Founded in 1839, Grupo El Comercio in Peru currently creates five daily newspapers and five magazines covering topics such as sports, politics, finance and current events. The publisher needed to modernize its production environment to implement a unified newsroom and an efficient multi-channel publishing workflow. After a comprehensive evaluation, the group selected WoodWing Enterprise as its new publishing system for print and soon online, tablet and mobile.
The customer at a glance
– Grupo El Comercio creates more than 550 pages per day using WoodWing´s multi-channel publishing system Enterprise.
– Each title has between two and four different regional versions.
– Grupo El Comercio sells over 1.2 million copies a day and employs more than 1.000 people.
– In Peru, Grupo el Comercio is the number one generator of web and tablet traffic.
– By a recent aquisition, the company added 5 more titles to their portfolio.
Project
– The legacy editorial system no longer met the requirements of a modern production environment for the newspapers published by Grupo El Comercio.
– To create a state-of-the art environment for its news production and distribution, El Comercio decided to establish a unified newsroom to create print, online, tablet and mobile editions.
Goals
– The system should enable the team to optimize the efficiency of the existing editorial workflows and meet the requirements of a unified newsroom of the future.
– The system should enable a transparent multi-channel publishing approach, enabling to serve all channels from within a single workflow.
– The new system should be based on an open architecture, paving the way to integrate it easily with the latest 3rd party tools.
– To ensure high availability it should provide a stable and solid platform.
– It should facilitate the creation of content by external users.
– The system should enable rapid and transparent installation and provide high ease of use for editorial users.
Evaluation
– Grupo El Comercio evaluated various systems and conducted a live test with some shortlisted
systems with the smallest newspaper of the group.
– In the end, the team selected WoodWing Enterprise and its editorial management application Content Station, as WoodWing´s solution best met the requirements.
Implementation
– In close collaboration with Hexas, WoodWing´s Solution Partner in Peru, Grupo El Comercio installed the other newspapers in the course of 2013. In 2014, the team begun installing the system at the magazines.
– On average, the full implementation for each title was completed in 3 months time.
– WoodWing committed recourses and expertise to maximize the implementation experience.
– The impact to the editorial group was minimal, at no time the timely production was compromised.
– Editors and directors can monitor the time-critical content creation in
Content Station remotely via VPN.
The training of editors and designers took no longer than 10 days.
Integration
– Using WoodWing´s Smart Mover , El Comercio developed an integration of Enterprise with the image retouching software Amendo, added to the workflow for an automated retouching step.
– Enterprise and its editorial management application Content Station are also integrated with the page planning system JournalDesigner from Dataplan, which is also integrated with Adesys, the group´s own proprietary system for ad booking.
– The ad workflow handles more than 400 ads per day. From within the ad workflow, information from the booking software and material from Asura, an application as part of the ad workflow, is transferred to Enterprise, increasing efficiency and transparency of the production process.
– MediaServer, the group´s digital asset management system, is integrated within the workflow to manage the assets and to archive published issues.
– Content for the Drupal-based websites of some titles are published via the out-of-the-box integration of Enterprise with the WebCMS Drupal.
– Via dedicated plug-ins, notes can be exported for quality control via separate scoring software.
Results
– Today, more than 400 editors and designers at Grupo El Comercio are using WoodWing Enterprise and Content Station to create the 5 daily newspapers on time.
– With the integrated newsroom and the multi-channel publishing capabilities of WoodWing Enterprise, the team will serve all channels efficiently from within a single workflow.
– Based on the positive experience in its newspapers, El Comercio now implements the system also for its magazines.
The Partner
Hexas is a system integrator with outstanding technical knowledge and market expertise in the fields of modern magazine and newspaper publishing as well as printed and digital catalogs. The team consists of experts offering a complete range of services including consulting, implementation, development, training and more. The solutions the team builds enable publishers to optimize automation and collaboration and to work more productive and cost-efficient. Hexas is based in Lima (Peru) and operates a subsidiary in Bogotá (Colombia). More information can be found at http://hexas.biz
"The convergence of media required the modernization of our newsrooms. To cope with this challenge, we selected WoodWing Enterprise as our new platform. One reason is the trust in the continued innovation capacity of WoodWing."
Cesar Correa, Director Editorial Systems at Grupo El Comercio
"With its true multi-channel approach, the implementation of WoodWing Enterprise at Grupo El Comercio is a lighthouse project in the global newspaper industry."
Jorge Cieza de León, Corporate Manager at Hexas, WoodWing´s solution partner in Peru.
Challenges:
– Replace the group's legacy editorial system.
– Switch from the silo way of working to an integrated multi-channel newsroom.
– Under no circumstances, the deadlines of the ongoing production may be at risk during the transition.
Solutions:
WoodWing Enterprise
Benefits:
– Transparent integration with the exisiting Web CMS (Drupal)
– Training took no longer than 10 days.
– Seamless integration with the group´s entire software ecosystem.