'Search as you think' archive system for IHT

A new Tera automated archiving system has gone live at the ‘International Herald Tribune’, one of the world's most widely read English-language international newspapers. The Tark system is integrated seamlessly with Tera’s GN3, installed as a beta site in 2000. All published content – stories, pictures and pages – is now automatically archived in a single step. Relationships between the various page elements, which are established when placing them in a page or section are preserved in the library, so that it is possible to search for a story and then jump to the page where it was published and from there, for example, to list all the pictures used on that particular page. After an edition has been published and flagged for archiving, an automatic procedure running in the editorial system starts exporting all the elements linked to this edition from the editorial database. All Tark content is exported in XML, and colour pictures are retrieved and converted into JPEG format, while greyscales and line art are converted to GIF. At the same time, a PDF of each page is generated. In the years since GN3 was installed, IHT, with a circulation of around 235,000 copies per day, has increased the number of sites at which it is printed from 18 to 33 around the world. Thousands of fully paginated IHT pages have been produced using GN3 and sent out to the print plants. Features of the Tark digital asset management system allow great freedom on how it is used in the future of the newspaper and in the links between its archive and the NYT. Although the IHT has only five reporters based in Paris, it has over 40 editors … and because of its close ties with the New York newsroom, IHT already has access to all NYT reporters' unedited copy as soon as it is available, so it can be published in a fast-paced operation in the IHT the same day. During the initial editorial system installation, Tera designed a picture desk which was built into the GN3 interface. This allows editors to search wire photos, browse IPTC header information, and to put crop marks on pictures for later editing. As configured at the IHT, the Tark system includes the advanced exalead one:enterprise v4.6 search engine. This integrates research functions in one piece of software, combining internet, desktop and enterprise functionality, which Tera sees as giving its newspaper customers a 'one-stop' interface for finding information. The exalead interface provides thumbnail previews of target pages along with the results, and allows advanced refining on the results page (language, geographic location, file type, categories) and also gives access to data such as rich content (audio, video, RSS), and related terms. According to the Butler Report, the combination "enables users to search in the same way that they think. Each search query results in a table of contents being generated by recording the information's structure. “Users are then able to refine their search by clicking on hyperlinked categories and related topics, or by location, author, or format. A perpetual problem encountered in searches is that the words used in the original query are often not contained within the document that is being searched for. This problem is overcome in exalead one search by providing the user with related terms and categories to allow the search to be broadened, refined, or even re-focused." Established in Paris in 1887, the IHT is owned by the New York Times Company and continues to expand the reach of its authoritative journalism through the newspaper, which is sold in 180 countries and via computers and mobile devices at IHT.com.