Le Devoir deploys remote newsroom in record Swing rollout

“The newspaper you’re holding in your hands is a historic achievement. For the first time in 110 years of operation we have succeeding in creating both print and digital editions entirely by remote working. This is a 100% ‘homemade’ news medium. The pandemic has in no way affected the quality or the quantity of news we are able to deliver to you, our readers.”

The writer is Brian Myles, editor of Le Devoir, Canada’s leading French-language newspaper based in Montreal. Le Devoir is upgrading its digital newsroom software with an Eidosmedia solution that included the Swing remote working apps. Swing gives journalists and editors a fully featured mobile workspace, allowing them to work from any location.

The public health emergency gave the Swing deployment new urgency: “The newsroom accelerated the replacement of our editorial system with technology from Eidosmedia, an Italian company, whose engineers supported us remotely from Milan – the epicentre of the pandemic in Europe.”

Brian continued: “Our IT team can be counted on less than the fingers of two hands, but their performance has been exceptional: in under ten days of extraordinary work they were able to have our teleworking newsroom up and running.”

Sylvain Coutu, CTO at Le Devoir said: “We had no other choice then to fast track the deployment of Eidosmedia Prime and Swing. We were helped by the excellent support we’ve had from the Eidosmedia team in North America. I know that there is a great team in Milan that is also supporting. Kudos to them also, especially during the COVID crisis.”

Siva Thekkenaduvath, Eidosmedia VP, Sales and Partnerships said: “Le Devoir’s IT team have done a remarkable job and it also confirms the validity of our innovative “Segmented Approach Model”, an Agile delivery mechanism that we are also using in other projects in North America.”

Massimo Barsotti, Eidosmedia CMO said: “Le Devoir’s remarkable achievement shows that you can create and deliver a complete print and digital portfolio using only remote access. We’ve been developing the Swing mobile apps for nearly a decade, but this is the toughest application challenge they’ve had so far.”