FINGERPOST COMPANY LIMITED(THE)

What FINGERPOST COMPANY LIMITED(THE) does

FingerPost Company Limited is a privately-held London software company that builds data communication, conversion, and workflow-automation tools for digital and print publishers. Founded in 1985 and incorporated in England in 1991 (Companies House number 1892843), the firm operates as a small specialist vendor with 1–10 employees and self-describes as a "small London based company."

The flagship product is FIP (FingerPost Information Processor), a modular suite that handles wire-feed reception (AFP, Reuters, AP, Press Association), format conversion (NewsML, NITF, XML, HTML, PostScript), database integration (ODBC, Oracle), and output generation for downstream print (QuarkXPress, PostScript) and digital publishing systems. FIP runs on Linux, Solaris, Windows, AIX, and Mac OSX, exposing no public API and operating via on-premise enterprise deployments. The architecture is rule-based and deterministic, reflecting four decades of accumulated format-handling knowledge rather than AI-driven automation.

FingerPost sells exclusively B2B via software licensing combined with annual support contracts. The customer base includes The New York Times, Reuters, The Guardian, Financial Times, BBC, ITN, Press Association, The Hindu, Times of India, and Mainichi, among others, spanning 19 countries. No external funding, acquisitions, partnerships, or executive turnover have been disclosed; the business appears to be a stable, founder-operated enterprise serving a niche of legacy publishing infrastructure.

Name

FINGERPOST COMPANY LIMITED(THE)

Legal name

The FingerPost Co Ltd

Website

https://fingerpost.co.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

1991

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

FingerPost Company Limited is a London-based software firm providing workflow automation and data-conversion tools for digital and print publishers worldwide, serving enterprise news clients such as NYT, Reuters, BBC, and FT across 19 countries via licensed software and annual support contracts.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Publishing Workflow Software

NAICS

Media Streaming Distribution Services, Social Networks, and Other Media Networks and Content Providers (516210)

SIC

Miscellaneous Publishing (2741)

akta.pro primary industry

Newsletter Publishing Platforms (MPACAIAA)

Keywords

• News wire processing
• Publishing workflow software
• Content format conversion
• Editorial system integration
• News content syndication

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel

Revenue model

1. Software Licensing: FIP software licensing to publishers, newspapers, and news agencies. License requests can be made through a 60-day trial license form on the website.
2. Support and Maintenance Contracts: Annual support contracts with various tiers including Basic Support, After Hours Support, On-Site Support, Whole System Support, Development/Customisation, and Time and Materials options. Pricing is percentage-based of initial list price of software modules.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

FingerPost develops, licenses, and supports the FingerPost Information Processor (FIP), a family of communication and conversion software packages that fetch, deliver, and convert content for digital publishers, newspapers, magazines, and news agencies. The product covers the full publishing workflow — wire reception in multiple formats (ANPA, IPTC, IATA, XML/NewsML, etc.), conversion to editorial, CMS, and web-publishing outputs, and file transfer (FTP/SFTP/SSL) with redundancy. The company also sells tiered annual support contracts and customisation services to publishing customers across 19 countries.

Product overview

FingerPost is a London-based company offering the FingerPost Information Processor (FIP), a modular suite of communication and conversion packages for the publishing industry. The core FIP product encompasses multiple program modules including wire reception programs (wire, vwire, zwire, ftpwire, sftpwire, nitfwire, etc.) for receiving various news wire formats; database connection programs (ip2db, ipora, ip2syb, ipxsyb) for Oracle, MySQL, Sybase, and SQL Server; data formatting and PostScript generation programs; syndication transmission systems; and the FingerPost Packager for creating NewsML packages. The company also provides 24-hour support contracts and documentation services across all time zones.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• FIP (FingerPost Information Processor): A family of communication and conversion packages specifically created for publishing. FIP handles fetching, delivery, and conversion of various data formats for digital publishers, newspapers, magazines, and news agencies.
• The FingerPost Packager

Products and services

• FIP (FingerPost Information Processor)

Quantifiable outcome

• Systems installed in 19 countries worldwide
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers26 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves3 records

Direct peers

• Impelsys: Impelsys provides content delivery, workflow, and technology platforms for publishers (iPublish, PubFactory). Comparable to FingerPost as a B2B software vendor addressing publishing workflow and content distribution needs for professional publishers.
• vjoon: vjoon (K4 Publishing System) offers cross-media publishing software for magazines, newspapers, and corporate publishers, with strong Adobe InDesign integration. Compares to FingerPost as a publishing workflow vendor focused on multi-format content production for media clients.
• WoodWing: WoodWing provides digital publishing workflow software (Studio, Content Planner, Brand Portal) used by magazine and newspaper publishers to manage multi-channel content production. Directly comparable to FingerPost as a B2B workflow/publishing software vendor serving the same news and magazine verticals.
• Naviga: Naviga (formerly SAXOTECH) provides content engagement and publishing platforms for media companies, including CMS, audience, and advertising tools. Comparable to FingerPost as a software vendor specializing in news publisher workflows and multi-channel content distribution.
• Arc XP: Arc XP (the Washington Post's commercial platform) offers a digital publishing platform and content management system used by major news organizations. Compares to FingerPost as a publishing platform vendor serving enterprise news customers, though differentiated by cloud-native delivery.
• Eidosmedia: Eidosmedia provides newsroom and content production platforms (Méthode, NewsWay) used by major European newspapers, wire services, and broadcasters. Closely comparable to FingerPost in serving large international news organizations with enterprise publishing workflow tools.
• Atex: Atex delivers advertising, content management, and workflow software for the news media industry, including print and digital publishing systems. Directly comparable as a vertical software vendor serving newspaper and magazine publishers globally.

Broad incumbents

• Adobe (Document Cloud & Experience Manager): Adobe offers InDesign, InCopy, and Adobe Experience Manager — content tools widely used by newspaper and magazine publishers for editorial and layout workflows. Broad incumbent with overlapping use cases in publishing workflows, particularly through InDesign tags integration referenced by FingerPost.
• Quark (Quark Software): Quark provides content automation and publishing software (Quark Publishing Platform, QuarkXPress) serving enterprises across multiple verticals. Comparable as a publishing technology incumbent, though broader in scope than FingerPost's news-industry specialization.

Emerging players

• Norkon: Norkon provides digital publishing and CMS solutions specifically for news media organizations, focused on real-time content delivery. Comparable as a publishing software vendor with overlapping customer base in newspaper and digital news workflows.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/bugfingerpost

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about FINGERPOST COMPANY LIMITED(THE)