Norwegian News Group Upgrades 1,000 Quark Licenses

A-Pressen, one of Norway's largest and most influential media groups, has made a commitment to Quark by upgrading 1,000 licenses of QuarkXPress 7.

A-Pressen, one of Norway's largest and most influential media groups, has made a commitment to Quark by upgrading 1,000 licenses of QuarkXPress 7.

A-Pressen has been using QuarkXPress and Quarkcopydesk throughout its businesses for more than 15 years and produces 50 local newspapers with 400,000 daily editions.

In an increasingly competitive environment, reducing costs and improving productivity are essential for survival, according to Quark, which is why A-Pressen required a system that would offer a return on investment and that could provide the tools to help it streamline publishing processes, reduce costs and increase overall efficiency.

QuarkXPress 7 will assist with the syndication of content and improve workflow across A-Pressen's many newspapers.

As long-tern users of QuarkXPress, the existing knowledge of the application within the A-Pressen was an important factor in the decision to upgrade.

Tom Lekang, chief information officer at A-Pressen, said the company was impressed with the rate of return on its investment and the Composition Zones feature of QuarkXPress 7.

He commented: "After thorough analysis, we concluded that QuarkXPress 7 provided the highest return of investment, compared to other products on the market.

We are constantly looking to reduce costs whilst increasing quality and efficiency." He continued "QuarkXPress 7 is the most significant upgrade yet and its new features offer substantial benefits to users in all parts of the publishing process.

Our goal is for all members in the production line to view the same content in real time and QuarkXPress 7 provides us with the tools to do this." Norwegians read more newspapers per capita than any other country in the world, according to Quark, which makes it a challenging area in which to operate.

In addition, newspapers must provide accurate and up-to-date information, whilst facing competition from traditional newspaper houses and new media companies.

It is, therefore, critical to have the proper tools in place to be efficient, creative and successful.

A-Pressen's chief information officer, Lekang said: "QuarkXPress 7 is the only design and page layout software that offers the revolutionary Composition Zones.

This means our journalists can write-to-fit, filling the exact parts of a newspaper page, reduces the time for layout.

Graphic artists and editors can assign editorial content earlier in the production process compared to traditional text flow and all members can collaborate and see the same content, independent of their location." Saxotech, which is a Scandinavian system providers, are working to implement QuarkXPress 7, enabling A-Pressen, to focus on their core competencies.

" Saxotech sees QuarkXPress 7 as a big step forward for the newspaper industry.

We are happy that we have a strong and close relationship with Quark and are pleased to offer full integration with the Saxotech Editorial workflow management system," said Glenn Andersen, general manager of Saxotech.

Ed Ewing, Quark's sales director for northern Europe, said: "The newspaper industry is a challenging marketplace and Quark remains committed to working closely with A-Pressen to ensure its future successes.

We are thrilled that a company of A-Pressen's size and stature has committed to Quark to achieve its objectives of reducing costs and improving productivity.

We see more newspapers upgrading to QuarkXPress 7 and this is testament to its power and flexibility, which demonstrates the newspaper industry's confidence in the software." A-Pressen employs 2,500 people in newspaper publishing, printing, TV, and electronic media.

It is the largest owner of local newspapers in Norway, being the majority owner of 48 newspapers.

The group also holds strong positions in local radio, local TV and online media, with eight local TV-stations and 30 local radio stations, as well as holding 50 per cent of TV2, the leading commercial TV-channel in Norway.

A-pressen has 2,500 employees.

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