Print Magazines – transformation to mixed digital

Is print dead? 75 percent decline at the newsstand according to Folio. The announcement of the new Kindle today for $359 is a big deal. As the Kindle gets better it should make big inroads. Yet, it still seems a long way to supplant the utility of paper.

Magazines are going to have to make some drastic changes in production and distribution if the print magazine does not want to go the way of the LP.

Print just needs to get cheaper to produce. Since you can’t change the price of paper, ink or other consumables, the cost efficiencies can only be realized in the workflow products – pre-flight, Ad Portals for submission and Virtual Proofing which has taken over in the past few years. Here’s a breakdown from Folio of some of the cost savings. New Opportunities in Magazine Manufacturing. 

The workflow of print, from end to end needs full automation and integration. Stand alone solutions won’t allow for the seamlessness of an integrated creative workflow. 

It is still going to take more than an intergrated creative workflow to make submission to print as easy as blogging and you are still going to have material and delivery costs, but the cost of print production will have to be lowered if it’s going to stay a viable option .

Get ready for an upheaval in the commercial print industry as digital personalization begins to find its way into the traditional print model. Kevin Joyce creates a great picture of what may happen soon as printers employ new digital printing technologies to convert mass communication of print to a personalized communication in print through the use of both digital printing and traditional offset which provides for longer runs at cheaper prices.

So the transformation of the printed magazine to more a effective and economical method of communicating will evolve quickly. The movement will first require adoption of a unified and connected, creative workflow system by the publisher such as the Kodak Unified Worflow. Next, a full understanding and adoption of digital personalization using the emerging digital printing technologies available today such as VDP. And finally a full employment of a robust and connected name databases to feed the new technology now being introduced at the USPS (next post).

The above three steps complete the transformation of any printed product to an up to date and connected communication that can be produced and delivered to add value to its reader in todays technology world. You can’t give up the printed piece and you won’t have to.

Filed under: Publishing

Formally announcing new Kodak Partnership

So happy to announce that we are launching our partnership with Kodak to sell their Insite Portal Products as an On-Demand solution. Check out our new product page for Insite Creative Workflow. 

The website is under construction, but stay tuned. A lot of cool features are on the way!

Filed under: Uncategorized

Will the Publishing Industry Embrace Technology Before It’s Too Late?

I spent this past Sunday afternoon surfing the web, reviewing the state of the publishing industry. The most interesting analysis came in by DYLAN STABLEFORD’s article, “117 Magazine and Media Predictions for 2009 Forecast: There will b…

This article recapped industry peers’ expectations and predictions for the near term future of publishing. Although no one claimed to know for sure exactly what would happen, they all agreed that today’s model couldn’t survive.

The advertising and publishing industries have dealt with serious economic times before, but this time may be different, according to many in Dylan Stableford’s survey of predictions. The good news is that this time around, there are truly options for real change in the traditional model for advertising and publishing. The web is growing and evolving into a real alternative source for advertising dollars. Social Networks, Blogs and Tweets are all terms that were not even invented when the US economy went through its last major recession. Goggle, MySpace and Facebook had not even been conceived in the minds of their eventual developers, most of whom were just kids at the time.

Of concern to me is the fact that the investors and management of most major advertising and publishing companies are not immersed in the technology of today. The fact is, technology has been around a long time now, but most managements have not tried to change their business models.

Granted, until the onset of the recession, there has not truly been a compelling economic reason to dive into the waters of technology and take the risk. “Sink or swim” may now be the mantra of the day for technological change. Change is tough, but real leaders take on tough challenges and pioneer the change. Where are the real leaders? Not just the guys who built an alternative web site, but also the guys who could monetize the use of technology in the advertising and publishing industries? If these people are out there, why aren’t more people in their industry following their lead? These are tough questions for an industry that now finds itself in a serious predicament.

Several years ago one corporation in the industry, a recognized technology leader for over a century, made a bold move and reinvented itself for the future. That company is Kodak.

This post entitled Surviving Change: Kodak’s Instant Marketing Transformation describes the transformation.

Once the undisputed leader in imaging, graphics equipment and supplies, it saw the digital age was making its traditional model obsolete. This proud and quality company bit the bullet, and with a new leader, began building a new model for the imaging and graphic arts industry. Today, it stands once again as the undisputed leader in its segment of the industry.

Creative Production Workflow, designed especially for ad agencies, publishers, catalogers and brands has existed since 1998. Kodak’s technology connects everyone in the creative process to the web and provides creative workflows from the capture of an image through controlling the color of the image on any printing device.

Large and small publisher alike have had production technology available to them that would have saved time, sped the publishing process and connected to print workflows throughout the world. So if the technology has been available to improve the bottom line since 1998, why have so many creative executives and publishers failed to embrace the opportunities available to them? Most people are creatures of habit, but survivors will be those who see the future in using the powerful tools of technology offered to build more efficient business models. Those who remain in the “That’s how we’ve always done it; why learn something new?” realm will never compete successfully during these difficult economic times.

Yes, publishing itself will survive, because content will always be king. But, exactly which publishers will survive? I can assure everyone that it will be those who are totally connected with technology that is already available today. Workflow connectivity will give surviving publishers the infrastructure they need to lower cost, speed the content cycle and improve quality of the content. Most importantly, production technology will give the publishing industry the power to be nimble in order to innovate and create the new publishing model for post-recession times.

If you are anxious to learn more about creative production technology, check out Centripetal Media and Kodak websites for more information.

Filed under: Uncategorized

Creative Workflow Dashboard

Creative Workflow Dashboard

Originally uploaded by davemotheral

Just wanted to show a post of the new Kodak Creative Workflow Dashboard. Pretty cool. You get all your tasks and projects in one place. You can also sort by outstanding tasks and tasks that need changes.

Great for anyone working on different approval cycles for any type of Adobe CS file.

Filed under: Uncategorized

Greatest Misconception on the Topic of a Digital Workflow

I retuned from lunch yesterday with an large printing buyer and it hit me like a brick. In his effort to find ways to improve his own bottom line this executive had missed the boat completely. He was lost and entirely confused on what to really do.

He did want to improve effectiveness and productivity, when working with his clients and he had a good understanding of his end goals. But unfortunately he failed to understand the  very most important issue when solving the problem. With a staff of production individuals communication is that critical issue. Buying millions of dollars of print on time and effectively depended on a large number of people communicating precisely between clients and vendors. Communicating precisely every time is a major hurdle without some automated system in place.

He was of course not using today’s latest digital technology tools. He didn’t have a real understanding of the true solution he needed. Soft proofing for him was technology, but it is only the first step to employing technology properly. The real benefits of a digital workflow become evident only when you employ the tools for communicating effectively. It’s a business decision.

For many, who don’t yet have a technology vision or a strongly defined technology goal, realizing digital technology is a critical  business decision and not a production decision. Digital workflows for handling graphic projects is something that can change an organization’s future. It’s all about communication. Communicating properly within an organization could very well be the most important business decision a graphic executive can ever make for his company.

They way to learn more about communicating graphics is to contact Centripetal Media at centripetalmedia.com where you can have access to the latest set of technology by simply renting it. You can build you own communication model at a fraction of the cost of purchasing a system. You can learn by using the system and implement into your organization at your own pace.

I highly recommend adding digital communication to the topics of your next strategic planning session.  The benefits might just be the thing our looking for.

Filed under: Uncategorized , print buyer, printing

Centripetal Media and the Future of Print

We are watching some unprecedented stuff take place around the media world. Two years ago Time Magazine announced “You” the the person of the Year – (Time’s Person of the Year: You).

Nearly 3 years later this revolution in user generated content has made some wonder if the expensive process or producing print versions of content can still hold up. 

We at Centripetal Media think that print is a fundamental part of the media mix. However it is going to have to get cheaper to produce and distribute. This is why we have teamed with Kodak to offer the Kodak Unified Workflow as a service platform, allowing teams to collaborate on projects, approve and push the pages out to their printing company as plate-ready files.

We look to bring the kind of collaboration that has been available to web developers available to the Print Media and in the process make Print cheaper to produce.

Filed under: Uncategorized , Prepress, Print