WoodWing Software, a leading supplier of innovative cross-media publishing solutions, announced today that the South African publisher Media24 Magazines has gone live with the first print and tablet publications leveraging the power of WoodWing´s publishing system Enterprise. The system encompasses WoodWing´s content management application Content Station as the all-in-one cross-media publishing dashboard.

Media24 Magazines is a prominent player in the South African magazine industry and publishes a significant percentage of the magazines sold at newsstands nationally. Media24 Magazines and its subsidiaries currently publish more than 60 titles. Monthly magazine sales total about 5.9 million, reaching about 9.6 million readers.

Starting at the end of June, Media24 has created its print magazines Weg and Go! – both renowned publications for outdoor enthusiasts – using WoodWing Enterprise. The first issues produced with Enterprise will hit the newsstands in August. Leveraging the experience gained during these two implementations, Media24 will migrate all its other titles in order to benefit company-wide from the efficiency advantages Enterprise offers. In this ambitious project, Media24 will fully exploit the flexibility and ease of use of the system, which results in fast implementations and a short learning curve for editorial and IT staff.

As part of its tablet-publishing activities, Media24 has already brought two magazines to the iPad using WoodWing´s Tablet Publishing Solution. The interactive editions of the Afrikaans music magazine Huisgenoot Tempo and a Namibia special of the travel magazine Go! are available in Apple´s App Store. Both make extensive use of the navigation and interactivity features offered by WoodWing´s Tablet Publishing Solution, which is seamlessly integrated in the Enterprise workflow.

Media24 currently focuses on the iPad, but will support other tablet platforms such as Android, HP´s TouchPad and RIM´s Playbook in the future. WoodWing´s Tablet Publishing Solution enables Media24 to publish its interactive editions to any major tablet device – regardless of its screen size and aspect ratio – in an easy and efficient manner. The fact that Media24 ordered no less than 120 of WoodWing´s Reader Pro Apps shows the importance Media24 attaches to tablets as a vital channel in a modern cross-media publishing environment.

"WoodWing is a scalable, comprehensive, end-to-end digital publishing solution to manage all print and digital workflows and enable publishing to multiple channels,” said John Relihan, CEO of Media24 Magazines. "The advantages of using WoodWing include its strong brand focus and the way in which it manages digital content to allow for further, and considerably enriched, applications on tablets.”

"The media play a crucial role in the further development of Africa,” said Jeroen Sonnemans, Managing Director WoodWing EMEA. “The World Economic Forum on Africa states that the rapid growth in mobile devices indicates that African media consumers want to have access to content wherever they are. The clear separation between content and publication channels in Enterprise enables Media24 to create content once and use it for print, Web, tablets and social media platforms, serving these consumers well. We are delighted that Media24 has chosen our solution.”
 
WoodWing Software was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in The Netherlands. WoodWing creates the most progressive solutions available on the market for the production of print, online and tablet publications. Rapid growth worldwide and success across the full spectrum of small to large publishers demonstrate that WoodWing markets the best tools for the best price. Our customers include renowned magazine, newspaper and book publishers, as well as communication agencies and corporate customers. WoodWing Software is located in Zaandam, The Netherlands, and has regional sales companies for Europe, the USA, Asia-Pacific and Latin America. Customers are served through select partners. More information is available on the Web atwww.woodwing.com.