When Carpenter Media Group (CMG) began evaluating its print production workflow, it determined that streamlining editorial processes and systems across the group was a primary goal. The company wanted a more consistent way to produce newspapers for its growing portfolio of publications while making life easier for local editors and production teams.
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To accomplish this, Carpenter Media Group partnered with Presteligence to implement Dynamic Production, Presteligence’s automated page building platform including its content management system. The company determined The Daily News (Bowling, Kentucky) and nine other newspapers spanning Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee would be the first to deploy.
Before anyone started building pages in the new system, however, Carpenter Media Group focused on something more important: establishing common standards.
One of the first steps of this project for CMG was to create a unified design approach that could be adapted across the group’s diverse portfolio of newspapers. Representatives from editorial, production and corporate teams worked together to standardize page templates, typography, section fronts and other design elements while still accommodating the unique characteristics of individual publications, including both broadsheet and tabloid formats. The effort required significant planning upfront, but it simplified future deployments, streamlined production and provided greater consistency across publications.
After these standards were finalized, Presteligence converted the master files into Dynamic Production page templates and story templates, utilizing their requested paragraph styles and fonts.
The planning invested during this phase would ultimately pay dividends throughout the rollout and beyond, creating a scalable foundation for replication across regions.
Every successful implementation has champions, and for the initial rollout, that champion was Joe Imel, regional publisher of the Central Kentucky group.
As a hands-on learner, Imel embraced the opportunity to work directly with the system and help refine workflows that best fit his team's editorial process, while keeping in mind best practices for the entire organization. Presteligence worked alongside the group through weekly implementation meetings, regular training sessions and day-to-day support whenever questions arose.
Together, the teams developed a workflow that felt natural to editors and designers.
Stories move through an “Edited” folder before advancing to a “Ready for Print” folder, giving editors clear visibility and control of budgeting content. Once stories are placed on pages, automation moves them into archive folders, keeping active workspaces clean and organized without requiring manual maintenance.
As this workflow progressed, the transition accelerated dramatically. From that point forward, Imel and his team embraced the system with confidence.
Today, Imel’s group regularly completes production ahead of deadline. What once required significant manual effort has become a streamlined production workflow that allows editorial teams to spend less time building pages and more time producing quality journalism.
Since implementing Dynamic Production, Carpenter Media Group has transformed the way its production teams operate. The results were immediate and measurable:
While the measurable improvements are significant, perhaps the greatest benefit has been giving newsroom staff more time to focus on journalism instead of repetitive production tasks.
As the implementation progressed, Carpenter Media Group identified another opportunity to simplify operations.
Historically, editorial staff often published stories separately for print and then copied the same content into their websites — a repetitive process that introduced unnecessary duplication.
To eliminate that extra work, Presteligence developed a custom WordPress integration that allows content to originate entirely within the Presteligence CMS and export it for web.
Stories are automatically delivered to the appropriate publication websites based on categories, tags and publication assignments, eliminating duplicate entry while ensuring each site maintains its unique organizational structure. Although Carpenter Media Group manages its websites centrally, individual publications retain the flexibility to organize content in ways that best serve their readers.
The result is a single publishing workflow that supports both print and digital operations.
As more publications prepared to join the platform, another opportunity emerged.
Originally, all publications shared a common portal. As adoption expanded, Presteligence worked with CMG to organize publications into regional portals, allowing newsroom staff to more easily share stories and collaborate with the publications they work with most frequently.
Corporate administrators continue to maintain organization-wide access, providing flexibility to share content across all publications whenever needed.
This balance between regional collaboration and centralized oversight has become an important component of Carpenter Media Group's long-term publishing strategy.
The success of the Central Kentucky rollout quickly demonstrated that the model could scale.
Following the initial implementation, Carpenter Media Group expanded Dynamic Production to an additional 10 newspapers in Oregon. Eighty Canadian publications represent another significant milestone with all of these papers transitioning within a 30-day window.
Each rollout benefits from the lessons learned during previous implementations, making every deployment more efficient than the last.
Large-scale implementations are rarely about software alone.
They require thoughtful planning, open communication and a willingness to adapt as organizations evolve. Throughout the implementation, Presteligence and Carpenter Media Group worked side by side to refine workflows, answer questions and ensure the platform aligned with the needs of editorial, production and corporate teams alike.
“Large-scale implementations are about much more than software — they're about people, processes and establishing standards that can support long-term growth. Presteligence partnered with us throughout that journey, and together we've built a publishing environment that's more efficient today and well-positioned for the continued expansion of Carpenter Media Group.”
-Lisa Griffin, chief technology officer, Carpenter Media Group
Together, the organizations have created more than an automated production workflow. They have built a scalable publishing platform capable of supporting continued growth across Carpenter Media Group's expanding portfolio of publications.
What began with 10 newspapers in Kentucky has become the blueprint for an enterprise-wide transformation.
As additional regions come online and new publications join the platform, Carpenter Media Group continues to build upon a standardized workflow that simplifies production, streamlines digital publishing and gives newsroom staff more time to focus on creating the local journalism their communities depend on.
For Presteligence, the project represents more than a successful implementation. It demonstrates what is possible when technology is paired with collaboration, thoughtful planning and a shared commitment to continuous improvement.
