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Home> About Us>
Case Histories > Newspaper
Workflow Brings Savings |
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The Problem |
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PP
Systems was approached by a brand new newspaper and was asked to
recommend and implement a complete system to handle all elements
of pre-press production: advertising, editorial, photographs and
pagination. They were using a peer to peer network of Apple Mac
computers, preparing the copy in Adobe InDesign, adjusting
photographs in Photoshop and booking adverts in an AppleWorks
spreadsheet. The main problem that they had was difficulty in
meeting the deadline for the press as the paper was printed using
a contract printer and all pages had to be sent using a 2 channel
ISDN line. Also with no editorial system in place, they were aware
that they were having problems with copyflow.
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The Solution |
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Our
first move was to send in our applications manager for a couple of
days to assess the situation and identify problem areas.
Workflow
Suggestions were made to modify the workflow to reduce the
production bottleneck on press day.
Advertisement Booking
The original method of booking ads meant that there was a great
deal of re-keying of material, both ad copy and invoicing
information. This was both wasteful of time and prone to error.
Our solution was to install a small SalesWorks Lite ad booking
system linking to AdForce a display ad planning package. In
addition a copy of Creator Lite was installed to allow one of the
ad takers to set simple display ads.
The result has been to free up the sales people to do more selling
which should increase revenue to the paper. The use of AdForce
eliminates the risk of missed or misplaced ads which would have
increased as the volume of advertising increased. The ad planning
package has also decreased the work load in the production
department. The export of data to the accounts system means that
invoices should go out more quickly with no additional effort
either for the sales people or the accounts department.
Editorial
As outlined above there was a need to introduce a more structured
workflow to eliminate the possibility of stories being duplicated
or lost. It was also recommended that some of the editorial staff
should make up some of the editorial pages to ease pressure on the
production staff.
PP Systems recommended a Scoop Editorial System which provides a
structured editorial workflow and in addition a web based archive
system and page tracking system. The PageTracker allows viewing of
the InDesign pages as they are being worked on and means that the
Editor and Production Manager can easily see which pages are ready
and those still awaiting ads or stories. This is a great bonus
near to press time. Scoop Archive provides rapid access to
previously published articles, an essential for a modern
newspaper.
Photographs
Most of the pictures are from a digital camera and were manually
adjusted by the picture editor and then in the production
department. This was obviously time consuming and because of the
dot gain etc. applied by the press it was difficult to obtain
consistent, good, results.
PP Systems recommended the use of Fotostation to view, crop and
add captions to pictures and Colour Factory to automatically apply
the press levels.
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The Implementation |
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The
newspaper accepted our recommendations which were implemented in
two, two-week spells in May/June 2004.
During the first visit a new HP Proliant ML350 fileserver was
installed to provide centralised storage for the whole system.
This was backed up on to an LTO 2 tape streamer. The editorial and
ad-booking systems were installed on the first visit along with
anti-virus software from Sophos. Picture editing and ad-planning
were installed on the second visit.
Even after the first visit, benefits from the system were
apparent. In the Editorial department stories are processed more
quickly, the advertising department has more time to sell, there
are fewer misplaced ads, the production department has more time
to work on complex display ads, the Wednesday night deadline is no
longer a problem and the overall appearance of the newspaper has
improved with the pictures now reproducing well. |
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PP
Systems, based in the West of Scotland, provides IT Solutions,
Computer Services and Consumables. |
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