Startup Idea: Document Merging Software for News Publications

Startup idea to develop a software solution that allows journalists and editors to efficiently merge multiple versions of a document. This system could simplify the process in news publications where articles are edited and revised using layout software like InDesign, reducing the hassle of manual adjustments.

I am a journalist who works for a number of news publications. When two versions of a document exist, a software allowing a way to simply merge those versions together would be wonderful.

Often, a writer turns in an article, then revisions are requested, but don't come in before the deadline.

Layout may have already begun, meaning the article is being edited on the page in the layout software like InDesign (instead of as a word processing document that can be linked to).

The writer may then come back with revisions, and editors have two choices:

(1) Go through the writer's new copy line by line to find their changes and add them to the draft being used for layout. (2) Re-load the writer's revised file into the layout software.

Go through all paper copies of rounds of changes that have been made and make them again. These options are such a hassle that I, and I'm sure many other professionals, would pay for a solution.

Don't even get me started on when two editors are accidentally working on two copies of the same page (on paper) and those changes need to come over to the layout software.