WHEELS
X-CAGO’s unparalleled reputation and expertise in digitisation enables the preservation and commercialisation of publisher content.
WHEELS IS ONE OF AUSTRALIA’S OLDEST AND MOST TRUSTED MOTORING TITLES
ICONIC IN AUSTRALIA’S AUTOMOTIVE HISTORY
Since 2020 Wheels has been published by Wheels Media, a division of Are Media. Are Media, with whom X-CAGO continues to have a deep collaboration through multiple projects is one of Australia’s leading multi-platform publishers, with investments spanning magazines, digital and live experiences. Are Media is the successor to Bauer Media in Australia, and prior to that Australian Consolidated Press, just to name a few. Throughout, Wheels Magazine has taken pride of place.
Much more than a magazine, Wheels has always offered world-class levels of writing, photography, and video and is Australia’s only general interest motoring magazine.
Where other motoring titles target tightly focused tribal audiences, Wheels magazine aims for a broader appeal, not only providing news and reviews on new models but also taking an interest in – and a position on – issues such as cost of car ownership, the environment, road safety, and technology.
One of Australia’s oldest and most trusted motoring titles, Wheels has built its reputation from over 70 years of dedicated journalism with a reputation as an industry innovator – renowned worldwide as an authoritative and high-quality product.
In many respects, Wheels rich content provides one of the most comprehensive and definitive histories of Australia’s automotive industry. Wheels first hit the newsstands in May 1953 and has been living, breathing, driving and reviewing cars ever since. But there never a way a casual reader or subscriber could delve into or access its rich archival content. How, for example, could a reader find out what Wheels said about the original 1978 VB Commodore, or read of the first test of the iconic Ford Falcon GTHO, or ‘ride shotgun’ when Wheels became the first magazine to crash a Lamborghini Diablo?
UNIQUE CONTENT DESERVES A UNIQUE ARCHIVAL SOLUTION
Recognising the unique fact that no other automotive media brand in Australia had the history and heritage of Wheels Magazine, Bauer Media elected to undertake a comprehensive and on-going project so that for the first time ever, Australians and motoring enthusiasts the world over could access the Wheels Archive Online.
They understood that a valuable Business to Business (B2B) and Business to Consumer (B2C) proposition would require that the Wheels archive be digitised so that it could be a genuine dynamic working tool enabling readers the ability to search and find content based on numerous criteria.
Bauer Media were tremendously proactive in establishing the most appropriate models to commercialise the Wheels archive but with an absolute commitment to providing the very best reader experience. The strategy, as with any product development, was to continue to test, adapt and improve.
Their initial research suggested that a part subscription model would likely be the most appropriate launch strategy with two key focuses:
Drive subscription purchases and;
Increase the database of free access subscribers.
This strategy sort to maximise the opportunity Bauer Media had with audiences who had engaged previously with Wheels as a brand (be that the magazine’s lapsed or current subscribers, newsletter database or website users).
To test the subscription proposition, special offers were used to secure new customers, retain existing customers and convert customers from other brands within the Bauer Media motoring network.
RESEARCH & MARKETING
As a launch offer, free access to 5 years of Wheels archival content was made available to allow customers the opportunity to test and trial the product. Pricing, product positioning, and subscription terms were closely examined.
Whilst the archive was greeted very enthusiastically by subscribers, casual readers and the corporate market alike, on-going research and analysis indicated that driving Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) by opening up the archive as free content would be a more compelling proposition and deliver stronger brand engagement by readers to Wheels and ultimately Bauer Media’s other motoring assets. With that in mind, a launch of the full free archive commenced in July 2017.
Underscoring Wheels Unique Selling Point was that no other automotive media brand in Australia had the history and heritage of that held by Wheels Magazine.
ENTER X-CAGO
X-CAGO has developed and maintained close collaborations with Bauer Media in multiple international markets including Europe, the UK and USA. Spanning multiple digitisation, content processing and conversion services and projects it was only natural therefore that X-CAGO were commissioned to digitise the complete backlog of the Wheels Magazine. X-CAGO received the archival publications from Bauer Media in a combination of formats: namely print-ready PDF for recent and new editions and hard copy magazines for those editions which preceded digital (PDF) print production. The hard copy magazines were sent to the Netherlands to be scanned.
X-CAGO’s software ‘ClipWorX’ was deployed to enable Bauer Media to capture, store and distribute this content from Wheels efficiently and securely into its Content Repository environment ‘Archive ExPress™’
The archival publications originating on paper and PDF were literally brought back to life through digital conversion with full-text access right down to an article level.
For the print editions, the magazines were carefully scanned using the most advanced scanners in the market.
ClipWorX created a digital archive by distilling the content - with the software building XML files for every single page, article, and photo. The first of its kind, this Page Segmentation Software ‘understands’ the structure of the magazine’s pages, deconstructing every single page into constituent articles, images, and advertisements as applicable.
Having then ingested the content into Archive ExPress, the Wheels archive enabled the resource to be easily found, tracked, exported and re-used with rich functionality:
Access to each complete edition page by page, just as they appear in print.
Enlargement of any article, photo or advertisement in one click.
Searching within a collection including for all articles on a specific topic or area of interest, editorial, advertisements and the like.
Creation of interactive clipping files on topic areas for easy and immediate reference.
Retention and complete control of the library’s assets for Bauer Media management.
MAZDA
For Mazda, a special edition publication to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Rotary Engine, available to selected Rotary Owners named ‘The Mazda Rotary Story’ was created. With some 100 pages, it had a heavy reliance on the rich content produced about the engine and the many models that have relied upon it – for which all of which resided in Archive ExPress. The Rotary Engine is somewhat iconic and loved by enthusiasts as it ditched conventional cylinders that pumped up and down or side to side, instead of using a drum shape that used an unconventional triangle-shaped piston that spun.
As stated in the special edition:
“Join us for a rev through Hiroshima’s rotary history, from German engineer Felix Wankel’s pioneering design to Mazda’s mass-production reality, via some at times very odd detours, and regular brushes with the redline buzzer.”
The positive response to this Special Edition created for Mazda was such that the publisher then elected to embellish and create a further stand-alone retail edition with additional content. An additional 30 pages were included – all from the archive. The highly successful production of the retail edition was further evidence of the capacity to realise additional commercial opportunities born from the utilisation of historic and new content.
Alfa Romeo commissioned a beautiful 70-page hard copy publication, effectively a high-end historical overview of Alfa Romeo since its inception in 1820 with strong editorial, pictorial and historical references.
To quote from the publication’s introduction:
“Every Great Story has a Pivotal Moment. This is ours.”
The publication focused on the evolution of Alfa culminating in the renaissance of the Alfa Romeo Giulia. To do so, it relied upon a hybrid of rich new content and salient historical content that was made available through the digitisation and categorisation process where X-CAGO’s solutions came into play.
ALFA ROMEO
The digitisation and creation of the Wheels archive ensured that this content has a rich and extendable life. It demonstrates that a publisher can successfully deliver a return on investment on their content whilst also protecting the legacy of their content.
The Wheels archive project was testament to a publisher’s determination to ensure their content remained at the forefront of relevancy in a new digital era for which competition is fierce and the need for commercialisation paramount. X-CAGO was proud to have been selected as the partner of choice to deliver these outcomes – on time and on budget.
The publication focused on the evolution of Alfa culminating in the renaissance of the Alfa Romeo Giulia. To do so, it relied upon a hybrid of rich new content and salient historical content that was made available through the digitisation and categorisation process where X-CAGO’s solutions came into play.
For any publisher, the capacity exists to further capitalise through the creation of a dynamic digital editions fit for purpose on multiple devices, and formats – including PC, tablet and smartphone; and readily adapted for multiple formats including those used by eKiosks and content syndicators.
ADVICE & SOLUTIONS
X-CAGO’s solutions ensure the complex is made easy!
For any questions, please contact us. We will be happy to advise you and prepare a proposal tailored to your individual needs.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Please contact X-CAGO for more information at sales@x-cago.com
SERVICES YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN
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SUPERSET
X-CAGO currently processes more than 5,000 newspaper and magazine titles from PDF input files into one or more XML/JSON output formats.
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WEB CRAWLING
This is the conversion of articles on web pages into a consistent XML/JSON output format. This is achieved through the use of a high-precision web crawler.
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HISTORIC DIGITISATION
This involves the digitsation of hard copy archival content for media companies / publishers.
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ARCHIVE EXPRESS
Archive ExPress successfully captures, stores, researches, publishes, distributes and syndicates content from both print media (newspapers, magazines, books, catalogues, etc.) and digital media.
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CONTENT TRANSLATIONS
X-CAGO can provide fast and reliable automated content translations in no less than 30 languages. New languages are being added regularly.
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