Hearst Magazines Selects WoodWing's Multi-Channel Publishing System Enterprise

ZAANDAM, The Netherlands and ANN ARBOR, Mich., Feb. 29, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Hearst Magazines, a renowned U.S.-based publisher of such well-known titles as Esquire, Popular Mechanics and O, The Oprah Magazine, has selected WoodWing's Enterprise system as their new multi-channel publishing platform in the U.S., replacing another solution.

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Hearst is a legendary name in the world of publishing and will celebrate its 125^th anniversary this year. Today, Hearst Magazines, a unit of Hearst Corporation, is one of the world's largest publishers of monthly magazines, with 20 U.S. titles and more than 300 international editions. The Company also publishes 19 magazines in the United Kingdom through its wholly owned subsidiary, Hearst Magazines UK.

Migrating to a multi-channel publishing solution allows Hearst's publications to enjoy a streamlined production workflow, especially when it comes to creating multiple brands of editions that range from daily to weekly to monthly. Having the ability to manage a variety of media-rich content ensures the production schedule runs in a timely manner. It also significantly streamlines the editorial review and quality assurance process that is essential to each publication's daily workflow.

"Building a streamlined and cost-effective approach for collecting, storing, creating, publishing, distributing and archiving our vast array of content are our biggest challenges as we turn more of our brands into multi-channel publications that include print, tablets, mobile and social media," said Sean Keefe, director of publishing technology at Hearst Magazines. "Hearst's reason for selecting the WoodWing Enterprise system is a strategic move to align each of our brands for the emerging mobile markets while still supporting our print editions. Because of the size of the implementation, involving over 800 seats, we've also looked closely to the total cost of ownership for our new solution."

The process began when Aysling Digital Media Solutions began a pilot project in May 2011 to showcase the capabilities of the WoodWing Enterprise system for multi-channel publishing, including the creation of custom HTML5 widgets for Food Network Magazine's popular apps. The pilot was a success, so Hearst tapped Aysling to implement the WoodWing system.

"We have an extensive amount of experience moving publishers from legacy systems. This is a core function within our organization," said Patrick Becker, president of Aysling Digital Media Solutions. "Aysling was selected by Hearst Magazines given our approach, knowledge base and history of delivering exceptional multi-channel solutions for the publishing industry."

"We are seeing a significant shift by publishers to adopt WoodWing's publishing solutions in an effort to retain and capture subscribers for both the print market as well as the fast-emerging tablet and mobile markets and to efficiently manage all of these cross-media channels," said Shawn Duffy, managing director at WoodWing USA. "We are pleased to have Hearst Magazines join the WoodWing family."

High-profile event for WoodWing customer and partners
On March 27-28, 2012, Amsterdam becomes the information hub of the publishing industry. Targeted at WoodWing customers and partners, the WoodWing Xperience helps publishers to get the most out of their WoodWing system, while informing them about exciting new and upcoming possibilities. Besides interesting keynotes, the WoodWing Xperience offers two days of multiple parallel tracks, covering the use of WoodWing products, real-life business cases, innovative 3^rd-party technologies and in-depth technical sessions. All information including the high-profile agenda and the registration form can be found at http://xperience.woodwing.com

About Hearst Magazines
Hearst Magazines is a unit of Hearst Corporation (www.hearst.com; @hearstcorp), one of the nation's largest diversified communications companies. With its acquisition of Lagardere SCA's 100 titles in 14 countries outside of France, Hearst Magazines now publishes more than 300 editions around the world, including 20 U.S. titles. Hearst Magazines is the largest publisher of monthly magazines in the U.S. (ABC 2011) and reaches 87 million adults (Spring 2011 MRI). Hearst Magazines Digital Media, dedicated to creating and implementing Hearst Magazines' digital strategy, has more than 28 websites and 14 mobile sites for brands such as Cosmopolitan, ELLE, ELLE DECOR, Esquire, Good Housekeeping, Marie Claire, Popular Mechanics and Seventeen, as well as digital-only sites such as Delish.com, a food site in partnership with MSN; MisQuinceMag.com; and RealBeauty.com. Hearst Magazines has published more than 150 applications and digital editions for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, as well as the Android platform. More information is available on the Web at www.hearst.com.

About Aysling Digital Media Solutions
Uniquely positioned as both a WoodWing Gold Authorized Solution Partner and Adobe Partner to provide digital publishing solutions, including media production and graphic design, integration and support for publishers, corporations and agencies that require a robust, feature-rich enterprise publishing solutions to meet their respective world-wide audience digital media channels for content presentation, includes Print, Web, iPad, tablets and mobile. More information is available on the Web at www.aysling.com

About WoodWing
WoodWing Software develops and markets a premier, cost-efficient multi-channel publishing solution. Its flagship product, Enterprise, helps magazine and newspaper publishers, corporate publishers and agencies reach their goals for quality, economy and time-to-market. WoodWing Enterprise is a system that coordinates and streamlines the process of creating, managing and publishing static, dynamic and interactive content for all media channels – including print, Web, social, smart phones and tablets. WoodWing Software, founded in the year 2000, has its headquarters in Zaandam, The Netherlands, and has regional sales offices in Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific. Customers are served locally by over 100 selected partners in more than 75 countries. WoodWing's long-standing relationship with Adobe as a Technology Partner and its close cooperation with a large number of other technology vendors worldwide, confirm WoodWing's position as one of the leading suppliers of publishing software. WoodWing is a privately owned company, with all founders actively engaged. Additional information regarding WoodWing's products and services can be found at www.woodwing.com. WoodWing is on Twitter at http://twitter.com/woodwingsoft.

Related Link:
Aysling Digital Media Solutions

Press contacts:

WoodWing Software
Stefan Horst
Public Relations Manager
P: 0049-151-12 72 63 62
E: [email protected]

Aysling Digital Media Solutions
Glen Graessley
Director of Business Development
P: +1-888-702-0082
E: [email protected]

Hearst Magazines
Michael Volpatt
Larkin/Volpatt Communications
P: +1-415-994-8864 (mobile)
E: [email protected]

SOURCE Aysling Digital Media Solutions