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Trinity Mirror Midlands opts for Pressmart ePaper Solution
Added: (Mon Mar 27 2006)
Hyderabad, India, March 23, 2006: Trinity Mirror Midlands, UK�s largest and Europe�s second largest newspaper group has chosen Pressmart ePaper Solution from Bodhtree for its four publications Birmingham Post, Birmingham Mail, Coventry Evening Standard and Sunday Mercury. Launched recently with an introductory free trial offer at the URL http://epaper.icmidlands.co.uk, Trinity Mirror will start charging its ePaper subscribers starting April this year.
By using the latest technology, the ePaper appears on screen in exactly the same layout and design as the printed version, but with special features such as keyword article search and story-by-story navigation. It is a page-by-page reconstruction of the newspaper which subscribers can access through an internet web browser requiring no discs to install and no pesky programs to download.
Readers can browse back through the previous week's editions, listen to audio versions of stories and email their views to the newsdesk.
Subscribers can view the pictures and print advertisements in galleries with slideshows and search features.
Subscribers have been quite enthusiastic about Trinity Mirror�s ePaper and the response has been quite encouraging. 475 subscribers signed up in the first 24 hours. Caroline, a subscriber, expresses her experience as "This is nothing short of fantastic!"
The management and editorial team of Trinity Mirror Midlands is equally excited about this initiative.
Mail editor Steve Dyson said: "The incredible response following the launch of our historic electronic edition shows the level of interest in this new type of publishing. We have to move with the times and now we can give people our great content in whatever form they want. People still love having their Birmingham Mail posted through the letterbox but this advance has brought the city's news to an even wider audience around the world."
Tony Lennox, The Birmingham Post's acting editor, said the number of people registering to use the site on the first day had exceeded expectations. "We are delighted that so many readers have already signed up for the e-paper. It is a good service and we were sure people would enjoy using it. However, we have been pleasantly surprised by such a strong early response. It is proving particularly popular with expatriate readers - so far subscribers have registered from as far a field as Hong Kong, Australia, India and New Zealand. These people were previously unable to get their hands on a copy of the newspaper. Advances in technology mean we are now able to cater for them and open a new marketplace for usThe Birmingham Post. People can now choose to read The Post in its traditional print form, on our website or through the e-paper. But whatever the medium, the most important principle will always be our commitment to quality journalism and providing a thought-provoking and engaging read each day."
Evening Telegraph editor, Alan Kirby said: "Our ePaper will give Telegraph readers another way to receive the paper and for many a daily copy delivered electronically to their PC may be more convenient. There are people all over the world with an interest in what happening in Coventry and the ePaper will help the Telegraph reach a new audience."
�I have been working with the Bodhtree team for several months on the ePaper project and I have been impressed by the team's understanding of my needs as a customer and their enthusiasm to build our partnership. It is crucial that an e-edition combines ease of use for readers with the multimedia capacity of today's technology and the Pressmart solution has exceeded my expectations on both counts. At the beginning of March we launched our ePaper for four newspaper titles including the Birmingham Post and Birmingham Mail and the response from our readers and staff has been extremely positive.� says Stuart McGann, Business Development Director, Trinity Mirror Midlands.
Chief Executive of Bodhtree, Sanjiv Gupta, believes that ePapers will provide an important new facility for the newspaper industry. �Our technology enables newspapers to adapt to the changing needs of their readers. We recognise that people�s lifestyles are changing and established titles like the Post can respond effectively by using the ePaper as part of their publishing offering. In a brief period, we have enabled the ePublication over 45 leading publications from 18 countries and have digitized centuries of newsprint. We are quite aggressive pursuing markets in US, UK, Europe and SE Asia.�
Trinity Midlands also offers special group subscription packages to users from business, colleges, councils and other organizations.
About Trinity Mirror
Trinity Mirror is the UK's largest and Europe�s second largest newspaper publisher, with a portfolio of more than 500 media brands. This includes some 240 local and regional newspapers, five national newspapers and four sports titles, 50 magazines, 60 websites, a variety directories and exhibitions. With its headquarters at Canary Wharf in London, the Group employs approximately 11,000 people in centres across the UK.
Over the course of a week 20 million people read at least one Trinity Mirror newspaper (42.1% of the adult UK population).
*Source: JICREG/Telmar 2005
About Pressmart
Pressmart is the rapidly growing digital publishing and archival technology from India and US based Bodhtree Consulting Limited, a company listed on Hyderabad Stock Exchange in India. Pressmart digital publishing technology is preferred by over 45 publications printed in 14 languages from 18 countries, including premier newspaper associations and federations. Pressmart technology from Bodhtree has been used to digitize and archive over 300 years of newspapers from microfilm and newsprint sources. Access to worldwide publications enabled by Pressmart is available at its site http://www.pressmart.net. Bodhtree�s other offerings include Web Services, Software Development Projects, Data Cleansing, Spend Data Management and Document eFiling solutions. Its customers include Fortune and Forbes enlisted organizations. More details on bodhtree is available at: http://www.bodhtree.com
Media Contact: Navneet Taori (media@bodhtree.com)