Startup Idea: Digital Asset Management and Sales System for Regional Newspapers

Startup idea to develop an online digital asset management system for regional newspapers. The system must capture image details from Photoshop, cross-reference with the print version of the newspaper, categorize images, and make them searchable for the public and other publications. It should also cater to online print orders and provide a sales analysis to the newspapers. The product could be either a standalone software or a centralized picture sales platform for multiple newspapers.

Digital Asset Management and Sales System for newspapers

I work in a relatively small regional newspaper, but we haven't yet found a digital asset management system that can retain pictures outside the actual newspaper system and upload them to a searchable database capable of accepting online print orders from the public.

What we need is an online storage centre. Pictures would be entered via a drop folder system, with no ticking of boxes required or manual entry of exif details or captions. The system would pull all this info from the Photoshop captions. Where it would differ from anything I've seen online is that the system would automatically cross-reference back to the newspaper. For example: I upload a photo of a man kicking a ball in the air at a football match. The system automatically sucks in the date, location, copyright details, and the caption, all from Photoshop. However, using a digital scan of the newspaper (not made available to the public as there is a digital subscription plan available for this), it will also record the publication date and the page number, and using the page header, categorise it as "lifestyle", "sport", "news", "motors" or whatever. In an even more ideal world, it would pick up keywords from the story to which the picture is attached, to help searchers.

NEXT STEP The public then have access to a searchable database, and can order copies by size, quantity, finish etc.

Also: other publications have the option of buying copies for reprint, at a scaleable fee range.

Finally, a weekly statement back to the newspaper with a breakdown of sales by genre; sales by photographer; most popular print size etc.

Regarding payment: the software would either be bought by the newspaper, or the developers could run it as an agency offering - which would give them the option to build it into a larger site, offering centralised picture sales for a region or country.

A difficulty is that a lot of weekly newspapers have sales of less than 10,000 print copies a week, and might only have occasional photo sale requests, so there might be a cost-effectiveness issue.