Prepress
Australian Financial Review goes live with Méthode Portal Server
Monday 14. December 2009 - As the first stage of a multiple-media project the Australian business daily has moved its online operations to EidosMedias advanced Web delivery platform
Australias leading financial and business daily, The Australian Financial Review has moved production of its digital channel to EidosMedias Web CMS, the Méthode Portal Server. The move is part of a reorganisation that has merged the papers print and Web operations into a single multiple-media newsroom. Transfer of print production to the Méthode platform is scheduled for early next year.
“The opportunity of the new platform was to truly combine our newspaper, magazine and Web operations,” said Michael Gill, chief executive and editor-in-chief of the Financial Review Group. “Now we follow a single-copy principle with online and print publication being fed from the same content base.”
The papers digital channel (www.afr.com) is a subscription-based service and subscriber access is managed automatically by the platform. The platform incorporates an innovative DRM feature: articles can only be read by bona fide subscribers – copying and pasting outside the subscribers browser renders them illegible.
The adoption of Méthode has brought immediate productivity and revenue benefits. “Weve been very impressed by the speed of the new platform,” said Michael Gill. “Its noticeably faster than the old system in every respect. Writers can see updates and additions published online almost instantaneously, compared with a delay of several minutes with the old system. Reader response is much faster and weve found it really easy to roll out new sections.”
The AFR also makes use of Méthodes News Planning feature – a shared workspace where proposals for news coverage can be linked to text and media sources before being assigned to specific individuals and teams and entering the newsroom workflow.
“The AFR has taken full advantage of Méthodes productivity features to create a highly streamlined news operation,” commented Gabriella Franzini, EidosMedia Group CEO. “Its been very satisfying to see how they have been able to use the platform to deliver immediate benefits and added value for their subscriber base.”
After the print edition of the Australian Financial Review in January next year, the next stage of the project will see transfer to Méthode of the magazine Business Review Weekly and its associated portal, followed by the other titles in the groups portfolio.