Bitcentral and Gannett Broadcasting Expand Newsroom Collaboration over National Network

Apr 06 2010

Top 10 Station Group Owner Upgrades Production with Bitcentral’s Precis™ System and Connects Nationwide Broadcast Newsrooms Using Bitcentral’s Oasis™

Newport Beach, CA – April 5, 2010 – Bitcentral, dedicated to providing world-class open news delivery systems, has won a competitive bidding process to deploy its Precis™ news production and Oasis™ distribution systems across multiple broadcast station newsrooms in the Gannett Broadcasting group. With initial rollouts scheduled to start immediately, Bitcentral will improve news production workflow and connect the video assets of the Gannett Information Centers for unrestricted sharing of content across stations.

“Of all the suppliers we considered, only Bitcentral offers the unconditional functionality and flexibility we need to quickly upgrade our properties without limiting our options in the future. With their technology, our stations will enjoy faster, broader news distribution leveraging greater collaboration across all of Gannett’s Information Centers for more comprehensive coverage of daily events,” said Jeff Johnson, vice president of technology for Gannett.

Gannett, a top 10 station group owner reaching 18% of the nation’s TV households, is using Bitcentral’s Oasis media archive and sharing platform to provide their broadcast newsrooms with universal access to media created across the Gannett family of stations. With the rollout of Oasis, Gannett is also swapping out its current production systems for Bitcentral’s Precis in order to streamline editing workflows and simplify video preparation for distribution.

“Gannett recognized the long-term cost and operational advantages of bridging their news operations over open, IP-based technologies,” said Fred Fourcher, president and CEO of Bitcentral. “There’s a growing misconception in our industry that ‘open’ is measured in degrees of interoperability. Broadcasters appreciate Bitcentral’s solutions because they provide the only truly open platform that integrates with all existing equipment.”

Bitcentral’s Oasis is the ultimate platform for sharing news. Oasis allows journalists and producers to easily access and reuse archived raw or finished news video from their own newsroom or from partner stations. New content can then be archived and shared collaboratively in a ubiquitous media environment. News editors can seamlessly pull and distribute stories from the newsroom or in the field, and direct content to appear across any multimedia platform.

Improving internal newsroom workflows, Bitcentral’s Precis is the most efficient, open news production system available to editors today. This non-proprietary solution works with most other systems to streamline production processes and provide a simplified, “no barriers” workflow. Using this efficient platform, professionals can seamlessly create and package content for immediate use via any distribution platform.

“Our products will position Gannett for a future where its upgrades are a simple, centralized process, providing a cost-effective, streamlined and reliable workflow system. Oasis will provide an archive to increase the value of the company’s existing media assets. It makes media accessible virtually everywhere in the enterprise,” said Alex Keighley, vice president of sales for Bitcentral.

About Gannett Co., Inc.

Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI) is an international news and information company operating on multiple platforms including the Internet, mobile, newspapers, magazines and TV stations. Gannett is an Internet leader with hundreds of newspaper and TV Web sites; CareerBuilder.com, the nation’s top employment site; USATODAY.com; and more than 80 local MomsLikeMe.com sites. Gannett publishes 83 daily U.S. newspapers, including USA TODAY, the nation’s largest-selling daily newspaper, and more than 650 magazines and other non-dailies including USA WEEKEND. Gannett also operates 23 television stations in 19 U.S. markets. Gannett subsidiary Newsquest is the United Kingdom’s second largest regional newspaper company with 17 daily paid-for titles, more than 200 weekly newspapers, magazines and trade publications, and a network of Web sites.