Press - Digital Asset Management

New MerlinOne Installations - Trend Toward Central Systems, Shared Content

Quincy, MA, March 30, 2006 - MerlinOne, Inc. announced new users and site upgrades for its Merlin Digital Asset Management System. "Probably the most fascinating new application is at USA TODAY, which has integrated its Merlin digital asset management system as part of their new CCI NewsGate installation. With this integration, USA TODAY will be able to access text, photo and page content from their Merlin digital asset management system within the context of NewsGate, creating a seamless user experience for searching and managing editorial content and projects," said John Harrison, MerlinOne VP of Sales & Marketing.

"Another interesting site is The Times Shamrock newspaper group in Pennsylvania. They implemented a corporate-wide Merlin as part of a Unisys front–end. All applications run on the large, mulit-processor Unisys enterprise server which gives them both performance and lower support costs", said Harrison.

"For both new systems and add–ons, the trend has been to combine text, photos, pages, graphics and even web content in one central picture desk system. It lets writers and editors go to one place to find and manage all published content. Savings on IT support costs is a side benefit that has become a driving factor as well." said Harrison.

"A related trend is to create enterprise–wide configurations to share content across multiple papers. The idea is to leverage existing company assets over all the outlets in a publishing corporation, including web and broadcast - to shorten deadlines and cuts costs. These large enterprise systems typically use our MSync package to create fault–tolerant, redundant configurations," said Harrison.

New sites installing a Merlin system include:

  • Hearst Magazines Inc.: digital asset management for international group.
  • De Telegraaf (Amsterdam): completed installation of Merlin digital asset management system that now contains more than 5 million stories, photos and pages shared among 5 newspapers in Holland.
  • The Vancouver Columbian: central Merlin for their text, photo and PDF library, picture desk and assignment management. This single Merlin replaces two separate legacy systems: NewsView (text) and IBM NICA (photo).
  • The Austin American Statesman: Merlin digital asset management system for their text archive, completed integration with the DTI front-end.
  • The Advocate (Baton Rouge): completed installation of Merlin digital asset management system for their library system, picture desk and assignment management system, also use Scrounger, a digital photo outtake management system.
  • Regina Leader–Post, Saskatoon Star–Phoenix and the Victoria Times–Colonist Newspapers in Canada: all use Merlin for picture desk and photo archive use.
  • The South Bend Tribune: Merlin digital asset management system as a photo archive, replacing a PhotoView legacy system.
  • Palm Beach Post: completed a Merlin picture desk integrated with a DTI front-end.
Site expansions include:
  • The Tacoma News Tribune & TriCity Herald: share a single central MSync Merlin digital asset management system with one node in each location for redundancy and business continuity.
  • The Executive Office of the President (White House): added a redundant server to their Merlin picture desk as well as a raw camera workflow.
  • The Portland Oregonian: added MSync and text to their Merlin digital asset management system.
  • The Allentown Morning Call: will add text to their Merlin digital archive and the Scrounger photo outtake management system.

About MerlinOne - MerlinOne, Inc. is a leading provider of digital asset management systems and electronic document discovery platforms. E-Sheets® is the foremost electronic tearsheets service. The Merlin picture desk management solution has over 140 major installations at corporations like The New York Times, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, Harvard University, Pfizer, Habitat for Humanity and The White House. MerlinOne technology helps companies manage photos, text, graphics, PDFs, multimedia and e-discovery material.

Press Contact
David Farrell
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