Spain Leads the Way On Cross-Media Publishing

By: Meg Campbell Cross-media publishing has fast gone from fantasy to reality, and publishers who a year ago professed to be frustrated by the lack of viable systems now face the challenge of choosing among several new solutions vying for their attention. Software companies at home and abroad are creating increasingly sophisticated solutions for content management in media-neutral formats. Although many still have the printed product as their centerpiece, multiple-media functionalities are making them a good option for those publishers looking to incorporate Web and wireless capabilities.

Newspaper industry executives in Barcelona this week to attend IfraExpo have a chance to see and even test-drive these new systems, many of them European. In fact, it is a curious coincidence that the Ifra event has returned to Spain for the first time in 10 years, just when the Iberian peninsula has become home to a number of the most interesting cross-media solutions around.

No less than five Spanish companies -- Ailink, Protec, Quasar, SchlumbergerSema, and Seinet -- will compete with northern Europe's established giants and their equally attractive Italian counterparts to court the world's newspapers. Their designs, they say, minimize efforts in multipurposing content and create new revenue streams, all with little of the havoc that usually ensues with a system installation.

Spanish developers are eyeing other European countries as they begin to expand, as well as taking advantage of long-standing relationships in Latin America. All have expressed interest in North America, but also caution. "It's a very different market, and you have to be present, not merely have a representative," explains Jos? J. Gomez, project manager for Ailink.

New York-based media-technology consultant Bill Rosenblatt agrees that U.S. publishers won't look hard at new companies abroad until they establish a serious presence in the States. "The people who make technology investment decisions are very conservative," he says. "They don't take risks because the technology is so mission-critical." American publishers thus want to see a company hire an American general manager with a solid background in the industry, they want technical resources, and they want a support organization in place, he explains.

Nevertheless, U.S. publishers definitely need to take a careful look at these new companies because "they have the better technologies," asserts Rosenblatt, who is currently working with The Associated Press. "There is no true cross-media system coming from U.S. vendors right now. None are doing enough research and development to come up with a product, because all are concentrating on upgrades and maintenance."

Companies able to nab high-profile installations and then set up shop over here will do best. Eidosmedia, for example, took a giant step closer to the U.S. market with its Financial Times deal, and these other companies hope to follow suit.

It's plain it's mainly in Spain

There's no easy explanation as to why Spain has become such a popular breeding ground for next-generation systems. A small market even by European standards -- there are some 139 dailies (including sports and financial papers) with a combined daily circulation of about 4.3 million -- until now it has not been a major player in the systems market. Nevertheless, Spanish publishers have never shied away from trying out new technologies. In fact, Spain was home to the world's first all-digital-desktop newspaper, El Sol, launched back in 1991.

Spanish publishers also moved quickly to remote printing in the early '90s as a way to overcome narrow, winding highways and difficult terrain, according to Luis Palacio, editor of the media magazine Intermedios. "The national dailies were losing the battle with the local papers," he says. "They often would not reach kiosks in the provinces until 11 in the morning, which affected both circulation and deadlines." So the nationals soon contracted with local printers or set up their own facilities around the country to print locally from digital page files.

Technology was a big boost, making the nationals competitive for the first time outside major metropolitan hubs and giving them a taste for trying new, often risky ways to improve operations. That in turn gave Spanish firms opportunities to test new systems.

Also, "technical directors at Spain's papers are constantly talking to each other," says Mari Pascual, Ifra's representative there. Spanish dailies also benefited from greater freedom to introduce highly automated editorial systems, unlike their German and, particularly, French counterparts, which for many years were restricted by powerful labor unions, adds Palacio of Intermedios.

In fact, France is now one of the most attractive markets for the Spanish developers. French dailies need to update their systems, they are nearby, and the market is much bigger. Protec already has begun several sizable installations in France and is opening an office in Paris, while the other companies are working out distribution agreements. Ailink has long been a player in France with its wire-reception systems, and Seinet and SchlumbergerSema also have installations up north.

Many means to an end

Despite developing for the same market, each company has taken a different approach to the technology. Some still embrace the middleware concept of cross-media, while others have started from scratch to build systems that rely on extensible markup language (XML) throughout. Notable among all is the ease of use they purport to have vis-a-vis the user, as well as the incorporation of brand-new technologies, such as support for messaging and even e-paper.

One thing all have in common, however, is that they either already have incorporated Adobe's InDesign or are knocking themselves out to get it done as fast as possible. Version 2.0 of InDesign is clearly giving QuarkXPress serious competition in page layout, and customers have begun demanding it, all say.

Industry veteran Protec, Spain's market leader, supplies front-end systems to some 60% of the country's dailies, among them El Mundo and the papers of the Recoletos Group. The newest incarnation of its system is Milenium, a suite of five modules, which work either as an integrated system or as stand-alone applications. The system features object-oriented programming supported on standard databases, the integration of standard tools such as XPress and more recently InDesign, and independent management of content and design. The system is capable of managing single copies of original materials and adapting them automatically to the design of the final product, be it print, Web, or wireless, according to Marketing Director Andr?s Checa.

The company has added new functionality to the system in time for IfraExpo, in particular on the Web and wireless sides, says Checa. For example, the advertising component now allows ad-booking via the Web and via personal digital assistants. On the editorial side, a new application lets executives check on the status of the paper using a browser, and even to make edits remotely. An application called Categorize enhances database searches by adding metadata to ease links among objects. A new component added to the system's digital archive generates reports that detail and analyze archive use.

Protec's expansion strategy starts in Latin America, where the language gives it an advantage over others, and then France and central Europe. The company announced last spring a contract with French daily L'Agefi, and just inked a deal for a 300-seat installation of a complete Milenium system at La D?p?che du Midi, a regional daily in southwestern France.

Developer Seinet is also well-known, having received much industry attention as one of the two true cross-media systems on the market (the other is Italy's Eidosmedia). It is unveiling version 2.0 of its system, now called Xtent, at IfraExpo this week. According to Seinet Director Ignacio Meg?as, "Productivity has been improved, the system can be accessed remotely, and it includes the kind of work-flow-management and editing tools that you would expect to find on a high-end system." Seinet developed its system's first version with an earlier Java-based machine, making it hard to include the tools needed to publish a large daily, Meg?as says.

The new version has been developed using Java 2 Enterprise Edition, and uses a Multiple Document Interface (a Windows function that eliminates the need to reload an application for each of several documents to be displayed at the same time) and Java applets to allow reporters to configure and personalize their desktops and access to the newsroom system via a Web browser without first installing special programs on their computers.

Xtent includes its own XML editor and supports XPress and InDesign for page layout. Full support of style sheets allows editors to select how they see a document -- for example, in typewritten mode or as a newspaper section, Web page, or WAP (wireless application protocol) page. A "fast-fit" hyphenation-and-justification engine gives editors near-WYSIWYG display. An InDesign/XPress palette allows a user to browse the content repository to search for documents, select content section by section, and define where it flows.

Web-page designers use templates created with Dreamweaver, FrontPage, or Notepad. Templates contain tagged "holes" where dynamic content flows. The content-management system stores different types of files (photos, audio, video) together with their respective metadata, which can be dragged and dropped back to their original applications if they need changes.

Staking claims

Seinet has several installations now running in Spain and France, and one user consulted said he is eager to see its latest release. The company suffered a setback this month, however, when South African media concern Media24 announced it was rescinding its contract for an 800-seat installation with Seinet, claiming Seinet would not be able to maintain the schedule for the test system set out in the contract. For its part, Seinet contends that Media24 has not yet lived up to the financial obligations of the contract. In addition, Craig Mitchell, a former News Corp. production executive who had joined Seinet in the spring as chief operating officer, is no longer with the Spanish company.

Ignacio Meg?as, Seinet director, is also unhappy about new rival Quasar Technologies, which started operations in May. The new company employs five former Seinet staffers, including developer Marc Marin, who is now in charge of Quasar. Meg?as says Seinet is considering legal action against the startup. "We question how a new company could develop an entire system in just a few months," he says.

Quasar reps say they are not troubled by the threats, claiming that the differences in the two systems will dispel any speculation of poaching. "The system is built on SBT JavaScript, not Java, a technology that has been proven in the industry for many years, but that no one uses," explains Marin, who before Seinet worked for 11 years at Atex as an integrator. "The architecture allows us to make a simple system, simple for users and also for installations."

Quasar chose InDesign over XPress and integrated other Adobe applications such as GoLive and Graphics Server (previously known as Altercast), and most recently InCopy. A proprietary browser-based text editor allows several editors to work on the same InDesign page simultaneously, while layout artists make changes (editors work through the text editor while the layout artist uses InDesign). This feature works the same with the Web editor and GoLive.

The system creates a single file to be used for print, Web, and wireless output. Tasks are overlapped to save time, and a knowledge manager converts static information into live feeds. For example, stock or weather information can be continually and automatically updated throughout the day, so that when the paper is published, it carries the most recent information.

On the server side, Quasar has developed a proprietary replication mechanism, so that papers don't have to spend a lot of money on database clusters. The company has worked feverishly to get its system ready for IfraExpo, but at the same time is continuing development on futuristic features, such as support for e-paper, says Marin. A thin plastic impregnated with electronic ink (in the form of microscopic balls that either encapsulate reflective particles or have hemispheres of contrasting colors -- the suspension of one and the orientation of the other a response to an electrical charge), e-paper can be re-imaged indefinitely and hold an image without drawing power. Marin envisions his system sending content to this new medium in much the same way it can now feed Web pages and wireless devices.

Targeting dailies, magazines, and catalogs, the new company seeks distribution deals in Spain, France, and Germany.

Even reporters can use it

Developer Ailink, founded by ex-techies from the defunct daily El Sol, has been on the scene for more than 10 years. With success selling its wire-reception system, the company last year launched its own version of a cross-media publishing system, Inf?Polis. Together, the system's two modules, InfoPortal and InfoPress, pool content, create print, Web, and wireless pages, and send them for output.

InfoPortal is an XML-based information manager; InfoPress has the tools needed to put content on pages. The browser-based system was designed to be easily tailored to reporters' different habits, says Ailink Product Manager Jos? J. G?mez. For example, reporters can research stories as they write them without leaving the system, and can search through live and archived content. Moreover, reporters can define the information they wish to receive and the way it is to be displayed.

For IfraExpo, Ailink added functionalities users have sought, such as availability on multiple platforms (originally for Windows, InfoPolis is being developed for Macintosh), integrating InDesign and InCopy, and beefing up work-flow management. Ad placement can now be automatic.

Inf?Polis is running at the Heraldo de Arag?n in Zaragoza, Spain, its first installed site. "We are currently studying how to send our newspaper content automatically to Web and wireless, and we chose Inf?Polis because it will allow us to do that easily and well," says Jos? Manuel Lozano, the paper's technical director. The new system has improved productivity already, in that all content arriving at the paper is being automatically converted to XML and placed on pages, he says. Ailink's experience with wire capture, he adds, has made it an ideal company to create a content-management system.

Ailink also has several contracts in France, and hopes to sign a major contract with a Mexican media company that publishes 70 dailies, G?mez says.

SchlumbergerSema's Digital and Media Press (DMP), an InDesign-based editorial system, is use by Spain's multiple-media monster Grupo Correo. The vendor (which brokered the deal between London's Financial Times and Eidosmedia) is eager to show its stuff at IfraExpo. "We will be showing the evolution of our system with the integration of InDesign and InCopy 2.0" and enhancements to improve work flow, says Sales Director Emilio Salvador.

Salvador considers DMP to be cross- media, although he adds that it is print-based. Content is stored as XML files and directed to Web and wireless production. A Web-publishing tool must be integrated to complete the Web component, Salvador says. DMP includes integrated plug-ins from Dutch developer WoodWing to add high-level object styles to InDesign,
permitting quick page formatting.