The Boston Globe and Boston.com have launched a new self-service classifieds service, called “For Sale”. It's a combined ad-booking and ad-publishing system for web and print, built on a single Internet database platform.

It is now possible for the first time to book an ad in the Boston Globe newspaper using online self-service tools... and to have that same ad published online in Boston.com. The platform includes search engine capabilities, bidding features, and personal folders for customer to manage their ads they create and find.

Customers can create, preview, and pay for their classified ad bookings for both print and online with one easy, self-service booking process. Rosetta's application creates classified liner ads including up-sells such as photos, borders, shading, eye-catcher icons, web id's, and extra text in the web ads.

"Rosetta's web service platform seamlessly integrates with all of our existing systems and offers new technology and tools that replace many of our older systems," says Rich Masotta, Director of Advertising Operations at the Boston Globe."

"We're giving our customers the control and ease of use they demand. Basically everything you need to place an ad in print and online, even a fancy photo ad, is available from Rosetta's application. It's easy and intuitive to use. Working with mWave Media (Rosetta’s US distributor) and Rosetta directly we were able to deploy the solution that fits our business requirements.”

Easy booking, pricing and payment

Users create their classified ads using simple web forms. They can upload photos, choose when to publish their ad, and select other paid for options. There is a shopping basket to allow users the opportunity to book multiple ads and pay for them in a single transaction.

The system offers several features which increase usability for customers. For example, when you upload a color photo for your print ad, it's immediately shown  as a grey-scaled image in your print ad preview. Click to add a border, click to remove it again, it all happens instantly. It is very easy to use and no plug-ins are required. Users see their ad and the exact price instantly and are in complete control of creating their own advertisements.

Ad-checking prior to publication

Every ad is checked before publication. Using Rosetta's browser-based tools and a secure login, Boston Globe personnel can select, view, check and modify ad text as required. When ads are approved, Rosetta publishes them automatically on Boston.com and provides everything that external systems need to get the ad in print as follows:

• XML job ticket for the pagination system
• XML financial transaction data for the Boston Globe's accounting systems
• XML ad-depth data so all systems can report on actual size of ads booked
• PDF-X compliant ad material
• Rosetta does not store credit card data. An external payment provider processes the transaction and returns success/error codes which Rosetta transforms into user-friendly feedback on screen.

Routing ad material for web and print

Getting user-submitted ads with images into printed newspapers can be tricky. The Boston Globe newspaper uses Atex classified pagination which requires an EPS to publish ads. But Boston.com requires a JPG, GIF or PNG. So Rosetta's booking process provides each destination with a version of the ad in the correct format:

• Users can choose to have the same ad both in print and online, or separate versions (for example, more pictures and text online are low-cost extra options)
• Ads for print are processed to the Boston Globe's print curve requirement. The pagination system matches up the Rosetta job ticket with the EPS file.
• Ads for Boston.com are formatted for the website, indexed and published immediately.
• In each case, image upload and preview are provided by Rosetta

Not just booking... Publishing, too!

The Boston Globe and Boston.com requirement was for more than just ad-booking, however. For Sale is in fact a complete integrated booking and publishing engine. So whether ads are booked through the call center or using the web interface, they are all published online by Rosetta inside Boston.com.

The web publishing side of the system is branded in the look-and-feel of Boston.com and is powered by the same Rosetta database as the booking workflow. It's a fully featured classifieds website, with powerful searching, browsing, personalization and automated email alerts.

A logged-in user has access to his/her own personal area to manage ad bookings, ad renewals, saved searches and alerts, all within the same website, using the same Boston.com brand.

Rich features for online ads

The classifieds website contains some exciting features that are new to the Boston.com audience:

• Multiple online images at no extra charge
• Extra expanded text online at no extra charge
• "Make me an offer" -- buyers can make a bid on items advertised on the website. The bid is sent to the seller by email. Simpler than auctions, this feature is popular on some European classifieds websites and is really an easy way to get the negotiating ball rolling. Advertisers choose whether to enable this option when booking their ads. 

Automated imports from J-11

The Boston Globe's IT personnel created automatic export scripts to get classified ads out of the merchandise categories stored in Atex J-11. Rosetta's import module uses a scheduled task to collect and transform these delimited text files into XML, which is the native format for storage within the Rosetta database. Once imported, the newspaper ads are parsed and indexed for searching within the Rosetta application embedded inside Boston.com.

Centralized user data

Another goal of the project was to give Boston.com and the Boston Globe a seamless integration of customer registration data. This has also been achieved. Rosetta redirects registration and login requests to Boston.com's central user repository. The customer enjoys time-saving convenience (no separate login required) and Boston.com gets integrated user data that helps them to understand better the customers' needs.

Time to market

The project has been a great success for the Boston Globe in many ways. Integration of the print and online advertising systems, both for bookings and for user data, has been achieved for the first time. Technical and business teams from Rosetta, mWave Media and the Boston Globe all worked together on the project to meet the tight deadlines.

This is the first of several implementations of the Rosetta platform planned for 2006.

About Boston Globe Media

Boston Globe Media is an integrated media group whose mission is to deliver advertisers the precise audiences they desire through leading media brands in the greater Boston market. Through its platform-agnostic approach to client service, Boston Globe Media draws upon its growing suite of media products in print, in broadcast and online to develop the most efficient and effective cross-media advertising solutions for its marketing partners. Boston Globe Media consists of The Boston Globe, Boston.com, BostonWorks, GlobeDirect and the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, owned by The New York Times Company (NYSE:NYT), and the Company's investments in Metro Boston and NESN.

Do you face similar integration challenges between the web and print? Rosetta can help! For more information contact us

See www.boston.com