Case Study: The “Paperless Newsroom” at Al-Bayan Newspaper Based on the article “Al-Bayan Newspaper’s Technological Revolution with the Paperless Newsroom” by Shaker NOORY Published on: Thursday, 28 Ramadan 1433 AH / 16 August 2012 A Issue 11747 Al-Bayan

Al-Bayan Newspaper’s Technological Revolution with the “Paperless Newsroom”: Flexible software solutions to reduce time and effort. “Al Bayan” established its own successful path by choosing to abandon the usage of paper in the production of the newspaper.

From old-school procedures to state-of-the-art technology

In a step towards technological perfection, Al-Bayan has left behind old-school procedures: stacked piles of paper, small printers and ink cartridges, that once were indispensable for the daily tasks at the newspaper, are now replaced by the latest technological solution. After thirty years of steady success, Al-Bayan aspires to achieve even more. The “Paperless Newsroom” made it possible: The production process is now fully electronic.

- A program to simplify the production workflow. - A new era according to well-set technological standards.

- Al-Bayan: A case study for 300 media professionals.

- The newspaper left traditional procedures behind and moves into a Paperless Newsroom.

- Staff members have quickly assimilated the process of a paperless workflow for publishing the newspaper.

- Executive Directors and Management follow up

on the pages through their iPads, from inside the establishment or remotely; keeping up with the stages of completion.

Creative ideas According to Ahmed Al Sheikh, CEO of Dubai Media Incorporated, the idea of relying on electronic solutions to complete the production process of AlBayan is in line with the vision of DMI to keep up with the Electronic Government project launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, vice president, prime minister and the ruler of Dubai. IT solutions, standardized procedures and quality assurance regulations are put together to optimize the work environment.

Keeping up with the ever-changing world Da’en Shahin, the Editor-in-Chief and CEO of Al-Bayan tells us about the changes that lead to the creation of the “Paperless Newsroom”. When it was established, thirty years ago, Al-Bayan was a major breakthrough in the press industry. Located in a dedicated building, Al-Bayan brought in the 1980s innovation to the Arab World: the newsroom met global standards with an open-space design promoting communication, teamwork, development and expansion. When economic, sports and cultural supplements star ted to add on the 24-pages newspaper, the newsroom was divided into dedicated sections. However, this separation has affected human interaction and communication. The need for an integrated newsroom was imminent; the “Paperless Newsroom” was established. Regarding the effectiveness of the Paperless Workflow, Shahin says: “At some stages, we still have to use paper, but we aim to make the newsroom totally paper-free. Al-Bayan currently relies on a complete electronic workflow; as long as the team is armed with belief in our vision, we will transcend the limits of time and space.” The new program also provides additional features such as a tool to monitor the productivity of editors and section heads.

Innovative procedures

New procedures govern the Paperless workflow, taking into account the specific regulations and standards of the design process that employees, executives and directors, have to follow. With adaptable existing templates, these procedures control the production process. Al-Bayan has founded an electronic bank of templates, stored for later usage: the mid-desk can choose among 150 to 200 templates which provide flexibility at work. Also, editors and technical managers can make modifications electronically.

Effective time management The need to reduce waste of time in the making of the newspaper created the need for a new solution that provides effective time management. According to Omar Al Omar, head of the Editorial Department, the new program introduced discipline to the production workflow: the monitoring tool for the pages allows a smoother well-timed process.

Quantum leap A completely paperless environment at a newspaper can only be achieved gradually and requires a cer tain adaptation period to the alternative technologies. Al Omar mentions that “staff members were very cooperative and succeeded in assimilating the new system and giving up on the usage of paper”.

Within one week of the implementation, Al-Bayan was able to complete 85% of the newspaper without recourse to paper. This accomplishment presents shortterm advantages when it comes to the evident cost reduction in terms of paper, ink and printing equipment, as well as the decreased production time. New technologies are put to the service of editors who can now work using any tool from webcams to videos and laptops to iPads. In addition, the different departments of the newspaper are now interconnected: the journalist can par ticipate in the design of the newspaper. Using the QRcode technology, the newspaper operates as a unified platform. These changes give editors and technical editorial staff members an opportunity to apply and widen their creative skills.

Integrated Newsroom Al-Bayan has left behind old habits, papers and pens, and entered the new era of press media. The Newsroom is open to all staff members in the editorial, technical and photography departments. Technology has tear down virtual walls and barriers;

communication and interaction are now concrete. Omar Al Omar talks about setting up a broadcast studio from the newsroom to connect to the DMI network acoustically and visually. This is intended to reinforce the news division of the network from news transmission and commenting to on-air illustrative material. The Integrated Newsroom, the core of DMI’s ambitious project, is to become the unified roof under which big entities such as TV channels, publications and newspapers operate.

Information Technology At the core of Al-Bayan’s infrastructure is the Information Technology (IT) department headed by Najla Abdul Kader Al Kasem, Director of IT. According to Al Kassem, the Paperless Newsroom project has been budgeted for a long time. Upon the request of Da’en Shahin, Editor-in-Chief and CEO of Al-Bayan, the implementation of the project was accelerated. Procedures were reassessed in order to reach a solution for the bigger question: How to operate in a newspaper without paper ?

 

Electronic Page Production Cycle Info-graphic: Ahmed Abbas A newspaper's page goes through a long cycle of different editorial and design stages that previously consumed a lot of paper, time and effort. Al-Bayan introduced the Electronic page technology and significantly saved time and effort in the production process. Keeping up with the latest technologies, Al-Bayan remains at the forefront as leaders and avant-gardes. 1- The Sub-Editor chooses the appropriate template from the electronic library. 2- The Editor puts notes for the appropriate distribution of articles and images and then sends them to the Page Production department. 3- The executive works on the page and then sends it back to the SubEditor for review. 4- The Sub-Editor makes required modifications on the text electronically. 5- The Executive executes modifications on the page and sends it to the Central Sub-Editor for final annotations. 6- The Executive executes the final changes and sends the page to the Correction Department (PDF) 7- The page is sent for printing (CTP)

100% compliance to the new electronic system Art Direction department can intervene at all stages of production to make modifications.

Source: "Al Bayan"