A Channel Islands-based media group is the latest company to go live with PCS’s innovative digital content management and publishing solution, “Knowledge.”

The browser-based system will replace two separate installations of PCS’s Adapt editorial solution, and will allow greater cross-platform working between the Jersey Evening Post and Guernsey Press, and their respective websites. The single system will be hosted and replicated separately on secure data servers on the Channel Islands.

Guiton media group becomes the fifth major installation of Knowledge in the last two years – the others being at the Racing Post, Newsquest, the Newark Advertiser, and also at the Irish News.

At the same time, Guiton’s parent company, the Midland News Association (MNA) is upgrading its inaugural Knowledge system to an InDesign variant, producing the Express and Star, the Shropshire Star, and their respective weekly titles, as well as feeding the MNA’s websites.

The Guiton system will allow journalists at the Evening Post and the Press to adopt elements of the MNA system and – apart from replacing the previous Quark Xpress-based pagination solution with server-based InDesign – will combine other key workflow elements, including advert and edition planning, picture desking, wire feeds, and archiving into one system.

Members of the Knowledge implementation team at Guiton, from left: Guiton IT Technician Matt Hayes, PCS Application Implementer Matt Mansell, PCS Editorial Applications Specialist Martin Rees, Guernsey Press Editor Shaun Green and, seated, Guiton Group IT Manager, Darren Cooley.

Shaun Green, who has been working with the PCS company on the installation, and succeeded Richard Digard as editor of the Guernsey Press recently, said: “As a browser-based system, Knowledge has given us far greater flexibility in our work practices and the opportunity to take a root and branch look at how we produce a newspaper. Reporters and freelancers are filing direct from the courtroom or cafe, and editors are checking headlines as easily from home as from the office.

“With a single fully integrated ‘real-time’ system we are able to work in tandem with our sister paper, The Jersey Evening Post, and harvest the benefits of being part of a larger group with extra resources.

“We are only just beginning to tap into the benefits that arise from the acquisition of Knowledge, but are confident that this is a system suited for the demands of 21st century print and online journalism.”

Managing Director of PCS, Phil Walker, said: “We’re delighted that Guiton has chosen Knowledge in order to move its editorial operations forward.

“The group has always had a particular set of requirements because of its island setting, but we believe that Knowledge, with its ‘work anywhere’ capability, is a really good fit for the Evening Post and the Press.

“Both titles are fiercely independent, reflecting the readers they serve, but Knowledge will allow greater co-operation where it’s required, and offer significant efficiencies to both publications – based on them being able to share resources and having access to one resilient system.”

The Guiton Group Limited publishes daily and weekly newspapers in Jersey and Guernsey including the flagship daily titles Jersey Evening Post and Guernsey Press along with associated web portal sites jerseyeveningpost.com and This is Guernsey. The Guiton Group was acquired in 2004 by the Claverley Group, owners of West Midlands newspapers, the West Midlands Express and Star, and the Shropshire Star.