A newspaper’s most valuable assets are information and the ability of writers, editors, and advertisers to tailor that information to suit the needs of its readers. DTI’s NewsSpeed Editorial/Pagination Suite helps you unify your data so this valuable information is not locked into a format that is designed for one purpose-to put news on paper.

For most newspapers, news data is stored in the editorial system, advertising data is stored in the display ad production or classified productions system and the business system. Images are kept on a file server or OPI server, and so on for every other kind of information that is vital to a newspaper.

Newspapers can overcome this obstacle by getting the data in a database-a central location, managed centrally, copied for fault tolerance and duplicated for redundancy. Most important is getting the data in an open standard database-meaning one that has been defined and designed as open and truly remains open, even when new technology develops. The current open-standards database technology is SQL.

Having a system that unifies the data in an SQL database means the data becomes independent from the program that created it–information presented as a display ad or news page layout is not locked into that format. The data is able to take on the form requested by the client computers networked to the database.

Another standard used by the DTI systems is XML (NITF and NEWSML). Content stored with XML tags in an open database can be served to multiple print and electronic publications, is more easily shared, and can be automatically paginated.

Pagination Database

DTI’s Pagination Database allows multiple users to work on the same page/section at the same time. While each user works on his portion of a page, he can see what other users are doing as the page is periodically updated. For more information on editorial pagination, see DTI product PlanSpeed.

Editorial Database

DTI’s Editorial Database is an integral part of the PageSpeed and SpeedWriter applications. The database controls copy flow, wire story routing, archiving and searching among other things.

SpeedWriter, runs on local desktop reporter and editor computers, and includes the full functionality of Adobe InCopy for text editing. All of the database directories, search capabilities, and copy routing features familiar to SpeedWriter users remain. Stories can be wrttien to fit and will match the page layout exactly. In fact, writers have the option to edit stories in the exact shape they will appear on the page, making widows, orphans, or bad run-arounds obvious, and headline fitting exact. Behind the scenes, there will be no compromise as there is when stories are edited in a different program. Any changes made in SpeedWriter, or later as the story is edited directly on a page, are always in sync. The story exists once, and is stored in the database and accessed by any of the client programs.

The NewsSpeed editorial suite integrates the complete Adobe InDesign program into its PageSpeed pagination software. In addition to every feature of InDesign, PageSpeed will offer database directories of all page components from stories, to graphics, to ads, through the Data Center. The Data Center also manages workflow and routing. The Design Center captures a newspaper’s page design rules and enables PageSpeed’s powerful computer-automated pagination.

DTI now has editorial and pagination systems installed at sites with hundreds of users, all with simultaneous access to database servers, as well as small daily newspapers with minimal server configurations and a dozen or so terminals. This scalability of the DTI system allows larger newspapers to take a graduated approach to system installations. Instead of throwing the old system out all at once, the DTI system is well suited to take on a section of the newspaper at a time. DTI’s software modules are easily integrated with existing systems. This modularity and compatibility with other programs makes it possible to adopt DTI solutions into present operations and gradually move toward a complete database-centered system.

Sharing

Because of DTI’s unique database design, DTI databases can be logically unified, even when they physically reside in different geographic locations. This means databases can exchange information across a WAN (Wide Area Network), allowing newspapers within a chain to economically share stories, ads and even full pages.