In future, more than 50 Scandinavian magazines and weekly newspapers, together with their digital content, will be produced with the editorial system jointly developed by ppi Media and Digital Collections.
October 2018. The final decision was taken at the end of September: The Oslo-based media company Egmont Publishing Norway, which is part of the Danish Egmont Group and the largest publisher of magazines and weeklies in Norway, will change its print and digital production to the editorial solution Content-X by ppi Media and Digital Collections.
The decisive factor for the publisher’s choice was the professional Digital Asset Management (DAM) combined with the fact that content can be entered in a media-neutral format in Content-X. The template-based workflow allows the publisher to automate their production process for print products. As a whole, Content-X contributes to Egmont’s wish to change its processes to a media-neutral omnichannel workflow.
Egmont Publishing Norway works with an extensive range of content providers and Content-X enables both journalists, photographers and editors to submit and edit content from any given location. A web browser and an internet connection are all that is needed. The system contains a sophisticated task management. This makes it possible to assign stories to external journalists or order images from photographers via an upload request.
Extensive pilot phase
Following on from some demos and workshops, Content-X was one of three candidates considered by the company until an extensive test phase started in February 2018. Its aim was to almost fully implement the solution and to produce an actual magazine. The pilot phase was successfully implemented in May and June 2018 by ppi Media, Digital Collections and BrandMaster (Scandinavian distributor of DC-X), who worked in close collaboration with Egmont Publishing Norway. The weekly magazine called “Vi Menn” was produced during this phase. Tests were also carried out during this phase to make sure that content produced with Content-X can also be made available to other Egmont companies in Sweden and Denmark without problems.
Content-X sets the gold standard
In their search for a new publishing solution, Egmont Publishing Norway had set itself the ambitious goal of achieving a self-defined “gold standard” – meaning the ideal system for content management and production. What emerged from the successful pilot phase was that the Content-X-system could provide the technology needed for being able to work towards the strategic goal of managing content in the best possible way: “We had started defining our business needs regarding omni- channel content management as well as efficient print production by the beginning of 2017. Content-X was the contender that we felt best met our requirements. After working on a pilot project together, we learned that ppi Media, Digital Collections, and BrandMaster are partners that listen to our business needs and provide constructive suggestions. We believe that Content-X is a flexible system that allows for customization and scalability to support our needs and makes us fit to meet future challenges in our part of the media industry”, says Mr. Axel Walø, Publishing Director at Egmont Publishing Norway.
Dr. Hauke Berndt, CEO at ppi Media confirms that addressing the customer’s needs has been the overriding goal throughout the project: “We take great care to develop our products further together with our customers. This is an important success factor for us. In this particular case, we were even able to bring forward certain general goals of our Content-X roadmap and implement them in a way that suited the project.”
About Egmont Publishing Norway
Egmont is one of the three largest media groups in Norway and has a tradition going back over a hundred years. Egmont has a leading position in the Norwegian market in television, movies and cinema, magazines, online newspapers, and publishers. Egmont Publishing is Norway’s largest magazine store and publishes a number of weekly magazines. The company is the market leader in the magazine market and publishes many of the country’s oldest and best-selling weekly magazines and comics like Hjemmet, Vi Menn, Bonytt and Donald Duck.
About Digital Collections
Digital Collections (DC) is an internationally operating technology company based in Hamburg. More than 180 customers worldwide use DC’s solutions, which serve the needs of a wide range of industries such as media and publishing, corporate communications and public institutions. Digital asset management systems to organize and process texts, images audio and video files are amongst DC’s core competencies. This is how we enable you to make use of exactly the content you need in your work – both in your office and on the go.
About ppi Media
ppi Media GmbH is the leading international workflow specialist for newspaper and magazine publishers, as well as printers, corporate publishers and groups, and SMEs. Its main focus lies in the development of highly efficient software solutions on a global scale. ppi Media is the market leader in the field of automated newspaper production. 80% of all daily newspapers on the German market are produced using ppi Media products. Many more installations can be found in Asia, Europe, Africa and the USA. A subsidiary of the Eversfrank Group, ppi Media has its head office in Hamburg and branches in Kiel, Germany, and Chicago, USA.
About BrandMaster
BrandMaster is one of Europe’s leading marketing software and solution company. We provide online digital technology for customers who need marketing and brand management software tools to reduce time-to-market, increase control and lower marketing expenses. Established in 1998, BrandMaster has grown to become a knowledge-based company with long-term experience in marketing and branding management products and solutions based on the SAAS platform. Our products contribute to efficient and seamless marketing and brand management with a focus on collecting, sharing and distributing digital assets, communication flow and operations for brand, marketing and human relations managers.
