The practice developed and tested during the Next Media project led to organisational changes at Helsingin Sanomat.
A data desk was founded for the creation of data journalism.
Esa Mäkinen, News Editor, Data journalism, Helsingin Sanomat
The Aalto University School of Sci- ence (Aalto SCI) has conducted long- term research on how digital newspa- pers and magazines could be made as easily as possible. Co-operation part- ners include e.g. Sanoma Magazines Finland (SMF), Anygraaf, STT- Lehtikuva and Sanoma News.
Image colour palette and importance mapping
Image analysis methods were devel- oped with applications such as col- our palettes and importance map- ping. A colour palette can be divided into two - both the image's main and background colours. Later, the image's most saturated colours - or those clos- est to the desired brand colours - can be used in the layout in accordance with e.g. the headline's style template.
One of the applications of impor- tance mapping is to ensure that a headline that is placed on top of an image does not cover anything important, such as a person's face.
Importance mapping can also be
used when cropping images so that they fit - in both landscape and por- trait form - on the screen of devices such as an iPad.
Recognisable content types A central part of modelling is dis- tinguishing between content and its manner of representation. Previ- ously, this was carried out at Aalto SCI separately for each publication and project. Additional development was required to enable the use of the same model in several publication channels.
The goal of the study was to con- struct a general content model for newspaper and magazine content that would also cover the requirements of digital publication channels. Similar modelling-related requirements alos apply to the exchange of planning data. During the project the content of over fifty Sanoma Magazines' pub- lications was analysed.
The developed content model is article-based, which means that
additional content linked to articles – such as sidebars – can be treated as independent, while also being linked to the main article.
This helps with the automatic layout of additional content on dif- ferent devices. In addition to content elements, the model also covered issues related to the departmentali- sation of articles.
Promising test results
Automatic layout and image work- flows were tested with the content of Tietokone magazine. iPad content created using the Anygraaf layout automation software was compared with content produced manually on the Woodwing application. In user tests, the test users did not notice that layout automation had been used.
The publication platform of the magazine with automatic layout was a native iPad application called Baker, which enables HTML5 based content to be shown. The style tem- plate it uses can be adjusted depend-
Layout automation begins with knowledge of the publication's content structure and the end result is a ready application either online or on a tablet.
Automatic content layout that is suitable for all devices requires a lot from both the system and algorithms controlling the layout. In Next Media's project, open source code methods for the automatic layout have been developed.
and automatic layout
Digital newspapers
Hannele Antikainen, VTT
ing on whether the article contains images, videos or just text.
Available for all
The same technology was also used when publishing the Aalto Univer- sity concept magazine - which was actually produced in co-operation with the same team that work on the
conventional, printed magazine. The printed magazine's graphic designer also designed the style templates to be used with the automatic layout of the digital magazine. The concept magazine is available at AppStore and online.
An alternative to the iPad appli- cation is the Stage Framework web
application, which was also devel- oped at Aalto SCI. It enables the same HTML5-based content to be published online without the limi- tations of app stores. Stage Frame- work was published under the MIT licence, which means that all pub- lishers can use it free-of-charge in their commercial activities.
High quality resizing and cropping of images requires understanding of their con- tents. In the image you can see the different phases of the analysis that results in different size options and the colour of the title and the initial.
Layout automation for different types of devices is highly challenging if the user lacks the methods required for un- derstanding images. Most images can be automatically resized. Different ver- sions are needed for vertical and hori- zontal displays, the table of contents requires a smaller size, and all of this might need to be redone for tablets and mobile phones.
Resizing alone might not always be enough and images might also need to be cropped. This requires an under- standing of the image's contents. Soft- ware must distinguish the important content from the less important so that cropping will not, for example, re- move a part of someone's face.
Aalto SCI has been developing al- gorithms for this purpose to be used in layout automation. The same methods can also be used if headlines need to be placed on top of images. The headline must be placed so that it only covers the background of the image and not anything important.
Colour palette analysis can also be beneficial to layout automation – and
can also prove invaluable in processes such as choosing colours for headlines and graphics. The colour palette is also useful in handling image archives.
A photo's lifespan is extended if the image archive can be utilised in many
ways. Aalto SCI also developed an image search tool based on previous work. It was tested using an image archive of 10,000 images. The search is conducted using algorithms devel- oped during the Next Media project.
The first stage of an image search involves using a keyword, after which results can be whittled down by using information about colour, texture, layout or even the position in the image of the main subject.
Image analysis and editing
are key to automation
PROFILING
There is currently a strong trend for services that take into account or even predict user interests and current and future situations. They require a versatile user profile that can be created from information on the use of several different applications – as well as basic information given by the user.
Next Media projects have devel- oped methods for focusing content and services based on a user-specific interest profile as well as place and context. Another crucial factor is that of a user-controlled profile that is portable between different ser- vices: the user creates and maintains a profile in one place and can use it or parts of it in different services based on the user's own preferences.
VTT's portable profile
The VTT profile service developed in Next Media research programme en- ables the creation, control and use of