A newspaper’s role in delivering news and stories to their local communities requires a captivating and well-structured layout in print and digital e-edition formats. The design of a newspaper page is not merely about aesthetics; it is about guiding readers through content, prioritizing information and enhancing their reading experience. It is why subscribers prefer either the print or digital e-edition of the newspaper to a constant scroll of information.
Presteligence's Dynamic Production, an innovative tool that revolutionizes how newspaper layouts are created and managed, supports the notions of editorial traditions with a modern, efficient and automated methodology.
Dynamic Production streamlines the newspaper production process from content creation to layout design and digital publishing. It empowers editors and designers to create visually engaging newspaper layouts as efficiently as possible without losing the traditional design appeal that marks its identity.
One of the first steps in this process is figuring out what to write and where to put it. All content sits within the My News 360 content management system.
Stories are written here. Images are associated with stories here. Ads reside here.
The system supports content written directly within the My News 360 CMS or fed to us from third-party CMS systems like Blox. The 360 CMS supports searching, archiving and is permission based to expand or limit access by user login.
Next, product schedules are manually added or processed through integration with an ad pagination/layout system. The file typically includes information about the publication like date, sections, number of pages and location of ads on the pages. Ads or ad placeholders are shown in the thumbnail preview.
Editors can easily assign stories to pages or sections using our graphically oriented drag and drop budgeting tool. Designed by editor feedback, users can assign local stories and AP content to specified pages or sections. Stories can also be denoted as filler for designers to place if space allows.
Editors can take budgeting a step further and rank stories, designate the number of columns, column width, how many and what size photos to use, and edit the headline for print. Such decisions can also be made when building the page.
Page designers can use Dynamic Production’s built-in-automation or manual page building tools to layout page elements, stories, ads, images and more.
The system builds the page from left to right and top to bottom. It will attempt to fit the story based on the budgeted stories and the settings configured on screen for the number of columns, depth and layout strategy.
The resulting page options are presented as previews for the page designer to select the page they desire. This page can then be edited and adjusted as needed.
The last step is the review and approval process. Pages put into Waiting for Review status indicate they are ready for editing/approval. Editors can receive an email when pages are ready for review and follow the link to preview the page online, request or make corrections, or accept the page. Once approved, the page is automatically transmitted for print and/or e-edition.
Dynamic Production, at its core, is built for automation and efficiency. The goal is to give publishers the ability to create a publication with a “minimal steps” approach to reduce the time spent building pages.
Dynamic Production accomplishes that goal by:
4. Page delivery to CTP is hands off. Once pages are approved, they are transmitted for final output for print and/or digital edition. Pages can be renamed based on output location and color versus black. This eliminates the extra time spent saving, renaming and uploading files and prevents human error in such tasks.
From headline placement to image sizing, users have the flexibility to tailor layouts to match their editorial vision while maintaining consistency and professionalism across pages. By leveraging automation and intelligent design features, editorial workflows are optimized to deliver high-quality newspapers with ease. Rather than manually placing content on pages, the system uses the selected parameters to automatically prepare content filled pages and display a variety of options for the designer to use.
Dynamic Production simplifies online collaboration among advertising and editorial teams, allowing multiple users to work simultaneously on various aspects of the layout.
Users claim pages by enabling the “page claim” button. Editorial teams can claim specific sections or pages to work on individually. Pages are denoted to other users as claimed and remain locked until the user updates the page status and unclaims the page. Editors can then approve or request changes back to the designer. This method streamlines the entire production workflow, reducing errors and saving valuable time.
A well-designed newspaper layout is not only aesthetically pleasing but also strategically crafted to convey information effectively.
Dynamic Production makes it easy to create a hierarchy of page elements.
For example:
This approach ensures that newspaper layouts are not only visually appealing but also strategically optimized to captivate and retain readers' attention.
Presteligence's Dynamic Production offers publishers a powerful toolset to create effective newspaper layouts. By combining automation and customization, Dynamic Production empowers publishers to optimize their workflows and deliver high-quality design that resonates with readers.
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