Work group systems manage copy flow

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, August, 1989 by James E. Strothman

Work group systems manage copy flow

New York City--A new class of desktop-based software is emerging to ease document movement through editorial work groups, while allowing art and editorial to work on articles simultaneously.

Products such as the Odesta Document Management System (ODMS) and the Editorial Copy Management System (ECMS) take word processing documents or page layout files into their local area network-based management systems and apply tracking information such as author names, deadlines, dates of revisions and destination departments to the files. That information allows editorial mangers to determine where a project is, what's been done and what remains to be completed, at any time in the editorial process.

A typical ODMS work flow might have a managing editor key an assignment onto the network, defining the work in pull-down menus according to issue date, sections, staffers and/or subjects. The art department is also electronically alerted to the assignment for planning, especially if a photo or illustration is needed, explains Stuart Cooke, ODMS product manager.

The writer given the task pulls down the assignment menu with a mouse to retrieve the assignment, due date and other information.

Once the writer completes a draft and enters it into the system, the art department again is automatically alerted on a story status screen and gets a copy of the article to help plan layouts.

Simultaneously, editors may have a security level that allows them to read drafts and write comments, but prohibits them from touching the copy itself until final drafts pass through an approval route that may incude other editors.

Top editors can also access master files showing real-time summary information such as articles in progress and due dates; approval and revision status; and projects on hold, overdue or completed and ready for layout.

When a final draft is completed, transmitted to the managing editor and approved, it then can be sent to the editor in chief and/or managing editor. After final approval, the art department electronically merges text with illustrations.

An important features along the way, is ODMS's ability to save each version created. Every time the document is updated, changes appears at workstations throughout the network, giving the document what Cooke calls "referential integrity."

Documents can also be filed and retrieved using combinations of key words and dates. For example, a writer can ask for "all the articles about Time and Warner between January and March of 1989."

Northbrook, Illinois-based Odesta initially designed its ODMS for Macintosh-only, and Macintosh-Digital Equipment Corp. VAX environments, although it soon will also allow IBM PCs and clones onto its networks.

However, ODMS's Cooke acknowledges that many magazines prefer to use IBM PCs or clones--usually with XyWrite word processing software--in editorial, while Macintoshes are favored by magazine artists and page layout designers. As a reslt, "we're looking at a PC emulator" that will tie IBM and clone word-processors onto the ODMS network, he says.

The software is pricey, beginning at about $25,000 per network and an additional $1,000 per node. However, the cost can be significantly less than dedicated single-vendor systems, such as Atex or Best-info's Wave4 integrated PC-based network, with system prices often in the $100,000 range and up.

ODMS is still in development with Odesta working with 12 "key customers" including Publish! and New York Daily News. Development should lead to a high-end value-added reseller package that a systems integrator could install, and eventually lead to an entry level product a user can simply load and go, says Cooke.

"With ODMS as the heart of our page assembly system, our composition people will be able to sit at Mac workstations, access and manipulate all the different entities that go into a daily newspaper, and track the entire production process," says Mike Pearson, director of technical service at the Daily News.

A group of ex-Conde Nast editorial systems managers and analysts have also developed a copy-management package, called the Editorial Copy Management System (ECMS). Like Odesta's ODMS, ECMS moves copy around the work group and keeps track of revisions. However, instead of having a work order-type document attached to each project like ODMS, ECMS uses file headers similar to those used by Atex.

The company, Demarest, New Jersey-based Madison Technologies, specializes in designing and integrating editorial systems for magazines, says president Jonathan Jacobs.