Protec Prepares New Version of Milenium Cross Media

By: Meg Campbell Spanish editorial systems developer Protec will launch version 6.0 of its Milenium Cross Media publishing solution this October at the IfraExpo in Vienna. With it, Protec looks to make convergence simpler for media companies struggling to integrate users on one, media-neutral system.

The new version provides a single, intuitive interface for all users, regardless of title or media product. All internal and external news resources, such as wire services, citizen journalism, and archives, are accessible via folders and tabs that are quickly organized and accessed, according to Andres Checa, Protec communications director. Content can be searched, accessed, catalogued and supervised by individual users or by product lines, and then edited and distributed through multiple channels, all through the same interface, Checa says.

Version 6.0 also distances itself from imposing a specific organizational model, allowing users to create any type of newsroom organization. "Media companies are currently experimenting with any number of organization models, from parallel monomedia structures for each of their media products whose staffs have minimal contact with one another, to multimedia structures where the same professionals are generating content for all of a company's products," Checa says. "Version 6.0 is designed to support the whole spectrum of models."

Protec has incorporated flex technology into the new version in order to increase the agility of browser-based activities, in particular to allow remote users to view and edit content more quickly and easily.

On the production side, Version 6.0 will offer tighter integration of editorial planning and newsroom workflow.

In the U.S., Protec sets it sights on the East Coast

After several years of market study and deliberation, Protec (which goes by ProtecMedia in the United States) recently opened a Miami office to begin competing for U.S. media companies' business. The new delegration, led by Bart M. Mariner, previously Protec's international sales director, will focus first on East Coast companies, according to communications director Checa.

Acknowledging that newcomers face serious challenges in breaking into the U.S. market, Checa is confident that the Milenium product, as well as the company's installed base in Europe and South America, will open doors.

"Milenium Cross Media offers media companies the opportunity to really leverage what it is they do best: gather, generate and distribute content," Checa says. The system will interest publishers currently looking to process automation as a way of cutting costs, he says, although he adds that he believes the system is much more valuable as a way of identifying and leveraging new business opportunities. "It's been our experience that publishers who used technology to simply reduce costs and personnel never really succeeded," he observes.

The leading newsroom system supplier among Spain's dailies, Protec has made serious inroads in the French market as well. The company's systems at more than 300 clients support almosts nearly 10,000 journalists.