By automating print layout, Bonnier News Local saves production time, money

By Ronnie Willis

Naviga

Minnetonka, Minnesota, USA

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When Naviga first started discussing automated print layout a few years ago, the premise was simple: Get a list of articles, link their photos, and click the “newspaper” button.

Of course, it wasn’t exactly that simple, and it was much more than a question of technology.

Bonnier News Local in Sweden was one of the first organisations to ask the questions and take on the challenges, in partnership with Naviga. The results have been measurable.

“It has been a culture project involving changing workflows,” said Pia Rehnquist, business area manager for Bonnier News Local.

It involved changing workflows, changing some design and production practices, and pushing the boundaries of technology.

There have been many benefits to this change. For example:

  • Shifting deadlines for print production has eliminated “gaps” in the work day during which print producers were waiting for articles.
  • Adopting a common design across each of its titles made the automation process easier, and the flexibility in the design allowed reporters to focus on writing stories without worrying about the exact word count.
  • There have been significant cost savings in print production.

Today, Bonnier is working toward its goal of automating 70% of its pages across its 40 titles using Naviga print automation. The pilot publication began automating pages in December 2023. Bonnier has since rolled out print automation across several groups of publications, with improvements to the output after each iteration.

Any project of this scale will come with challenges. Those challenges are amplified when the technology is new. Rehnquist and the Bonnier team had one response for that: Challenge accepted.

Bonnier went into the project with the advantage of having already developed a strong digital focus. Rehnquist said nearly 60% of its subscriber base is digital. But print remains a key part of the Bonnier strategy, and many digital readers still prefer the e-paper product.

“This is a very important aspect of the automation project,” Rehnquist said of the e-paper. “We will have a very efficient way of making e-newspapers.”

A successful project involving significant process change requires significant collaboration and teamwork.

Rehnquist said Benjamin Peetre, senior business developer for Bonnier Local’s print products, has been a key driver of the project’s success.

“Benjamin is very ‘all-around,’” Rehnquist said. “He is from the layout (team). He’s a very good mathematician. He’s not afraid of technology, and he’s been very devoted.”

Peetre worked with newsroom leaders to understand production processes and deadlines. He also ensured Bonnier’s processes evolved with the technology’s increasing capabilities and stayed true to Bonnier’s business focus. “It’s a big organisation question,” Peetre said.

When Bonnier took on its redesign project, the goal was to simplify the design generally.

“Our goal was to make it easier to manually edit the pages,” Peetre said. “But (then) we thought that if it’s easier to manually edit the pages, it would be easier for (automation) to edit the pages as well. So, there’s no conflict between those goals.”

The added flexibility was also beneficial to reporters.

“In our earlier designs, you always had to have an article with that exact amount of characters in that position,” Peetre said. “We went for a more flexible design, and the idea behind that was that we don’t want the reporters to have to think about print at all. We don’t want the reporters to be forced to write articles with a specific length to fit a specific template.”

Having taken on the challenges of adopting new technology and evolving its organisational processes, Bonnier has positioned itself to evolve as the industry and reader preferences evolve. It has managed significant change within the organisation while making sure its focus stays on providing the journalism its readers expect.

About Ronnie Willis

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