PRESS RELEASE
LONDON, March 29–An online news editing and publishing service designed for regional and local newspapers, Internet and newsletter publishers–at just a fraction of the cost of similar services–launched today (Wednesday).
RAPIDPublish.info already has its first customer, the North West Enquirer, a weekly newspaper based in Manchester.
With RAPIDPublish.info, the user can access and file news items and pictures from selected agencies and set up filters to receive up-to-the-minute reports of breaking news and running stories. The items can be opened and edited on-screen, and then forwarded to colleagues or sent directly to page make-up or to a web page online.
The service is available from just GBP32 (46 euros) a month, making it an ideal and affordable system for smaller publishing groups and newsletter producers.
RAPIDPublish.info has been designed by KnowledgeView Ltd, of London, using its hugely successful RAPID Browser software and integrating Adobe’s latest publishing software, including InCopy and InDesign. KnowledgeView has also signed up with content providers such as PR Newswire, GNN Government News Network and CCN Matthews to provide news to subscribers immediately at no cost. Users can also subscribe to Dow Jones Newswire and Independent News and Media services. Industry RSS news feeds are also available.
Publishers can sign up to the service online at www.rapidpublish.info and begin to use it immediately using any web browser.
Roberto Minio, Technical Director at KnowledgeView, said: “For editorial efficiency, the RAPIDPublish.info platform is based on a modern concept of newsdesks for multi-channel publishing, so that journalists can easily publish to paper, web or other devices.
“KnowledgeView’s and Adobe’s support for XML tagging makes it easy for journalists to publish a developing story on several platforms. This approach, while helping to increase circulation and advertising revenues, also allows the modern publisher to have a firmer handle on the use of his own content on-line, an issue raised recently by the World Association of Newspapers’ complaint on the ‘unauthorised use’ of its content by web harvesters.”
The North West Enquirer, RAPIDPublish.info’s first customer, is a new weekly newspaper launching in May with a target circulation of 20,000. It will cover Cumbria, Lancashire, Cheshire, Merseyside and Greater Manchester.
Bob Waterhouse, the editor, said the choice of service was made after several systems were tested. RAPIDPublish.info was selected because of its powerful news content management, flexible editorial workflow, multi-publishing capabilities and low cost of ownership.
About KnowledgeView Ltd
KnowledgeView Ltd is a UK-based company with headquarters in London and offices in the Middle East. The company was founded in 1995 to develop cross-media publishing, news management and editorial sharing systems. KnowledgeView’s customers include Independent News and Media, Guardian Media Group, News Corporation and the Washington Post. In the Middle East, KnowledgeView is a leading newspaper integrator providing consultancy as well as technology, acting as a marketing and technology bridge between Europe and the Arab World.
KnowledgeView’s RAPID Browser is a powerful news management and editorial sharing system for automating acquisition, classification and enhancement of news and media content and creating packages for cross-media publishing, designed to streamline production and create additional revenues.
RAPID Browser has set the standard for the next generation of news management systems, with its ability to gather content from a wide variety of sources such as news agencies, correspondents’ reports, RSS and Web harvested feeds; and the power it puts in the hands of users to define their own ways of filtering and acting on items that match their interests. By integrating RAPID Browser with Adobe publishing software, KnowledgeView provides integrated editorial and publishing systems for newspapers.
RAPID Archive, integrated with the enterprise-class TEXTML Server, provides strategic rich-media archiving for publishers.