Schedules: What if …?

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Sept, 1989 by Jeff Parnau

Schedules: What if . . .?

In Part I of this series, I suggested that the ability to stick to a schedule implies that someone has the political power to enforce the rules. If everything goes according to the principles outlined in that article, you now find yourself with your editorial, art and film preparation work complete, and on time. You're ready to go to press.

There should be no surprises at this point. All the scheduling negotiations should be in a contract or reflected in some other written agreement. You give the film to the printer, and you mail or ship on time.

So why doesn't it work that way in the real world? Why do magazines ship late, incur overtime charges, and generally make life miserable for both print buyer and print seller? There are two common reasons: lack of planning and failure to stick to a plan.

Already, I can hear the frazzled production manager saying, "It will never work for us. Everything changes on every issue. We can't plan for the unknown." And my response to that is, it is the pathetic cry of the production amateur, a species arrested in a state of perpetual business puberty due to a lack of formal training.

Take the classic case of "The Show Issue." When Joe Production investigated printers, he looked for the firm that could best handle his typical issue. But once a year, he has that whopper: twice the normal page cou nt, dozens of inserts, a different bindery method, and the absolute need to get the issue delivered to the convention no later than 9:00 AM on Some Important Day.

As is typical, the internal production goes late, the printer received the material late, the job was produced on overtime, and the production manager claimed victory because the magazines arrived at the show at all--late or not. For orchestrating that disaster, Joe Production expects a Peter Principle promotion. (To refresh your memory, the Peter Principle states that managers are promoted to their highest level of incompetence, at which point they are no longer promoted, but continue to function incompetently--and thus, most middle level managers are incompetent.)

What if . . .?

It needn't be that way. Picking a printer and planning a print schedule is a brain game that can be won. Let's run through a game of "What if," which you play before you pick a printer--and long before that impossible show issue goes into production. By asking some questions up front, you will reduce to few if any the number of surprises that won't fall into one of the general areas you've already explored. Keep in mind that the answers to "What if" eventually trickle down to the fine print of your printing agreement (one more reason you should have one, in case you don't already).

1. What if we don't meet a printing deadline?

The answer to this will vary from magazine to magazine and from printer to printer. But it must be discussed. Possible resolutions:

* You will not go to press as soon as you are finally ready, because other publishers own that press time.

* You will go to press as soon as you are finally ready--at a fee. That penalty must be addressed, of course.

* You will not go to press that month. (There are a handful of printers who are so tightly scheduled that they will not agree, in writing, to solve the problems of late publishers.)

* You can stretch your deadline by as many as "N" workdays without a penalty, as long as you provide warning "N" days before the deadline. This kind of friendly relationship is used informally quite frequently. But unless you get it in writing, it's nothing you can rely on.

2. What if the printer misses a deadline?

Assuming that you haven't broken any rules or changed any parameters, what if the printer suddenly--in the middle of a production period--says that the plant can't ship on time? You might see one of the following agreements.

* The printer already has "Act of God" and "Act of Union" clauses, which his attorneys will protect as they would their own children.

* If your production schedule demands timely delivery (as do the weekly magazines), you might negotiate a daily (or even hourly) penalty for late delivery. Most of us planning a show issue would want to address this area.

* The printer might want you to agree to "work it out as it happens," and to check with other customers as to the plant's track record. Although this might sound like a con job, it has practical application. I've worked with several plants over the years where the key word is trust, and the proof is the track record. But all in all, it is a gaping hole and is better resolved in that fine print.

3. What if the magazine gets larger?

Printers tend to be excellent market people. They identify a market and they specialize in it. One plant, for example, might be gearned up to produce magazines with pressruns of 15,000 to 25,000, and with page counts lower than 120. So what happens if you "grow out of" that market, either for a single issue or for all future issues?

* The printer might want the option of continuing to produce the job, but with additional production time.