InDesign Tool Benefits Smaller Papers Looking to Beef Up Their Websites
Submitted by Kevin Slimp
Over the past few weeks, my mailbox has been filled with new and updated software from several well-known and not so well-know vendors. Products like Adobe Creative Suite 5.5, QuarkXPress 9 and MultiAd Creator Express have been making headlines over the past couple of months. That makes it hard on a guy who does reviews for a living. It’s impossible to learn all of the software quickly enough to make a thorough review in just a few hours. So I create a stack. The stack on my desk is pretty deep right now.
With that in mind, here are some thoughts on those big-name products, all of which I’ve used but haven’t taken the time to do full blown reviews:
– Creative Suite 5.5: If you do a lot of work in Website development, ads, or videos for the Web, get it.
– QuarkXPress 9: A major upgrade with lots of nice features. I still like InDesign more, but if you’re sticking with XPress, this upgrade is worth the money.
– Creator Express: It’s only $30. If you’re a Mac user, what do you have to lose?
With that out of the way (Don’t worry. I plan to do full-blown reviews of CS5.5 and QuarkXPress 9 in the near future), let’s turn our attention to a new software product that has the potential to be a valuable tool for small newspapers who have yet to create an online presence or who are looking for an easier method to get their news online.
Atomic News Tools (ANT) is a set of scripts for InDesign that takes the stories, photos and ads straight from the InDesign page to the newspaper Website with the click of a button. Before getting into the details, understand that this is an easy and affordable solution for small newspapers that have been avoiding creating a Website because of time, expense or staff to get the paper online.
Basically, ANT is made up of scripts that allow items from the InDesign page to be uploaded directly to a Website with the click of a button in InDesign CS3 – CS5.5. “Adslinger” allows users to create, schedule, position and upload ads directly from InDesign to the Web page. “NuzBot” makes populating the news area of the Website as simple as clicking a few buttons while you design the print edition of the newspaper in InDesign.
Going into detail about ANT would take more than the space I have for this column. But let me share a few snippets:
– The software is downloaded and placed in the InDesign Scripts folder. That’s all the installation needed.
– Setup is included in the price. When a customer orders ANT, the layout of the site is done for them. With the customer’s input and approval, of course.
– Users control everything when populating a Website. Placement, schedule and more is set up right from the InDesign page.
– Ads can be pointed to different pages. For instance, an ad for a car dealership might be pointed to the Sports and Local News pages.
– Videos, Flash files and other ads can be placed in various areas at no additional cost.
The cost for ANT is $100 per month. There are no setup fees, contracts or hidden costs. Included in this price are templates, plug-ins, hosting, support, video module and more.
Here’s what I like about ANT. For newspapers that have yet to create a Website, there’s no longer an excuse. If you already use Adobe InDesign CS3, CS4 or CS5, you can begin using ANT almost immediately. There is no contract or setup fee, so the risk is minimal. The $100 monthly cost includes hosting. This means you don’t pay an extra fee for a company to host your site.
For newspapers that are looking for an alternative to the way they’re already creating their Websites, ANT is a option worthy of consideration. I would estimate that half the newspapers I visit tell me they’re looking for an alternative to the way they’re currently creating their Websites. If you’re one of those, here is an alternative.
Atomic News Tools isn’t the answer for a large daily newspaper. But if you are a smaller paper, this just may be what you’ve been waiting for.
Learn more about Atomic News Tools by visiting atomicnewstools.com.
Smaller Newspapers Spending Money and Energy Planning for Future
I haven’t done any type of serious research on the subject, but it occurs to me that smaller daily and weekly newspapers are spending more time and money planning for the future. There are many theories ranging from “Newspapers resisted spending money on capital and staff during the past few years due to fears about the future and now feel a need to play catch up” to “We finally realized we (newspapers) aren’t dying, so we’d better start preparing for our future.”
This has been the busiest summer I’ve had with newspapers all over the U.S. and Canada calling for on-site consulting and training. In most instances, these papers are preparing for major upgrades and want to get advice and training in advance.
Whatever the reason, I’m glad to see that many papers are no longer holding their collective breath and are planning for the future.