Multichannel Publishing and Automated Updating of Online Newspapers

There is a growing trend among newspapers toward the parallel use of news and advertising for online distribution. The preferred medium is the World Wide Web. Online publishing requires additional editing and updating as well as conversion of the material to the HTML format. This must be done with a minimum of manual effort. We have developed automatic methods for the formatting and continuous updating of newspaper information in a hierarchical WWW server structure. Using background processing functions, automatically initiated by the addition of new information in specific folders/subdirectories on the server, text and HTML-tagged files can be converted and merged with predefined static text and inline graphics. The pages of an online newspaper can thus be kept topical by simple drag-and-drop techniques while still maintaining a consistent appearance to the reader. The methods have been implemented and are in continuous use producing the online version of the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet.