In 2020, the Swedish publisher decided to simplify its newspapers’ print layout process by investing in new technology. The company partnered with a Norwegian start-up Aptoma, and over the next year and a half worked to integrate their products into Schibsted Media Platform, the companywide CMS.

The automation features are now in use at six of the publisher’s newspapers, with impressive results. At Aftenposten, 80% of print pages are now produced using the automated workflow. At Bergens Tidende, Norway’s largest newspaper outside Oslo, the print layout design workflow is now fully automated.

Thanks to the efficiencies stemming from the new process, the same work can now be done by fewer people, said Fredric Karén, SVP Editorial (digital transformation) at Schibsted. For example, Bergens Tidende’s print desk has shrunk from eight to three people.

Karén joined WAN-IFRA’s recent virtual Newsroom Summit to present new automation features at Schibsted, and to discuss what benefits the publisher seeks from automation.

The recording of the full presentation is available below this article.

Web-based tool to streamline layout process

The new features that Schibsted integrated into their CMS have simplified the publisher’s tech stack, Karén said: instead of having separate tech for the website and paper, the same tool is used for both outputs.

Concerning print design, the web-based tool uses AI to assess the elements that are selected for a page, such as the length of the article and the number of pictures, and suggests a template for the layout. The user can also choose a different template, or edit the layout manually. The tool uses HTML & CSS for its design components and templates, and it has eliminated the need to use Adobe InDesign, which was previously used for layout design.

Watch a demonstration of the automation tool below.

The new features also include a tool for the automatic creation of a newspaper’s front page. The user can select the stories to be included on the front page, and the tool automatically creates a layout using predefined templates. This layout can also be manually adjusted.

Helping journalists focus on value creation

When discussing the benefits that have come from implementing this new tool, Karén explained the broader perspective that Schibsted takes when deciding on what new technologies it wants to adopt.

“Our aim is to make processes in the newsroom as simple and automated as possible, so that journalists can spend more time on value creation,” he said.

“We focus a lot on value creation. Is it valuable for us or the reader that we have big print team, moving things around in an InDesign template? Can we move people to do something more valuable, maybe to the digital desk? And can we simplify the tech setup and save money?”

An additional motivation behind the introduction of the automated workflow was the fact that the publisher’s print staff is getting older, and it is difficult to find journalists who are interested in working with print, Karén said.

Text-to-speech audio products bring engagement

He also presented the company’s new initiative that uses text-to-speech technology, although it is still early days for this project compared to print automation.

Karén said that Schibsted’s motivation for experimenting with audio products is to explore new ways to engage audiences. “A lot of people spend time on screens, where competition is extreme. We compete with Netflix, and other news outlets, local and international,” he said. Instead, could audio articles be used to attract people that are on the move, or for some other reason don’t want to look at a screen?

From the start, it was important that the audio output of this technology wouldn’t be what Karèn called “a robot voice”: “Those services have been around for a while, and not very successful. We wanted a voice that people could recognise and is nice to listen to.”

Partnering with the UK-based company BeyondWords, they approached one of Schibsted’s most prominent podcast hosts and asked if she could “train” a robot to clone her voice. She ended up spending 34 hours in the studio, recording 6812 sentences from Aftenposten articles.

Since introducing the audio player, Aftenposten has witnessed an average listening length of 75% for the audio versions of their articles. The newsroom is now experimenting where to best feature the audio player and how to develop it further.

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