CONTACT: Heather Nagel
Morris DigitalWorks
706-823-3580
hnagel@morris.com
Newsroom-built publishing software pulls newspaper and news-station together
AUGUSTA, Ga. Morris DigitalWorks, the online services department of Morris Communications Company, announced today that WBRZ News Channel 2 and The Advocate newspaper, both of Baton Rouge, La., will both be using two key components of the Morris publishing software suite as their daily, online publishing solution.
Morris' SiteWeaver and BoXTool components are the first newsroom-built tools specifically designed for a newsroom's workflow and publication schedule. Wbrz.com and The Advocate are among the first of a growing trend of newsroom/online convergence strategies.
"Our software is distinctive because its flexible interface allows newsrooms to automatically generate and maintain things like index pages, headlines, summaries and links," said Michael Romaner, director of online services for Morris. "This is the first time weve combined our tools for a newspaper and television station partnership, and its pretty exciting."
"Its amazing how much time we've saved now that we have the ability to pull quickly and easily from Quark," said Freda Yarbrough, new media director for The Advocate. " We really like the organization and customization features of the Morris products because they're easy to use and have specific media and news production focus."
"We looked around for a long time at media-specific software solutions. The Morris software stood out because it would easily work with our existing front-end systems as well as any front-end system that we install in the future," said Hunter Manship, new media development manager for WBRZ- News 2. "SiteWeaver also allows us to build a bridge between The Advocate and WBRZ sites and still keep separate market identities."
Morris Communications is a privately held media company with diversified holdings that include newspaper and magazine publishing, outdoor advertising, radio broadcasting, book publishing and distribution, and computer services. For more information, visit www.morris.com.
