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Tribune Interactive Implements State-of-the-Art
Online Publishing Platform
Standards-based Web publishing
system speeds delivery of news and information to users and
gives advertisers access to innovative ads across 11 newspaper
sites
CHICAGO, November 26, 2001 --
Tribune Interactive, Inc., a leader in
interactive news and information Web sites and a subsidiary
of Tribune Company (NYSE:TRB),
announced today it has completed implementation of a proprietary
standards-based content management and publishing platform
that speeds delivery of breaking news to users across Tribune's
national network of news and information Web sites.
The platform, known internally as Oxygen, provides
a common state-of-the-art content production technology solution
to Tribune Interactive's 11 daily newspaper Web sites (including
chicagotribune.com,
latimes.com
and newsday.com),
automates content sharing among all the sites, and creates
standard advertising placements for national advertisers throughout
the network.
"This technology delivers significant
benefits on multiple levels," says David Hiller, president
of Tribune Interactive. "Our network of Web sites now
offers a lot more utility for both advertisers and consumers.
It's also a more efficient approach for managing Web content,
and allows us to take better advantage of Tribune's extraordinary
multimedia assets."
Speeds delivery of news and information
to users
Oxygen automates news feeds and posts breaking news faster
- delivering valuable news, information and utility to users
more quickly. Simultaneously, the new platform has helped
to improve load times of Web pages. The speed of some sites
improved as much as 10 seconds - from a 13 second to 3 second
load time.
Oxygen's extensive content database gives Tribune
Interactive's online producers and editors access to more
news stories and multimedia elements - including extensive
photo galleries, audio and video clips and other graphic files.
The database houses content from all of Tribune's 11 daily
newspapers and major market television stations and provides
Tribune Interactive producers the tools to create deeper,
more dynamic news coverage for users.
Users also benefit from access to select stories
from Tribune Interactive's network of sites. A user of South
Florida's sun-sentinel.com can read news stories from latimes.com
and vice versa. With regional news events of national interest,
such as the Oscars or the Olympics, Oxygen enables all Tribune
Interactive sites to include extensive coverage, without the
cost and time of original reporting per site.
Oxygen also provides standard registration
and customization tools that enable sites to offer geographically
targeted information such as weather and traffic updates.
Advertisers enjoy network-wide ad placements
The publishing platform creates standard ad units and positions,
including sponsorship opportunities, enabling advertisers
to reach a national audience across Tribune Interactive's
network, which reaches more than 7 million unique visitors
per month. It also allows Tribune Interactive to respond quickly
to online ad trends by designing and implementing new, innovative
ad units across its network of sites. Earlier this year, Tribune
Interactive was among only a handful of industry leaders to
quickly design, develop and begin selling new IAB (Interactive
Advertising Bureau) ad standards - such as the 300 x 250 story
level rectangle and the 120 x 600 skyscraper ads - across
all its sites. It also helps Tribune Interactive efficiently
assess ad inventory and track performance for its advertising
customers.
Implementation in record speed
In less than one year, Tribune Interactive converted 11 legacy
publishing systems to the standard online content management
and publishing platform. Tribune Interactive began implementation
in December 2000, at orlandosentinel.com. By Nov. 13 of this
year, Tribune Interactive technical and editorial teams completed
the network-wide implementation with the re-launch of www.stamfordadvocate.com
and www.greenwichtime.com.
"Tribune Interactive has led the industry
in designing and implementing a single-source solution to
a large network of sites," says Mike Plonski, vice president
and chief technology officer for Tribune Interactive. "Within
a six-week period we re-launched Tribune's three largest newspaper
sites - chicagotribune.com,
latimes.com
and newsday.com
- on the new platform."
The dynamic content engine is a standards-based
application that utilizes BEA's Java application server and
XML to better assist online producers and editors with the
creation and distribution of rich-media elements.
Over the past year, Tribune Interactive's network-wide
unique visitors have increased 50 percent. Newspaper sites
now operating on Oxygen include chicagotribune.com,
ctnow.com
(The Hartford Courant), dailypress.com
(Newport News, Va., Daily Press), greenwichtime.com,
latimes.com,
mcall.com
(Allentown, Pa., The Morning Call), newsday.com,
orlandosentinel.com,
stamfordadvocate.com,
sun-sentinel.com
and sunspot.net
(The Baltimore Sun). In addition, BlackVoices.com,
a leading online community site for African-Americans and
subsidiary of Tribune Interactive, implemented Oxygen in June
2001. Tribune's 23 TV station Web sites - including wgntv.com
(WGN-TV, Chicago), ktla.com
(KTLA-TV, Los Angeles) and wb11.com
(WPIX-TV, New York) - will all convert to the new platform
by first quarter 2002.
:: :: ::
Tribune Interactive operates leading
interactive news and information Web sites in major markets
across the United States, including 18 of the top 30. The
sites attract more than 7 million unique visitors per month,
and rank among the top 20 interactive news/information networks
in the country. |
