow revenue.
Choosing a complete publishing system
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When Lundh arrived at Mentor, its newspapers were already using Arc XP. He described a good working relationship with the company, but said the implementation did not fit the newsrooms’ needs.
Some problems, he emphasized, were of Mentor’s own making. Custom code added to the existing presentation layer had slowed pages and introduced bugs. Editors also found homepage production cumbersome.
Mentor wanted one provider to handle article creation, homepage editing and the rendering of its websites. Combining separate systems for those functions would require integrations and ongoing attention.
“We wanted a hamburger because we wanted … not to spend too much time on integrations,” Lundh said, using his shorthand for a system that supplies all three layers.
Labrador offered that combination, along with the editorial flexibility the group wanted.
Giving editors control
David Streever, Labrador’s U.S. country manager, recognized the appeal from his own newsroom experience.
A former developer who moved into journalism, Streever was working at an NPR affiliate when he first saw a Labrador demonstration. He was accustomed to opening several windows to assemble an article, locate images and retrieve captions.
Labrador’s integrated workspace caught his attention. “The ease of use of it made me a huge fan,” Streever said.
For Mentor, the practical difference was especially apparent in homepage editing. Lundh described an interface in which journalists could see how their work would appear and make changes directly. “You publish the article, you put it on the page, and it looks like exactly like you want it to,” he said.
That approach fits his view of digital publishing as a continuous activity. Newsrooms need to respond as stories develop, with tools designed for readers following events on their phones.
Print remains part of Mentor’s business. Lundh said Labrador’s integration with its print publishing system allows digital content to move into print templates, supporting a digital-first workflow.
The group also wanted its publications to retain their identities. Moving to a shared system raised concerns about making distinctive brands look generic. “Literally none of our newspapers look the same even though it’s powered by Labrador,” Lundh said.
Making the transition manageable
The migration involved nearly one million articles across five sites. Lundh recalled that the process took approximately five or six weeks, a timetable he initially doubted.
Streever explained that Labrador uses its migration tool, Labradoodle, to collect content from existing websites and place it in a test environment for customer review. The approach focuses on bringing across content rather than reproducing the old database and its accumulated complexity. “We don’t migrate the mess, we just get the content,” he said.
Additional imports bring newly published material into the test environment as launch approaches, reducing the need for duplicate production.
Lundh said the resulting sites were noticeably faster and newsroom satisfaction improved. He also acknowledged that Mentor had not conducted formal surveys or measured the changes as thoroughly as it could have. His assessment is based on operational experience rather than a documented performance study.
Putting development capacity toward readers
The larger benefit, Lundh said, was the decision to leave development of article pages and homepages to Labrador. Unite, which he said now has 40 employees, concentrated its development resources on subscription technology. “These guys are doing great front pages,” he said. “They’re doing great articles with the … exact level of adaptability that we need.”
Unite’s products include Boomerang, a mobile news app integrated with Labrador. It combines publisher content with push notifications, navigation and audio capabilities intended to encourage repeat visits. The app provides a concrete example of Unite’s focus on the reader relationship.
The partnership also supports sales to other publishers. Unite can offer subscription technology alongside Labrador’s publishing platform, giving prospective customers an integrated set of services.
Streever said the value takes a different form for smaller publishers without developers: reducing reliance on outside help for routine publishing and website maintenance. Actual savings depend on the publisher’s existing arrangements.
For Mentor, the case rests on choosing where internal expertise can contribute most. Lundh acknowledged that Labrador still has areas to improve, but said the group is pleased with the result.
Publishers considering a similar move face the same underlying question: how much of their technology effort goes toward keeping publishing working, and how much helps build the business around their journalism?
About Labrador CMS
Labrador CMS is a cloud-based content management system designed for news publishers and magazines. It brings writing, image editing, homepage design and digital publishing into one workspace, allowing journalists to edit directly in the layouts readers will see. The platform supports desktop and mobile presentation and integrates with advertising systems, paywalls, analytics, print production tools and news apps. Delivered as a subscription service, Labrador includes hosting, support and ongoing software upgrades to help publishers manage their technology and focus on producing journalism.
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