IQue Powers Canada's Dose

By: E&P Staff CanWest MediaWorks selected the IQue editorial system from MediaSpan's Harris & Baseview division, based in Melbourne, Fla., and Ann Arbor, Mich., to launch Dose, which comprises a daily magazine, an online service, and a wireless portal -- all targeting 18- to 34-year-old Canadians.

The IQue system matched CanWest's commitment to the Macintosh platform and Adobe InDesign software. Anthony Kost, editorial systems senior analyst for the CanWest Information Technology Group, said the system already is used at a number of the company's dailies. "Baseview's commitment to InDesign was among the deciding factors in selecting IQue," Kost added.

The weekday magazine is distributed in Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, Toronto, and Vancouver (where staffers rely on IQueWeb for remote reporting and editing). Kost said Baseview trainers helped "plan the launch, fine-tune our workflow and develop best practices throughout the project."

In addition to frequent news updates, the online service from Dose has a local search tool and a music channel. The operation uses an internal Web publishing system integrated with IQue through Baseview's Transporter.

The wireless portal offers users access to movie listings, contests, polls, images, ring tones, and games.

Dose newsroom hardware consists of single and dual Macintosh G5s, most with two gigs of RAM. Reporters get iBooks; copy editors and rewriters use 20-inch iMacs. The data center relies on seven XServes to power IQue, Hot Backup, Transporter, and WireManager.

Elsewhere, the Reno (Nevada) Gazette-Journal went live last month on its 104-seat Jazbox editorial system, one of 19 sites installing Harris & Baseview software in April.

The Daily Interlake in Kalispell, Mont., now uses an IQue editorial system consisting of 12 NewsEditPro IQue workstations and 15 pagination stations, with DragIn and CopyTools plug-ins for Adobe InDesign and Harris & Baseview's PhotoBridge, WireManager, Transporter software.

Now on the vendor's hosted circulation services, The St. Albans (Vt.) Daily Messenger gets the benefits of the CirculationPro solution with no system maintenance or upkeep.

Other sites working with Harris & Baseview in April include The Daily Iberian in New Iberia, La. (production software), six newsrooms in six states, from North Carolina to Washington, eight ad departments in six states around the country, and the circulation department of the Pittsburgh (Pa.) Catholic.