Recently, the name ‘Multimediale Uitgeverij VPRO Gids’ was created. This expresses an ambition: in addition to the paper guide, this branch of the VPRO also wants to develop digital activities. This turned out to require a multichannel platform for content creation, publishing and management. The VPRO Gids chose to realize this platform with Aurora and WoodWing Assets (both from Woodwing). “The platform is very important to us,” says Jasper Koning, channel manager at VPRO Gids. “With this we can easily put the guide digitally every week. This way we are not only preparing the print version, but also the digital version.”
“With the platform, cut-and-paste work is a thing of the past”
“All our editors now work in Aurora and freelancers submit their pieces to it,” says Jasper. That’s progress, because in the past editors used to work in Word and then do cut-and-paste work. The new platform for orchestrating our content, which came about through an intensive collaboration with Qonqord, provides more structure: “The platform automatically generates a file every week containing the entire guide, including articles and images. This is imported fully automatically into our web CMS, Magnolia. Our web editors then edit the guide: on Friday we dot the i’s and cross the t’s and make sure everything is ready in the Woodwing Studio workflow, on Monday morning we check the whole thing one more time in Magnolia and on Tuesday the guide goes online.”
“Qonqord is a stable factor and Studio offers specific advantages”
The collaboration with Qonqord is not new: the VPRO Gids has been working satisfactorily with Qonqord for many years. Jasper: “When everything had to change for us, it was nice to keep one aspect stable.” The advantages also quickly emerged during the first acquaintance with Studio. “We needed to upgrade Woodwing’s CMS anyway, and we needed Studio to make the paper magazine. Moreover, we were able to link it well to Magnolia, a Web CMS that is purely intended for our websites. WoodWing Assets came into play for image management – we started using this on the advice of Qonqord. Qonqord has helped us very well in setting up the entire process. What we really like is that Qonqord thinks along. For example, we are currently looking at whether we can use WoodWing Assets in the process in a different way. Qonqord dares to give honest advice.”
In turn, the VPRO Gids also likes to think along: “As an extremely critical club, we scrutinize everything, including the systems with which we work. Qonqord regularly visits us to discuss new matters that in our view could perhaps be slightly different. In this way we hope to contribute to making the platform even more beautiful!”
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