ROXEN

Historical newspaper The Philadelphia Inquirer is going against the grain by investing more to increase the value of their paper edition. A new print system is saving them several minutes per story while streamlining the workflow – in addition to giving their readers a newspaper with bolder content and design.

The printed newspapers' time is up, some say, and point to the relentless advance of digitalization. But is this true? Not if you believe multiple Pulitzer Prize-winner The Philadelphia Inquirer, which has invested heavily in improving its paper edition. 

Founded in 1829, The Philadelphia Inquirer is the third oldest continuously operating daily newspaper in the US. Yet today, with over 13.3 million readers each month through their paper and digital editions, applications, and newsletters, they remain one of the largest daily newspapers in the country. And unlike other newspapers on the market, they continue to show a strong upward trend. 

Despite this, The Philadelphia Inquirer’s daily workflow had been fraught with challenges, one of the biggest being their more than 20-year-old production system for paper and online newspapers.

“It was based on outdated technology, and the frustration of working in it grew among employees. Multiple tasks that needed to be performed manually made it difficult for us to effectively maintain the high level of content that characterizes The Philadelphia Inquirer," says Matt Boggie, Chief Technology and Product Officer at The Philadelphia Inquirer.

At that time, The Philadelphia Inquirer had already replaced their existing CMS system with one of the most modern on the market, Arc XP. That, combined with the pandemic and subsequent shift to remote work, made it more urgent for them to move away from their self-hosted layout tool to a print system that could offer a more modernized and streamlined production process.

“It was important for us to find a print system that offered a seamless connection with Arc XP and was built on equally modern technology. We were also looking for one that was primarily web-based for us to get away from large client deployments and network management,” says Matt Boggie.

In addition to this, they were also looking for a system integrated with Adobe InDesign that could create additional opportunities for visual storytelling and at the same time could automate many of the repetitive tasks for employees.

“The overarching goal was efficiency. We asked ourselves, ‘How can we make sure that we're making the best use of our creative talents' time?’ If we can reduce the amount of time it takes to put together the paper, that will allow them to focus more on the design itself and create great layouts combining text, illustrations, and interesting infographics. Today's readers have higher expectations on how these elements should complement each other to enhance the message,“ says Matt Boggie.

The Philadelphia Inquirer found their solution in Roxen's cloud-based system for production and publication of editorial material. Beyond features that met their needs, they also appreciated Roxen's pre-built templates, which make it possible to prepare the article, with accompanying images and graphics, for publication with just a few clicks directly on the web – whether it is to be published in the paper or online.

Daniel Wressle, Chief Operations Officer at Roxen and project manager for The Philadelphia Inquirer project, believes that the automated writing templates, which are developed together with the Norwegian Templating and workflow agency TikkTakk, are a big part of the efficiency of Roxen.

"This is because they are dynamic and automatically adapt to the content. The article, with its various components, is packaged directly in Arc XP and transferred as one unit to Editorial Portal, therefore requiring minimal manual intervention from the print editors," says Daniel Wressle. 

One of the things that The Philadelphia Inquirer really wanted to achieve when switching to Roxen´s print system was to use the paper edition format in a much bolder way.

“We save literal minutes per story, given how much faster it is to work with the new system. So, we've been taking a lot of the time saved and investing back into the product. Today our readers see something that is much more thoughtful and frankly fun to read every day,” says Matt Boggie. 

As with many other newspapers, the paper edition provides a significant portion of the annual revenue. But at the same time, many stakeholders are currently seeing how the number of newspapers sold is shrinking, replaced by digital subscribers. 

“There is still great value in the paper edition. In this way, we can give people a great product at a very reasonable production cost. Therefore, we can continue to run it profitably for longer than we might have had in the past," says Matt Boggie.

At the same time, The Philadelphia Inquirer also produces a curated e-newspaper that is published every day. Here too, Roxen's system has come in handy to develop a product that meets the readers' needs and wishes. 

“Readers appreciate having access to a curated newspaper that presents the content in an appealing way with a clear beginning and end, unlike the web feed. But at the same time, some want to be able to choose where and when to consume the newspaper. The e-Edition allows us to combine the benefits of the layout of the paper with the accessibility of digitalization," says Matt Boggie. 

Biggest redesign in 30 years – for preservation and relevance

While replacing their system, The Philadelphia Inquirer also decided to undertake their most comprehensive redesign in 30 years. This together with the renowned design agency Pentagram. The goal was to leave their traditional layout behind and instead work towards a distinct visual language better reflecting the character of the vibrant and diverse city itself, all the while returning to the paper’s heritage.

“Some parts of our design felt outdated, but we also felt disconnected from the history of the paper. We’ve been here in Philadelphia under different names since the times of the revolution, so we wanted our long history to be reflected in the design,” says Matt Boggie.

The centerpiece of the new design is the updated typeface. It pays homage to the newspaper’s 193-year history and improves the reader’s experience, says Luke Hayman and Shigeto Akiyama from Pentagram, who both believe that paper offers a unique way to tell a story visually.

“The new typeface is based on a font used by the newspaper from the 1860s to the 1920s. But compared to its predecessor it’s bolder and offers a wide range of weights that can be used to build layouts with more contrast and to create a hierarchy on the page. We also made minor updates to the Inquirer nameplate, including restoring the quirky and distinctive tipped “d” in Philadelphia, which was used for more than 100 years,” says Luke Hayman, partner at Pentagram. 

The new design of The Philadelphia Inquirer is described as lively, crisp, and clear, with easy-to-navigate templates that both aid readers and help simplify production. But the job doesn't end here, The Philadelphia Inquirer will continue to look for ways to streamline the process and simplify the workflow for their paper edition, while continuing to find ways to unify the experience and the design language. 

“The nice thing about paper is that it is somewhat permanent. If you are featured in a story, you don't go to the website and print it out. You go and get a copy that you might even frame. We aspire to keep that sense of permanence in the design as well – knowing that someone might hold on to this forever,” concludes Matt Boggie.