The St. Louis Post-Dispatch in April began installing a networked advertising production tracking system managers say will improve productivity and reduce costly errors.

The newspaper (daily, 287,424; Sunday, 468,134) plans to begin using Database Publishing Systems’ AdTracker software in early May, following a weeklong training session, according to Dan McGuire, the daily’s vice president of information technology.

“We’re hoping to reduce paperwork by at least half,” McGuire said. “People have to use their computer now instead of looking around for a piece of paper.”

AdTracker, as its name implies, follows the ad production process step by step, from submission and assembly to composition and archiving.

The software’s productivity features flow from its tracking function, said DPS President Zeke Solimeno. For instance, in the event an ad begins sliding behind schedule, the application will automatically e-mail the newspaper’s client, its ad sales representative and its production manager.

“It’s a very attractive feature for us, because it puts the onus for the response on the sales rep and the client to keep the material coming in,” said Dale Hutton, Post-Dispatch assistant director of customer advertising services.

The software also can pull commonly used graphic elements, for example a Visa or MasterCard logo, from an archive. That way, the image does not have to be stored over and over in each ad in which it is used: Only elements unique to a given advertisement are stored in the digital ad jacket.

Online proofing

Hutton also praised the system’s online proofing capability, which enables users to send the customer PDF documents containing their ads.

“You cannot fathom the amount of money it will save us in not to have to use a courier to send hard-copy proofs,” he said. “Plus, it gives the client an extra half-day” to check ads before publication.

Similarly, an AdTracker plug-in permits users to digitize client tearsheets. Post-Dispatch officials said they plan to adopt that option down the road.

McGuire described as “very aggressive” the deployment of AdTracker. “We have great employees who adapt very well to change.”

In most cases, before AdTracker is installed, DPS spends weeks mapping out the user’s ad workflow and digitizing its advertising images. In the case of the Post-Dispatch, the latter was unnecessary because the newspaper had already digitized its ad graphics.

Automates other chores

The software automates a slew of other ad production chores by mimicking the user’s ad production process. It automatically marries customer ID numbers to the ad production schedule, the ad’s size and its run dates. The software accepts page layout information from third-party ad reservation systems and takes insertion data from external ad order entry systems.

McGuire said he compared AdTracker to competitors, but that he was “blown away with the capability of the AdTracker (database) system.”

Another AdTracker user, the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, S.D., began using the software last September, said Gary Shawd, director of information services.

“Pickup of ads is amazingly fast,” he said. “It has definitely helped eliminate the last-minute scrambling to figure out who’s got the ad jacket.”

Shawd also said DPS customized the software to meet the Argus Leader’s production requirements. His newspaper’s accountants track ad contracts in inches, while the ad services department measures ads in picas, a gap DPS programmers successfully bridged, he said.