A project to integrate print and digital newsroom technology has led to a Brazilian daily dropping weekday editions.

Gazeta do Povo in Paraná, the country's largest state, moved production to EidosMedia's Méthode platform three years ago, with group web servers deployed in the cloud to increase delivery speed and reliability.

The impact has supported a growing trend towards online editions, and following analysis of print and online subscription business, publishers GRPCOM group have moved to a digital-only model for the flagship daily during the week, while publishing a print edition only at weekends.

Although the print daily was still economically viable, the trend was clearly towards the increasing importance of the online editions, president Guilherme Cunha Pereira says.

Printing of the weekend paper is now outsourced, allowing the printing plant to be closed, and this has freed up staff and resources for the development of the digital products.

The move also reflects the audience's different reading styles during the week and at weekends: "On a daily basis you read the news on a screen, leaning forward. At the end of the week, when you have more time, you read leaning back," says Cunha Pereira.

Among the paper's subscribers the shift to digital was surprisingly popular: only eight per cent of print subscribers were unwilling to change to a digital subscription when the move was announced in April.

A fair amount of the valuable advertising carried by the print daily has migrated to the weekend edition, maintaining an important source of revenue.



Eidosmedia Latin America general manager Jancarlo Nesto says mobile apps that work with the Méthode editorial environment now play a key role in La Gazeta's fast weekday news operation. Journalists can file and publish stories from the street, complete with images and video.

Editorial director Leonardo Mendes Jr says there was an idea that technology has taken journalists off the street: "With this mobile app we can be on the street more, closer to what is happening and publishing in real time."



The move to digital has been accompanied by a reorganisation of the newsroom to take advantage of the faster news cycles now possible and the hiring of new staff - especially in national politics - to take advantage of Paranà's growing importance on the Brazilian political scene.

"This is a good example of how Méthode allows news producers to make a smooth transition towards an all-digital model," says Nesto.