Australia's leading national news-talk network, the Fairfax Radio Network, has converted to NewsBoss to power all of its newsrooms, some of its flagship talk programs, and to provide news content nationwide via satellite. Changing newsroom systems is a major decision for a network built on news and talk content, especially when staff are already familiar with an existing system deployed in almost every market. But after evaluating the options of upgrading its existing system or converting to NewsBoss, Fairfax recognised the benefits of the larger project. "NewsBoss has proven to be well-suited to the FRN's operation, with the flexibility to adapt to local needs while still allowing all content to be shared seamlessly between newsrooms in four states," says FRN National News Director, Rob Curtain. "NewsBoss provided quality training and advice during the transition, has been keen to continue development, and has adapted to meet FRN's needs." The project came with many challenges including several unique software development requests. There was also the need to train a large number of news and program staff spread across Australia, and the need to maintain content sharing during the transition when some sites were on NewsBoss and others remained on the old system. NewsBoss devised a plan with the Fairfax Radio Network for back to back rollouts in each market, training all staff, tailoring the system to specific needs and maintaining connectivity between all sites. The national conversion was completed on time and on budget, invisibly to listeners and user acceptance of NewsBoss was immediate. "NewsBoss delivered on every promise that was made during the negotiations and more," says FRN Technology Director Joe Sexton. "They were very flexible with modification and adapting to the specialised FRN workflow. The project was hugely successful with 100+ users now creating news content on the system."
