The Belfast Telegraph is no stranger to taking ads from a variety of advertisers. Established in 1870, the newspaper is in its 132nd year of operation.

The ad-taking system the newspaper has been using for nearly two years now, was launched by the Newspaper Society — the collective representative body of the U.K. Regional Press — and is installed all of the publications throughout the Newspaper Society. The Newspaper Society Technical Forum looked at many vendor solutions for taking in advertisements and ultimately decided to create its own solution, hence, AdFast was born.

The Belfast Telegraph is the largest daily 
newspaper in its province.
Photo courtesy of the Belfast Telegraph

All of the Newspaper Society’s titles, including the Belfast Telegraph, began using the system in August 2000. There are now more than 450 titles receiving files via the AdFast Internet artwork delivery system.

There are four members of the Telegraph’s staff using the AdFast system, which is fairly uncomplicated and easy to maneuver, according to Rob Fogwill, technical support manager for the AdFast project.

“It has been easy to train staff,” he said. “A browser and a small desktop accessory is all that is required for publishers.”

All of the regional newspapers using the system in the U.K. currently work off of the same server.

“We are developing a system where large newspapers can have their own satellite servers if they wish,” Fogwill said.

The Belfast Telegraph is using MarkzNet from MarkzWare, which was introduced at the newspaper this spring, to interface with AdFast for online preflighting of ads. AdFast is a licensed application service provider to sell MarkzNet with its solution, but AdFast can also interfaces with other online preflighting solutions.

Irene Fitzsimmons, advertising control manager at the Belfast Telegraph, has been with the newspaper for 25 years. Before AdFast, the Telegraph was taking ads through an ISDN line.

“We take the advertisements in for our newspaper and we have the facility to upload and send to wherever we want, anywhere in the world,” she said. “It’s just absolutely amazing.”

Fitzsimmons said the newspaper has kept the ISDN functionality in place and that many smaller companies are still using that to send their ads.

Because the Telegraph is the largest daily in the province — with a circulation of nearly 120,000, seven days a week — there is minimal competition for the big advertisers. Fitzsimmons said it is mostly the big companies, which have agencies creating ads for them, that are utilizing AdFast, such as Ford, Toyota and Mazda. The Telegraph’s main ad competition comes from two smaller dailies and a few provincial newspapers.

“[The challenge is] to make sure that the best quality advertisements are printed in our newspaper, and by using the new system we get a superb result,” Fitzsimmons said.

For the Telegraph, the AdFast solution and the software that accompanies it have been a good fit for managing the hundreds of ads that come through each week.

“It’s been an excellent system for our newspaper,” Fitzsimmons added. “We have no faults with it. As long as our spec is followed by the company sending [the ad], it comes in and it prints beautifully.”

Fitzsimmons said another advantage to the new way of taking ads, is time savings.

“We can take ads quite late on in the day,” she said. “Deadlines have to be kept, but with AdFast we can give them (advertisers) a little more time, because ads come in perfect and they print perfect.”