McClatchy Newspapers/ Nando.net

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Tools Used:
IONA's Orbix, CORBA, Sun, Solaris 2.5.1, Windows95 and WindowsNT, and languages including C, C++, Java, Perl and SQL.

Description:
IONA Technologies' family of Orbix products has been chosen as the core infrastructure for a new publishing system developed by Nando.net, the electronic publishing division of McClatchy Newspapers. The system enables McClatchy Web sites and partners to publish dynamic content from a central location. The ability to share information will expedite the process in which news is published and will improve editorial quality.

Orbix, the world's leading object middleware product, is built on the open Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) standard and is designed to solve organizations' problems in creating enterprise-wide solutions. The Nando system employs Orbix and OrbixWeb to make its software work together.

The CORBA layer in the architecture of the publishing system serves two important functions. Applications can be run at each local site and can get content into a database at Nando via the Internet using OrbixWeb. Journalists from all twenty-three publications can share this information simultaneously, tag stories as live, and publish or unpublish them based on the relevance for their target audience. Secondly, the linked editorial applications can be used at each of the newspapers facilities on local desktops which allow staff to create, delete, and edit content that is stored remotely at Nando. In combination, the functions enabled by CORBA ensure both efficiency and accuracy in the presentation and delivery of the news.

"Application developers using Orbix through our object model, do not have to know anything about the underlying architecture. The framework encapsulates the CORBA functionality in our system and provides a layer of abstraction for developers of the publishing domain business objects. They can simply send a message to a section object saying 'Give me all of your live stories'," explained Chad Vawter, development director at Nando.net. "The maintainability and extendibility of our OO system is phenomenal. It is reusable for any future applications that need to get into our database newspaper content, this wouldn't be the case with an action-oriented system. Orbix was our preferred CORBA implementation because of its reputation and stability. "

"McClatchy has revolutionized the newspaper industry with their innovative use of our Orbix products. In this day and age, it is essential that people have the ability to access the news as it happens," commented Colin Newman, executive vice president, marketing, of IONA Technologies. "Not only will the staff at McClatchy have the latest news at their finger tips, the publishing system based on our Orbix products, will enable them to provide the public with the information they need as it occurs."

Nando's application illustrates the strengths of an IONA-based solution, which is platform and language-independent. It enables companies, such as Nando, to build solutions using their preferred applications and tools, in this case operations systems such as Sun, Solaris 2.5.1, Windows95 and WindowsNT, and languages including C, C++, Java, Perl and SQL. The editorial tools themselves are being written in cross-platform MVC and Visual C++.

Nando.net is the new media division of McClatchy Newspapers, Inc., with corporate headquarters in Sacramento, Calif.(USA). McClatchy Newspapers publishes 10 daily and 12 non-daily newspapers including The Sacramento Bee, the Anchorage (AK) Daily News, The Tacoma (WA) News Tribune and The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC).

Nando.net is a pioneer in Web publishing and a leader in providing updated news and information. In September, Time Magazine reported that the Nando Website "sets the online standard" with its three- to six-minute updates of news and information from around the world. Nando.net, located in Raleigh, N.C. (USA), began publishing news on the Web in July 1994. Nando draws its news and information from a variety of sources, including Reuters, Agence France Presse, AP, SportsTicker, Tribune Media Service and others.