ZEIT SPRACHEN: InterRed editorial system for print and digital
- 08.02.2023
ZEIT SPRACHEN GmbH, formerly Spotlight Verlag, relies on the CMS and editorial system InterRed for its media production. The well-known language magazines are created, managed and published on a uniform, technological basis, both in the form of print magazines and for the generation of e-papers for the web and apps.
Malgorzata Gosia Schweizer, Managing Director and Publisher, ZEIT SPRACHEN
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6 magazines, 5 languages, 1 central editorial system
ZEIT SPRACHEN GmbH is Europe's number one in the language magazine segment and, like the entire ZEIT publishing group, stands for high-quality journalism, diversity and quality. As a subsidiary of the ZEIT publishing group and part of the Holtzbrinck Group, the publishing house offers multimedia language learning products of the highest standard.
The magazine portfolio comprises six language magazines in five languages: in addition to the English-language magazines ‘Spotlight’ and ‘Business Spotlight’, the publishing house also publishes ‘Adesso’ (Italian), ‘Ecos’ (Spanish) and ‘Écoute’ (French). The magazine Deutsch perfekt is aimed at German learners from all over the world and is read in more than 100 countries. Readers can access all language worlds via multiple channels, as a printed magazine, audio files, online or as an app. Whether reading and listening comprehension, grammar, vocabulary or interactive exercises – the unique combination of journalism and didactics makes the offerings special. What began more than 40 years ago with the founding of the company is now a comprehensive range of print and digital media in English, Italian, Spanish, German and French.
More than 80 in-house employees and numerous authors and freelancers from over 20 countries create the publications directly in the InterRed publishing solution. By using integrated features such as workflow and approval management, text creation directly in the designed pages thanks to InterRed LiveCopy, and bidirectional interfaces via InterRed plugins in Adobe InDesign and Adobe InCopy, InterRed users benefit from many efficiency-enhancing functions. The image optimisation workflow allows image material to be optimised directly in the system, forwarded to an external service provider for processing and automatically imported back into InterRed. Various exports of information and assets in different formats, adapted to the standards of the DPV (German Press Distribution), ensure automatic delivery of content to the respective channels. And thanks to the intelligent synchronisation of content via InterRed MediaSync, articles can be automatically made available for various output channels (print, e-paper for web and app, and online). This allows post-processing and any necessary corrections to be made across all channels. Finally, the use of InterRed ContentAgents enables automated keyword generation, among other things. This integrated AI component supports the enrichment of editorial content, e.g. metadata for categorisation, findability and reuse of content.
E-papers for web and iOS and Android apps
The various e-paper editions of ZEIT SPRACHEN Magazine are also created and published with the InterRed complete solution. Readers can choose whether to use the native apps for Android or iOS or prefer the purely browser-based web edition. The e-papers offer clear added value thanks to interactive content such as audio, info boxes and glossaries with vocabulary. These include interactive exercises and tests (e.g. fill-in-the-blank texts or multiple choice) with automatic answer checking. With its integrated reading mode, InterRed's e-paper solution goes one step further and displays individual articles in a graphically and content-optimised format – much more than the zooming available in a pure PDF version.
An integrated kiosk with different magazine variants and issue types offers both the magazines themselves and the digital audio booklets and various supplements. A wide range of monetisation models are supported, including in-app purchases, the use of voucher codes, subscription support through connection to the DPV (German press distribution) via OpenID authentication (OAuth 2.0) or even through the preview function, which allows part of the content, such as individual pages, to be defined as freely accessible.
Malgorzata Gosia Schweizer, managing director and publisher of ZEIT SPRACHEN, sees the advantages of the integrated complete solution: ‘With the introduction of InterRed, we have transformed ourselves from a print-focused company into a true multimedia house. All our employees can now create all content in a single CMS and then deliver it in all formats. Even the transfer to our digital platform and thus delivery in all digital web and app products is done at the touch of a button and no longer requires manual copy & paste work. With InterRed as our only CMS, we are ideally prepared for the multimedia future of our company.’
