Fit to Print
Tecnavia Press is helping daily newspapers stay relevant in the information age-and finding a wealth of new opportunities in the process.
BY BECKY ALDRIGE
With the Web-information explosion,many pundits and even everyday people have begun to question the future of the daily print newspaper. Well, it looks like the future is now, and its name is NewsMemory. This electronic edition conversion software is the creation of Tecnavia Press Inc., the Burnsville-based division of Swiss media-industry technology and meteorology giant Tecnavia. The NewsMemory software allows users to view an entire printed newspaper in online form the same day it premiers in print. With NewsMemory, publishers and readers alike are spared heavy PDF downloads, proprietary viewers, or time-consuming plug-ins. “There’s no need to download anything,” says Jill Ryan, a Tecnavia software developer.
From a competitive standpoint, that puts NewsMemory e-editions ahead of the pack—they’re quick and use only a single browser screen.
So how does NewsMemory work? Apublication sends Tecnavia the same files used to publish its print edition. In a total of only three to four hours, the NewsMemory software converts the files to interactive HTML and images. “Our presentation is unique in that it’s much like browsing a standard Web site,” says Diana Amato, Tecnavia’s national sales manager.
Introduced in 2002, NewsMemory became a quick hit. Florida Today, a Gannett Co. paper and sister publication of USA Today, signed on immediately. Now, in 2007, Tecnavia works with the entire Gannett organization to put out eeditions of nearly 250 titles, including the Arizona Republic, with a daily circulation of 500,000, and The Detroit Free Press, with a circulation of about 350,000. Amato says clients “have been very excited” with NewsMemory’s capabilities. “It’s gained them readership, circulation numbers, and market reach.”
And Gannett has found another important use for NewsMemory—as an aid in its Newspapers in Education (NIE) program in which teachers use daily newspapers as a classroom teaching tool. “They used to deliver hard copies,” Amato explains. “With the Web so popular with kids, Gannett decided on an electronic version of the program.”
One of the most recent developments with the software application is giving users with PDAs access to the same print newspapers. Introduced as an add-on service for clients in January, “it’s still in beta mode,” Amato says, with about a half-dozen or so clients using the latest feature.