Pagemasters’ Editorial Production Services Launched in North America

SYDNEY -

Australian editorial production house Pagemasters has announced a deal that will lead to the services it pioneered in Australasia being offered to newspapers in North America.

Under an alliance with The Canadian Press, Pagemasters North America will provide newspapers in Canada and the US with a complete range of editorial services, from design to sub-editing and headline writing.

The launch of Pagemasters North America by The Canadian Press follows Pagemasters’ success in providing editorial production services to newspapers in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, including sub-editing for the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The New Zealand Herald and the UK’s Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph.

Under the agreement with The Canadian Press, Pagemasters will provide consulting and advisory services and earn revenue based on the success of Pagemasters North America.

Pagemasters currently produces more than 10,000 editorial pages per month in four production centres in Australia and New Zealand and employs more than 100 sub-editors. Pagemasters is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Australian Associated Press (AAP).

AAP chief executive Clive Marshall said: “Pagemasters has experienced extraordinary growth over the past few years as more newspapers outsourced their editorial production. The launch of Pagemasters North America will enable us to capitalise on the high level of interest that we have received in Pagemasters’ services from newspapers in both the US and Canada - the largest English language newspaper market in the world.”

Pagemasters managing director Bruce Davidson said: “The launch of Pagemasters North America is a major development and I believe one which has the potential to lead to significant changes in the editorial production model for US and Canadian newspapers.

“We will be heavily involved with The Canadian Press in setting up editorial production centres in North America, working closely with newspaper publishers as they grapple with the radical changes sweeping the industry.”

Eric Morrison, president of The Canadian Press, said: “We wanted to be a part of the solution to the industry’s current difficulties so it was a natural choice to work with a world leader like Pagemasters to give Canadian and US newspapers the benefit of their expertise in significantly reducing editorial production costs.

“The key is the savings through greater productivity and efficiencies are not achieved by sacrificing the quality of the pages.”

The Pagemasters model being adopted in North America guarantees quality in two main ways:

- Pages will be developed in close consultation with clients, allowing pages to be highly customised while publishers retain complete editorial control of everything from story selection to placement and treatment. Pages can be created live within the client’s editorial system using advanced technology that enables clients to monitor quality throughout the process, raising the standards of accountability even higher. - Features, news pages and common pages will be edited by North American staff on North American deadlines, adhering to local language and style guidelines and ensuring proper use of sports, political and other terms specific to Canadian and American culture. Notes to editors: About The Canadian Press The Canadian Press is Canada’s most trusted news source and leader in providing real-time, bilingual, multi-media content for online, mobile and emerging platforms. It employs more than 250 journalists to deliver news stories, photos, graphics, audio and online video, as well as news coverage from The Associated Press, to daily newspapers, radio and TV stations and websites. The establishment of Pagemasters North America as a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Canadian Press builds upon the agency’s current experience paginating financial and sports data for Canadian daily newspapers such as The Globe and Mail and Toronto Star. www.thecanadianpress.com About Pagemasters Pagemasters leads the world in the establishment and operation of centralised sub-editing centres for the newspaper and magazine industry. Its operations in Australia and New Zealand provide complete design, editing and production services for metropolitan, regional and community newspapers. Pagemasters produces more than 10,000 editorial pages a month. Customers include the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The New Zealand Herald, and UK’s Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph. Formed in 1991, the company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Australian Associated Press, the national news agency of Australia. www.pagemasters.com.au About Australian Associated Press (AAP) AAP is the national news agency of Australia. It employs more than 600 people and provides a comprehensive Australian and international news service to the Australian media, business sectors and beyond - 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Virtually all of Australia’s newspaper and broadcast media subscribe to AAP news services. aap.com.au

Source: Pagemasters