Selective binding offered for perfect-bound titles; though expensive, the technology speeds handling and delivery

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, July, 1989 by Margaret Hunter

Selective binding offered for perfect-bound titles

Pewaukee, Wis.--Several printers, including Quad Graphics, R.R. Donnelley and Perry Printing, now offer selective binding for perfect-bound magazines, and two titles are already using the process.

Since November, Quad has been applying the technology to perfect-bound JAMA, the journal of the American Medical Association. Copies can vary by as much as 48 pages in a 200-page book, or by nearly an eighth of an inch in the spine's width, according to Frank Arndorfer, Quad's vice president of finishing.

Besides offering advertisers narrowly targeted audiences, the high-tech image of selective binding gets media buyers excited about the magazine, according to JAMA's Norman Richey, director of publication production and printing. Moreover, the process has production benefits: JAMA's normal weekly press run of 400,000 was formerly split up into, for example, 10 different demographic versions, each with a mailing list of 40,000. Now, however, the mailing list is kept intact by allowing one version of an issue to be bound alongside a different version to be sent to the same Zip Code.

Because different versions can be lumped into the same postal bundle, JAMA maximizes use of pallets and cuts down on damaged or lost copies in mail bags. The process also speeds delivery by nearly 24 hours by reducing manual handling necessary in earlier methods of binding, says Richey.

Negotiable rates available

Donnelley began to ink-jet addresses onto covers of Ziff-Davis' PC Magazine this past February. Response cards with addresses and messages were added in April, and circulation cards in June. "We've kept the application simple and phased it in slowly," says Louis Terracciano, technical services manager for Ziff-Davis. "When you're playing with new technology in a live test, you can't be too cautious."

While expensive, rates for selective binding are still negotiable because the process is so new, says Terracciano. Some of PC Magazine's advertisers have expressed interest in the process, but none so far have taken advantage of it.

The technology is not limitless. Donnelley can only ink-jet messages parallel to the spine on the inside of a magazine, and Quad can only print parallel to the foot on the inside. Both can print either way on the outside. Perry can ink-jet messages only parallel to the spine.

Perry can select-bind up to four different covers, something the other two printers plan to offer later this year. So far only catalogs have used Perry's technology, but some magazine publishers are exploring the idea of co-mailing two separate publications using a single bindery line, according to Phillip Zimbric, Perry's vice president of sales. Perry has recently produced a catalog that has three different covers with nine different messages, four different order forms, two different blow-in cards, two different 16-page forms, and a core of 96 pages. The catalog has 125 different versions in all, says Zimbric.

Donnelley has a 40-pocket bindery; Perry has 46; Quad has 44 with a new 52-pocket machine coming on-line later this year. All say other magazines have expressed interest in the new process, but have not yet signed contracts.