Standardized publication processes
Simplified maintenance and administrative tasks
Reduced operational costs
Innovative new services implemented for readers
Optimized editorial strategy thanks to better analysis of reader expectations
Ouest decided to outsource the hosting of its digital front office to Google Cloud in order to optimize its operations and support its digital strategy.
Ouest decided to outsource the hosting of its digital front office to Google Cloud in order to optimize its operations and support its digital strategy.
Strengthening online presence by optimizing processes
An independent information, communication, and services group, whose related media brands are associated with the local area and embody it in their name, Sud Ouest is a major player in the regional press in France. Founded in 1986, the Group developed through the influence of its flagship newspaper Sud Ouest, which was created in 1944. Over the years it has greatly diversified, and now has around fifteen publications (daily and weekly), as well as television channels. It has also developed its business in the field of events as well as advertising. Faced with the evolution of the press, it worked on its transformation by creating a multi-format (text, audio, image) and multimedia (paper, digital) information service with high added value.
To support its strategy, Sud Ouest opted to outsource its digital front office to Google Cloud so it could manage spikes in traffic more easily, benefit from higher flexibility in terms of infrastructure, and innovate faster by capitalizing on managed services. Shortly after his arrival in 2021, the Group's CTO Lionel Richer realized the infrastructure could be optimized and pooled between its different publications. "Each media type had its own processes, which meant just as many pipelines as there were media types to manage and develop," he explains. "At the same time, many tasks were still being handled manually. We were losing a lot of time, and not just at a technical level; our journalists were also less reactive when publishing their articles. Regarding our digital ambitions, we needed to optimize our processes and our use of Google Cloud as a priority."
The new team led by Lionel Richer started by stabilizing what was already there, which was an essential step in guaranteeing the robustness of the systems and ensuring they could support not only day-to-day operations, but also future innovations. During the next phase, they carried out a radical transformation by replacing all existing publication processes with a single pooled process, customized at the final stage depending on the specificities of each media type.
Regarding our digital ambitions, we needed to optimize our processes and our use of Google Cloud as a priority.
Lionel Richer
CTO, Sud Ouest Group
The Sud Ouest Group then took advantage of this overhaul to standardize its processes with Terraform. "With varying and non-standardized configurations, each project previously required specific attention and resources, which hampered our efficiency and increased the risk of errors. Standardization allowed us to create standard templates, which facilitate day-to-day maintenance and management, thus reducing operational costs and improving reliability," explains Lionel Richer. "Our main objective was to move more quickly while expending fewer human resources on tasks with low added value. At the same time, in an environment as regulated as the press, this standardization also facilitated the implementation of a data security process."
Harnessing the potential of data to innovate
We mainly use BigQuery to perform detailed and complex analyses in order to better guide our editorial and business decisions. Typically, the journalists now have near real-time feedback on how their articles are performing, which enables the editorial team to plan the content according to reader engagement.
Frédéric Gilbert
CDO, Sud Ouest Group
Not content with simply optimizing operations at a technical level, the Sud Ouest Group used this transformation as a means to innovate by offering new services to its journalists. Frédéric Gilbert (Sud Ouest Group CDO) and his team started by centralizing all the data in Google Cloud Storage and BigQuery, while relying on Composer and Dataflow to manage flows. "We mainly use BigQuery to perform detailed and complex analyses in order to better guide our editorial and business decisions," explains Frédéric Gilbert. "Typically, the journalists now have near real-time feedback on how their articles are performing, which enables the editorial team to plan the publication of content according to reader engagement."
Sud Ouest also uses advanced analysis to identify trends over longer periods or based on specific themes in order to help the editorial team develop longer-term content strategies.
Everything is outsourced via Google Cloud's partner Skale-5, thus ensuring Sud Ouest Group is supported by a team around the clock should there be an incident.
"We work closely with the teams through the delegation of Skaler DevOps experts in order to create a set of tasks and developments that require daily discussions with the developers and head of SRE," states Jean-Pierre Chamarande, Deloitte France Partner. "Contrary to what we see when outsourcing outside of Cloud, we care about giving our clients full ownership of their infrastructures. In this way, the observability and recording of tasks like incident management are bundled under the Sud Ouest Group's subscription and made available to everyone. This transparency enables collective performance, whether the team is from GSOi or Skale-5."
Going further with AI
Continuing to innovate, the Sud Ouest Group also developed its own artificial intelligence models to simplify their journalists' work and optimize performance. Integrated into the publication process, one of these models automates article categorization. "The journalists no longer have to search for different tags; AI suggests values in keeping with the content," explains Frédéric Gilbert. "They save time on tedious tasks and content classification is more precise, which is crucial for the referencing and visibility of our articles on digital platforms."
Sud Ouest also uses AI to recommend articles to readers based on their reading history and preferences. "Our objective is to provide tools to the editing team so they can adjust content according to trends or in reaction to current events. In a sector that's developing as rapidly as the press, these tools are essential for capturing and retaining readers' attention," emphasizes Lionel Richer.
Through Vertex AI, we're going to integrate AI deep into our applications, thus automating more of our processes while reducing dependence on manual intervention. This should translate into reduced operational costs, improved efficiency, and an accelerated ability to innovate when it comes to digital content products.
Lionel Richer
CTO, Sud Ouest Group
With this in mind, the Sud Ouest Group is considering harnessing Vertex AI to improve content management, with models to optimize publication strategies and predict users' preferences in real time. In order to improve marketing campaign efficiency and increase user satisfaction, Sud Ouest is also planning models for specific tasks like the sentimental analysis of readers' reactions, the optimization of content distribution, and ad personalization. "Through Vertex AI, we're going to integrate AI deep into our applications, thus automating more of our processes while reducing dependence on manual intervention. This should translate into reduced operational costs, improved efficiency, and an accelerated ability to innovate when it comes to digital content products," adds Lionel Richer.
In other words, in a transforming world where information is consumed at lightning speed, the Sud Ouest Group isn't just innovative; it's preparing to redefine the rules of the game by harnessing Google Cloud's advanced technologies and managed services to confront the challenges of its sector, and transform them into opportunities. Guided by the power of data and AI, the Group fully intends to attract yet more readers by offering them innovative and personalized services.
The Sud Ouest Group was developed through the influence of the French newspaper Sud Ouest, created in 1944, which is its main entity. It's an independent press group in the fields of information, communication, and services. Every day, 1.5 million people are informed and connected thanks to the Sud Ouest Group's media brands.
Industry: Media & Entertainment
Location: France
Products: GKE, Cloud Run, Vertex AI Search, BigQuery, Cloud Armor, Cloud CDN
