Workflow Digitises Publisher's Advertising System

Taking classified lineage, semi-display, display copy and files from advertisers, Nature Publishing Group has digitised the processing of its classified advertising, using a tailored workflow system.

Nature Publishing Group (NPG) is using J Jays' Mosaic workflow system for its scientific titles, as well as the British Dental Journal (BDJ).

The bespoke workflow system work in conjunction with the publisher's Maxim advertisement booking database and exports the copy and production process instructions in XML form for typesetting and preparation.

Maxim is NPG's principal production system for advertisement booking and flat planning.

Incoming classified advertisement copy usually arrives from advertisers via email or as FTP files and is attached to the booking in Maxim, along with any details pertinent to the order.

Before J Jays devised and implemented the automation workflow, new and repeat copy was batched, printed as hard copy, annotated with the advertisement size and NPG's advertisement booking reference and forwarded to J Jays by fax.

J Jays said its in-house technical development team worked to automate the process and integrate with Maxim, exporting the text via XML in to J Jays' own system.

The J Jays typesetting team now takes the digital copy, sets it and creates a PDF proof, which is made available for proofing online.

Once approved, files for journals, which are made up in-house, are returned to NPG as print-ready PDFs.

Approved files for the British Dental Journal and Nature magazine remain with J Jays for page make-up.

J Jay's also uses XML text extraction to streamline the transfer of classified advertisements to the BDJ web site to coincide with publication of the printed journal.

According to NPG's Kay Lewis, the digitised process saves many man-hours by eliminating manual intervention and it has made classified advertisement production virtually paperless, saving at least two sheets of paper per setting advertisement, amounting to several reams per issue.

In the long term, NPG sees that as a valuable contribution to minimising its environmental impact as a publisher, she added.

NPG's production director, Yvonne Strong, said: "With such frequent, highly niche journals, classified advertising is a challenging area of production for NPG and we place a lot of value on J Jays' unique blend of traditional repro skills and workflow automation.

The open and collaborative relationship we have with the team means that we are constantly exploring ways of deploying systems to improve our processes.

The next focus will be on flat planning, where we are considering the advantages of JJays' Mosaic system." Managing director of J Jays, Alan Halls, explained: "The diversity and varying levels of technical sophistication amongst classified advertisers mean that the analogue process, which preceded the implementation of this XML extraction workflow for NPG, is still quite typical in magazine publishing.

That's why the old-school setting and origination skills offered by specialist pre-press houses, such as J Jays, are still in demand, despite the digital revolution in magazine production." He added: "However, as magazine classified sections come under increasing pressure from electronic media, publishers need to look for technology s that can help them streamline the process and reduce costs, if the printed medium is to stay competitive.

We foresee growing demand for workflow systems of this kind and believe they have huge potential to have a positive impact on the publisher's bottom line." The relationship between NPG and J Jays has lasted for several years, during which time J Jays has provided traditional classified typesetting services and page make-up to dovetail with NPG's in-house PDF creation.

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