Success story: The New York Times

Challenge

In 2006 The New York Times decided to stop printing stock listings. In their place, the Times would run two pages of data-rich graphs, charts and tables: a market trends graph comparing the major markets head to head, mutual funds in a rotating graph, 52-week highs and lows shown graphically inside table listings, and more.

The 20-plus graph designs were groundbreaking, but producing them by hand every night would have been impossibly time-consuming. The source data combined AP text files and Bloomberg Excel sheets, and the designs were beyond the capability of existing graphing software.

Solution

The Times turned to Custom Flow Solutions to implement HyperGraph, its flagship graphing automation engine. Using HyperGraph, the Times created its financial graphs, flowed table text and populated its market data pages in InDesign templates automatically. All graphs, charts, tables and pages stayed fully editable.

Result

After nearly three years of service, an operator was producing the two-page business section in under three minutes every night, saving the Times hundreds of thousands of dollars a year with flawless market graphics night after night. Custom Flow Solutions went on to automate the Times’ weather pages for its four daily editions.