By: Staff Reports As Some Papers Report Problems With Web Solution
As Openpages fine-tunes and repackages its content management system, some customers report dissatisfaction with the vendor. The Westford, Mass.-based company says it is working to address those concerns.
On Saturday, Openpages will introduce a version of its Contentware that will address the specific needs of print newspapers. The ContentWare Editorial Edition will officially be released at NEXPO in New Orleans this weekend. The system includes Quickwire and Gannett Media Technologies International's (GMTI) archive connector, and it has removed tools for corporate clients that newspapers weren't using.
Openpages partnered with Quickwire, a Southam Publishing Inc. business, to offer a wire capture solution that integrates news services' stories into the ContentWare product. The GMTI partnership gives ContentWare clients access to a long-term archival database for photo images and multimedia objects.
The St. Paul Pioneer Press is the first newspaper to deploy Openpages' ContentWare Editorial Edition, which is being used for production of the Main, Op/Ed, Business, Features, and Local News sections for the paper's seven zoned print editions. The Pioneer Press did not acquire the Web tools that Openpages also offers to all of its clients.
Those Web tools are what some newspapers are having problems with. Something as simple as italicizing and bolding within a single story page is apparently not possible, according to an executive at one paper who asked not to be named.
And while Openpages told us that KnightRidder.com is a current client, San Jose, Calif.-based company would not confirm it, declining to comment on Knight Ridder's relationship with Openpages.
Craig Muzilla, vice president of marketing at Openpages, responded to complaints by admitting that Openpages grew too quickly, adding a lot of staff. But he insists that new management brought in over the past six months is concentrating on customer service.
Michael J. Duffy joined Openpages in December as CEO and president after working at Intel Corp. as a general manager. Santanu Paul is the new chief technology officer who joined Openpages in February after the company acquired Viveca, a service provider of B2B content. Beth Macy, vice president of engineering, also joined the company this year after working at Lotus Development Corp., IBM, and Apple Computer.
Like many technology companies, Openpages had layoffs in the first quarter, eliminating almost 20% of its staff.
Copyright 2001, Editor & Publisher.
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