The core of journalism is the search for truth. But around that core, in the broadcast and digital industries, are practical realities. The combination of Avid and Wolftech intends to empower teams in new ways to address these realities, and the chief executive officers of both companies share their vision for the future here.
As content channels multiply and remote work complicates team collaboration, newsroom teams face the challenge of producing more content with fewer resources, prompting the demand for end-to-end platforms that simplify workflows and integrate seamlessly with existing tools. Journalism has always relied on teamwork and now a major new player is joining the game. Avid’s planned acquisition of Wolftech Broadcast Solutions, a Norwegian story-centric newsroom specialist, ushers in transformational possibilities for the broadcast industry. Both companies look to take their leading solutions to new heights, enhancing efficiency, fostering collaboration, and providing flexible solutions for digital, broadcast, and long-form teams worldwide.
Avid Chief Executive Officer Wellford Dillard says, “It’s an unbelievably exciting moment. It’s been a long time since Avid has made an acquisition. This is a huge acceleration in our own plans. Wolftech’s unquestionably on the leading edge of where this industry is going. While we’ve heard about the need for story-centric solutions for a long time in this industry, it’s here and it’s now. “
Wolftech Chief Executive Officer Arne Berven says the planned acquisition will be transformative. “Our focus was to find a partner that could take the product out in the world. We looked at the possibilities, and when we started to talk to Avid, we thought it was a very good match in the product portfolio, what we were doing and what they were doing, and they brought the distribution opportunity.”
News is fundamental to Avid’s business. Thousands of journalists worldwide use MediaCentral | Newsroom Management system (formerly known as iNEWS) every day to write stories and produce broadcast news shows, distributing news to millions of viewers. Avid’s MediaCentral | Production Management systems power the video side of many of those newsrooms, enabling smooth collaboration between teams from ingest to editing, storage, playout and digital distribution.
Avid’s AI-enabled, digital-first story-driven approach to news production for any platform will be further enhanced by the addition of Wolftech. Ultimately, journalists want to ensure that their stories are viewed by the widest audience possible. Bringing together the news production teams involved in the process from planning to publication, and taking the story from idea to audience, can ensure that the best, high quality stories are produced. This approach not only avoids duplication of effort, but also drives greater creativity within teams.
News organizations are looking for efficient workflows throughout the production chain. Berven, says that Wolftech News complements Avid’s strengths perfectly and delivers additional capabilities, which can help drive collaboration.
“The important thing for all our customers is the collaboration, to save cost, be more efficient, and deliver better content to that user,” Berven comments. “In our system, also, we have a lot of information about all the equipment used, publishing on a different platform, combined with the video asset used, and how much value a customer is getting out of the shoot they are doing out in the field, etc. There’s great insight when they are driving their organization further.”
Dillard says the combination of Avid and Wolftech is a natural match. “It’s not just a product fit, it’s a slam dunk, for multiple reasons: culturally, the way the teams fit; the respect Avid has for this industry; Wolftech CEO Arne spent decades in this industry and comes from it, and Avid was born from this industry as well. There’s a real respect for its history, and as a result, a unique vision of where it’s headed.”
Berven says the time is right for the industry to embrace new ways of working to ensure that audience expectations are being met. “To be able to work better together, we built this from a startup as a collaboration platform. We had a vision to build a platform for planning and publishing. I think that customers are very ready now for this kind of tool.”
“After the pandemic, remote work required the web client, and also all functionality [to be available] on the mobile client,” Berven adds. “We see that it’s very, very important in order for that user to work efficiently.”
Dillard agrees, saying, “To build a story-centric, collaborative solution, there always needs to be a moment. There has to be something that causes the industry to shift,” Between the changes we saw in the pandemic to Arne’s point; the fact that we had people sitting in a remote environment; the financial pressures that everybody’s under in the current economic environment; and how revenue models are changing in this industry so significantly. The former is driving the need for people in remote settings to be able to work in a very collaborative manner, to go from idea to execution in incredibly short time frames. Everybody must find efficiencies these days, and efficiencies mean different things to different people, that’s cost savings. It’s time, which is often the most valuable commodity that we have, so Wolftech, again, is the leading edge of that change.”
Teams within Avid and Wolftech will work closely together on integrating solutions and delivering clear workflow benefits for customers, ultimately driving benefits for audiences.
“At the end of the day, the consumer who’s actually out there consuming the content that’s being produced by our customers realizes the importance of this industry, and what it means to those consumers around the world, and how this industry shapes, informs, educates, grows (and) brings families together,” Dillard says. “The work is important, and I think we have a tremendous amount of respect for what this industry means to the world.”