NewsLine, an English-language news and features service, requires a simple production support system for capturing meta data about stories, in XML format. This data is distributed to customers over the Internet. The service has news desks in New York, London, and Tokyo, each of which is responsible for processing material originating from contributors in their region. Customers who subscribe to the service need to get regular updates on current information from a news feed.
The Capture tool needs to be available to both contributors (who are freelance) and to news desk editors. Contributors are not connected to any in-house data sources. They submit content to editors at their news desks by e-mail.
The content of stories can consist of text only, or include or consist entirely of nontext media, such as photos or video/sound. Note that this requirement is not concerned with the processing of this multimedia content, but rather with describing these resources.
Contributors to the service get paid at individual contract rates. Each item therefore has to contain an identifier for the contributor.
Contributors and editors require access to a subject vocabulary, from which they can select values to categorize stories. The vocabulary is relatively static. Broad, “flat” categories cover events, people, places, companies, industries, and organizations. This information needs to be available in a simple portable format that freelance users can easily download and update for use on their own machines.
It must be possible to choose a broad category and make one or more selections from a list of subjects. Examples include the following:
Events. 2004 Olympics, Bali Bombing, September 11
People. Kofi Annan, Tony Blair, George Bush
Places. Boston, Milan, San Francisco, Sao Paulo
Companies. AOL, Financial Times, Shell, Toyota
Industries. Automotive, Electronics, Gas and Oil, Media
Organizations. European Central Bank, NATO, Red Cross, United Nations
A shared database of freelance writers and their contract rates is available to editors. The following information is maintained in a central database by the legal department:
Contract number
Name
Item
Item type (text, photo, video/sound)
Units (100 words, 1 photo, 1 minute)
Contract rate per unit (in USD)
Examples: text,500,80; photo,1,125; video,8,100
Address
Telephone number
Byline
Home page
E-mail address
When a story is approved by an editor and filed, the cost of the story to the relevant news desk must be calculated. Managers currently use Excel to monitor editorial budgets and require story costs to be aggregated in Excel under news desk headings.
The meta data from each news desk and the related stories are posted to a central back-end server ready for distribution and syndication. The service requires that selected meta data for each story is published cumulatively for a 24-hour cycle in RSS 1.0 format and updated at regular intervals. This enables subscribers to monitor news output and select stories for use.
News desk managers need to be able to monitor the current status of stories in the workflow. Possible values for status are as follows:
Draft. Not submitted by writer
In Review. In news desk
Embargoed. Approved but not used until a specified date/time
Filed. Approved and available to service subscribers
The following dates and times on which changes of status took place must be updated automatically and persisted in the record.
Created. First draft
Submitted. Sent to news desk
Modified. Draft/review/filed
Filed. Filed
Spiked. Put on hold
Embargoed. Embargoed