La Stampa and JPI Media approach the ‘digital-first’ challenge from different perspectives, using the Atex editorial solution.
What does one of the most important Italian newspapers have in common with a giant that publishes over 200 newspapers in Great Britain? A decisive focus on digital-first workflows enabled by the same content management platform, Atex Desk.
La Stampa, a former Atex customer, adopted Desk in 2019, three years after the inception of the GEDI publishing group. The editorial staff of La Stampa have been using our editorial system since July 2019, when the new version of their website was launched. Atex specialists have then been working daily with journalists and technical teams at La Stampa since mid-February, when La Stampa’s digital-first initiative was announced. Together, they configured the system to enable a revolution which has resulted in La Stampa becoming the first Italian newspaper to implement digital-first workflows.
It is a change of gear that has also been successfully implemented at the UK publishing group JPI Media. Here the same Atex Desk system is used to publish The Scotsman, The Yorkshire Post and 200 more regional, local and hyperlocal newspapers. Combining technological and organisational changes, the results were immediate: JPI Media has seen page views increase by 24% in one year, most engaged users by 20% and unique users by 35%. Similar numbers were also reported by La Stampa, which critically saw its digital issue debut at the very beginning of the Coronavirus emergency. The fact that most work could be carried out using a browser-based client greatly helped the transition to home working.
Faced with the explosion of contradictory and unverified news, there was also a greater demand for quickly-produced, quality information. La Stampa was able to provide it, and was rewarded by the results.
With the new system, journalists who were not accustomed to digital workflows are now able to perform their jobs with ease via an intuitive web interface.
The organizational model of La Stampa has completely changed: the first editorial meeting now takes place at 7 am, and shifts are organized to provide cover throughout the day, with a large part of the editorial staff working from home. Journalists produce content for the web first, creating a much richer site than before. The results of this new mindset can be seen at www.lastampa.it
The latest version of Desk allows all journalists to work simultaneously on the same web page with a simpler and more dynamic approach.
If “technical” work becomes more intuitive and preparation takes less time, journalists can focus on content, providing higher quality information. Whilst the web editorial staff at La Stampa was previously in charge of the site content, digital workflows are now used by all journalists. For those not used to it, it is a cultural revolution as well as a technological one. And the change of course is bearing fruit as shown by the positive numbers.
