News Limited’s EidosMedia Méthode deployment – central to a $60 million project which will put more than 160 national and regional newspapers and magazines on the system – will be the world’s largest, the supplier’s group chief executive says.

Gabriella Franzini says the programme – announced by News chief executive Kim Williams in mid-May (see story online and GXpress June 2012) – will create one of the world’s largest integrated news publishing operations.

“This kind of scalability was a part of our original vision for Méthode and we are excited to be involved in this landmark project.”

General manager of the company’s Australian subsidiary Lodovico de Briganti describes News’ “vision for the future” of news media in Australia as “inspiring”.

“We are looking forward to using the power and flexibility of the Méthode platform to help make it a reality.”

The deployment will see the Australian publishing group use the multiple-media publishing platform to bring about a radical transformation of its print and digital portfolio.

The company says the move to Méthode is part of a radical transformation of News’ editorial and publishing operations which also involves the acquisition of new media assets and a major geographical reorganisation. The platform will act as an enabler for a business transformation that will bring all of the group’s titles onto a common editorial platform, replacing the multiple systems and solutions currently deployed across the portfolio.

Williams says the investment plays a foundation stone role in engaging customers: “It will allow us to create once and publish many times across every platform our customers use – print, online, tablet, mobile, smart devices, and broadcast.

“We are a media company and we have confidence in all the forms of media that Méthode will serve, enabling our journalists to produce great material efficiently.”

With the new platform, the number of steps needed to publish a story to print, web, mobile and tablet platforms will be cut from about 70 to less than 20 steps.