The Universal Publication Archive

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The Universal Publication Archive

• presented by Rande Simpson
• MerlinOne, Inc.

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MerlinOne backgrounder

• Founded in 1988, MIT engineering AP news photo
  heritage
• Evolved from satellite image transmission to
  image archives in 1993
• Remained experts in news content gathering and
  distribution applications
• Private, profitable, growing
• Mature, feature-rich products
• Merlin in 4.2 release
• Largest DBs in our markets millions and
  millions of objects with thousands of users

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MerlinOne users and applications

• Newspapers, Magazines
• New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post,
  Boston Globe, Time-Life Archives, Time Magazine,
  Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune, Christian
  Science Monitor, Kansas City Star
• Electronic publishing
• Corbis, MSNBC, Bloomberg, Landov Photos,
  Washington Post/Newsweek Interactive
• Corporate institutional publishing
• Executive Office of the President (White House),
  Pfizer, Marvel Comics, Harvard University,
  Habitat For Humanity, World Vision

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The Universal Publishing Archive
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Publishing archives to date....

• Unique workflows for text, photo, line art,
  pages...
• Evolved into separate archives for text, photos,
  art, pages...

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Digital Archives

• Initial Digital Archives automated existing
  analog workflows
• 80-90s vintage computing storage added other
  constrains
• Resulted in Individual systems for texts, photos,
  advertising...
• Individual department focus

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Todays computing environment removes tech
barriers

• Desktop publishing unifies text, photo, ad,
  pagination workflows into integrated digital
  process
• Cheap storage, CPUs, big displays
• Widespread access to the networks, the web,
  e-mail
• Most of the 1980-90s technical restrictions
  eliminated

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Todays business environment changes archive needs

• Newspapers change
• More pictures, color, ads, sections, zones, niche
  titles
• Newspaper web site, web-specific content
• Departmental organizations evolve, importance of
  IT
• More freelancing more rights issues
• Publishers change
• More and bigger chains
• Combination with broadcast
• Greater demand for content to feed new channels
• Even greater requirements for efficiency and to
  do more with less

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So what would you want in an archive TODAY?
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Publishers have been asking about

• One place for all content created at the paper
  (non-print too)
• One point to access and share content internally
• One point to share content across the chain
• One place to find company content as source to
  repackage and generate new revenue
• A Universal publishing archive

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What is a Universal Archive?
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What to archive for the newspaper?

• All production PDF pages
• Represents digital publication master of what
  was actually printed
• Full resolution to allow highest quality
  reproduction later
• Real PDF retains text internal structures
• All related source content used to create page
• Photos, text, graphics in their source file
  formats
• In source resolution (often higher than page)
• Unretouched, uncropped images (page or history
  shows that)

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What else to archive?

• Related content that helps reuse and adds value
• Related photo outtakes
• Unique web content too HTML, Flash, MP3..
• Card catalogue records of physical content
  (video, objects, film) with thumbnail,
  video/sound clip previews
• Ad files too, as art and for ad pickup/reruns
• Production formats (to make changes easier)
• Keep fonts (needed by production apps to recreate
  older pages)

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Capture input content at the source

• Interfaces with editorial production systems
  automates capture of key metadata
• Publication/section/page/zone, Content ID, page
  location
• Extract metadata using industry standards-XML,
  XMP
• Link content to assignment, rights, freelancer
  agency DB
• Links content objects to pages

Universal Archive
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Enhance Content

• Must be easier as more content is stored with
  tools like
• Type-aheads
• Stored text strings
• Easy linking of various object types
• Search and replace
• Auto-keywording
• Joining stories

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Search and find everything
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Linked pages

• Run search
• Find page
• Displays contents
• Click to see source objects of text, graphics,
  photos
• Download for use

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Multi-view
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Flexible views that end-users can modify
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Sharing

• Peer to peer, across systems

City 1
City 2
City 3 Central System
Local access

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System scaling

• Support large system, millions of objects,
  thousands of users
• Fault tolerant configurations
• Streamline systems to minimize IT impact

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Automated distribution

• Must be able to setup exports
• Online resale vendors
• Web versions
• Automatic delivery through e-mail
• Redistill PDFs for Electronic Tearsheets
• Other resale and revenue outlets

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In practice

• Tampa Tribune (convergence)
• Tribune Publishing (content sharing)
• Storing everything
• Traditional image archives adding text
• Many sites now store text, photos, graphics, PDF
  pages
• CCI sites automating linking of all publication
  content

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Who needs a Universal Archive?
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Everyone
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Thank You

• Rande Simpson
• MerlinOne, Inc