Family-owned regional publisher North East Media has taken advantage of new automation opportunities in Atex’s MyType product, switching 30 websites to the platform in just four months.

The publisher of the Wangaratta Chronicle – with mastheads in Mansfield, Myrtleford, Euroa and Melbourne – was founded in 1921 and is led by fourth-generation chief executive Edward Higgins.

In 2023, the parent Provincial Press Group grew substantially with the acquisition of seven ACM newspapers in the NSW central west, which were deemed “outside the company’s key markets”. They focussed on Parkes, Forbes, Canowindra, Grenfell, Cowra, Boorowa and Young.

The migration of 30 news sites to MyType marks a major step in the company’s digital evolution, bringing digital publishing, subscriber management and upcoming print automation under a single Atex ecosystem.

Scope of the project included the migration of all sites to MyType, activation of MyType Vault for paywall control and subscriber data, and preparation for Atex print automation across the company’s newspapers, following the signing of an agreement in August ahead of the end of a support contract with their previous vendor.

NEM chief executive Edward Higgins descried it as “a major milestone for us and our business”.

Atex content management BU manager Gian Camillo Vezzoli said the project showed how quickly publishers could move when the right platform and teams were aligned. “We now look forward to building on this success with the rollout of print automation,” he said. This will included installing Atex auto pagination across all print publications and expanding the use of MyType Vault as the central source of subscriber information.

Top: Wangaratta’s main street (picture Ewan Bell/Visit Victoria)