Knowledge-based Management of Newspaper Production

A computer software system for the design of newspaper structure and the management of newspaper production has been built. The system resides on generic models for the printing press as well as the logical and physical structure of the newspaper. Based on the models, an optimal way to run the printing press can be deduced from a selected newspaper structure and vice versa. The system takes into account the limitations imposed by the printing press on the newspaper structure and it can be adapted to a particular printing press configuration and a particular newspaper style by an appropriate specification of attributes in the model. In addition to a single newspaper edition, the design process can be extended to cover the successive production of multiple newspaper editions or different products altogether. The optimization of the production takes into consideration both the internal costs for one particular newspaper edition and the costs involved in configuration changes between the individual editions.