ROXEN

Sweden’s largest evening newspaper, Aftonbladet, has transitioned to using Roxen as its publishing tool for both the print newspaper and all its magazines. They see significant potential in streamlining their work. ”Furthermore, the implementation of Roxen was incredibly fast, and the system is reliable and stable,” says Konrad Cronsioe , the editorial manager at Aftonbladet.  

Roxen Editorial Portal is one of the world 's most popular cloud- based publishing tools that facilitates the editing process through automation, enabling users to generate more revenue by focusing on creating relevant and engaging content.  

Roxen is built on fully or semi-automated workflows with InDesign as the foundation. Aftonbladet opted for a middle ground where many pages can be automated using templates, while still allowing editors the freedom to manually design pages.  

"Aftonbladet is a publication that values editing, and we have Sweden's best editors. Creating an attractive and dynamic newspaper is in our DNA. This means it's challenging for us to fit editing into a fully automated flow. But the beauty of Roxen is that the system allows us to have our cake and eat it too. We can automate a large part of the editing process and still have the ability to open InDesign and edit manually," says Konrad Cronsioe .  

Quick implementation process and a stable system  

Aftonbladet adopted Roxen after a decision from its owner, Schibsted, and the implementation process was fast - they were up and running in just two months.  

"Many publishing tools have a very long implementation time, but that's not the case with Roxen . We can often implement Roxen in one-third of the time compared to other systems. This is an important aspect because most industry players need to see the results of their investment quickly," says Greta Bjerke from Tikktakk , an expert in media workflow and the consultant who assisted with Roxen's implementation at Aftonbladet.  

"Another important aspect is that Roxen is very stable. Many other systems can experience downtime, which can be devastating for a time-sensitive product like print. However, downtime rarely happens with Roxen ," says Greta Bjerke.  

Roxen streamlines processes and saves time  

According to Konrad Cronsioe , the most significant benefit of using Roxen is the time it saves for editors since many pages are fully template-based.  

" Roxen helps us work more efficiently because 80-90% of the editing could be automated. This means that experienced editors can spend their time on complex, enjoyable, and creative editing tasks, while less experienced editors can handle the simpler tasks themselves. Roxen acts as a bridge between simple and complex editing, allowing us to bring in editors at different skill levels," says Konrad Cronsioe .  

"The major advantage is that everything now happens much faster. A good example is our classic segment, Vi5, where we ask a question to four people on the street and a celebrity every day. It used to be a time-consuming task for the editor because there are many elements involved, such as text, images, and names. But with Roxen , it's incredibly easy. The editor only needs to adjust the height - the rest is handled by automation."  

The system is user-friendly, which Konrad Cronsioe believes is a significant advantage, especially for training new editors.  

"One of our new editors had very little editing experience, but after just one week, she could create pages entirely on her own using the Page Composer in Roxen . From there, she has progressed to doing more advanced tasks and 'sprucing up' the pages in InDesign," says Konrad.  

The future of print  

It's a fact that the media industry is rapidly changing, and all players need to continuously review their workflows, especially if they work with print publications.  

"Print has declined in recent years, that's a fact, but I am still convinced that the printed newspaper will live on for quite some time. It is still relevant and crucial for building a brand and generating revenue. However, it is becoming increasingly important to review workflows and business models; it's no longer 'business as usual.' For us, streamlining doesn't mean reducing staff; it's about doing more of the right things with the same employees. Simply put, putting more love where it matters," says Konrad Cronsioe .