Pressing Ahead

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, April 1, 2003 by Michael Learmonth

Byline: MICHAEL LEARMONTH

In the March 1978 issue, Folio: published a piece of service journalism titled "The Cost of Outside and In-house Typesetting." In the 25 years since, the technology of magazine production has changed, of course, but one important question remains unresolved. Now that inexpensive technology allows publishers to do all the work a service bureau used to do - color separations, proof-making, and digital conversions - when do you decide to take pre-press in-house?

Taking that route has been a boon for some companies. Take Penton Media, for example. The Cleveland, Ohio-based publisher of tech and industrial trade magazines produced 13 titles internally two years ago. Then it converted to a standard digital system based on Adobe's PDF format. Now its internal pre-press department churns out 56 magazines - and the staff required to handle these functions has been reduced from 18 to nine. "The software today has made pre-press so much easier," says Dave Healy, Penton's director of digital production. "You don't need a high-end prep technician to do it."

Penton, with its stable of workmanlike trade titles, is a poster child for the kind of efficiencies that can be achieved through adopting new technology. But with different design requirements and production volumes, a DIY approach to pre-press isn't for everyone. The fact that the technology is available and relatively inexpensive presents publishers with an intriguing dilemma: Should you do your own pre-press? Does it make economic sense? You'll not be surprised to learn that there's no easy answer.

"Outsourcing can be very expensive," says Michael Fitzsimons, chief executive officer of DeskNet, Inc. "But if you in-source, you might find that you're not very good at it." Indeed, as the price of this technology falls, the most expensive element of a quality pre-press shop is the human technician with the experience and skill to translate the editor's and the art director's wishes to the printed page. "Color techs are a breed apart," says Elizabeth Cappoo of consulting firm Publishing Expert. "The ability to see color differences in increments of 1 percent or less - that's amazing."

While the trend clearly has been for publishers to invest in pre-press, what they've discovered is that the technical aspects involved are not in their core competency. Most publishers are pretty good at designing and editing publications, but after the Quark document is saved, a whole new set of skills comes into play. So when the economy is jittery, as it has been for quite some time, the production staff becomes an attractive target for cuts. A good idea?

It depends largely on the type and size of the publication. Publishing consultant Alex Brown, president of PrintMark, Inc., believes that publishers should do some hard soul-searching on the requirements of their readers and advertisers to decide who's best suited for the job.

Color

For most magazines, the quality of the color reproduction is the most important consideration when deciding who handles pre-press. Here, the single highest cost will always be personnel. For most trade magazines, a cheap scanner and a reasonably competent production person will suffice. For high-end jobs, it gets more complicated. Color correction is a skill that takes years to learn, and the people who have it don't come cheap. Ideally, you want someone who's experienced enough not to waste time and resources on trial-and-error bumbling in Photoshop. "You have to have someone who knows color theory," says Anita Patterson, director or Rodale's production group. "If you don't have that, it's not worth it; keep it outside. Otherwise, you will fail at the quality part of the magazine."

Proofing

Again, the equipment is no longer terribly expensive. But operating the equipment, making the process accurate and reliable, is where the costs come in. "Ink-jet printing technology is not something you can walk away from," Brown says. If you're relying on a printer, you may need at least one backup in the event of a breakdown during a critical production crunch. Monitors must be calibrated so that everyone involved in design is seeing the same colors, and so that those colors at least somewhat resemble what ends up on the proof. Then there's consumables. A funny thing happens when proofing comes in-house: "Now that we have this printer, we start making a lot more proofs than we used to," Brown says. As proofs proliferate, any cost savings over sending out for proofs begin to evaporate.

Printing

Costs can escalate depending on how much prep work the printer has to do. Printers that have invested in PDF workflows will prefer files in a locked-down PDF. A printer that has DCS2 technology will prefer files of the same type, and so on. Any time a printer rips a file to convert it to a plate, the image may differ in a subtle way from what it was conceived to be. If printer and publisher aren't in sync, proofs will be sent back and forth and the printer will spend time buffing and polishing files. "Ideally, you rip everything internally or deliver a stable PDF to the printer where you wouldn't need to get a proof back," says Curt Pordes, senior director of production at Primedia Business Magazines and Media. "To get to that point, the publisher has to work very closely with the plant."