Editor’s note: The following article is based on a case study that OneVision Inc. developed with The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky. It has been edited by Newspapers & Technology for content and space.

Like most metro dailies, The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky., handles thousands of ads every year, arriving from large national agencies; regional and local agencies and mom-and-pop businesses. The Courier-Journal (daily, 210,081; Sunday, 264,732) receives ads via e-mail, FTP and courier, which were created in a number of graphic design software applications, such as Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator and QuarkXPress. The files are converted into standard formats and file types, such as PDF, EPS, PostScript and TIFF before being sent to the newspaper.

Challenges

One Friday evening in 2002, Jim Hines, The Courier-Journal’s information technology manager for classified, marketing and ad production, faced every newspaper system manager’s worst nightmare: A new system that, due to inefficient workflows and antiquated processes, was actually performing more poorly than the system it replaced.

“We were at deadline, and the blob time was killing our performance,” Hines said. “It was taking 20 minutes to properly import and insert each EPS file into the database, and it was taking another 20 minutes to actually extract and print the file. It was clear that we needed a better solution.”

The sheer number of files and file formats handled by the newspaper increased the likelihood that problematic advertising files - such as ones containing serious PostScript errors - would take time and effort to correct, delaying distribution of the paper. Therefore, the production staff had a pressing need to reduce the occurrence of files that contained errors to save time, to help ensure that the paper went to press on time, and to increase the likelihood that advertisements ran as scheduled.

As with all daily newspapers, everything at The Courier-Journal needs to run flawlessly for a few critical hours before the paper goes to press. Hines knew a change was needed.

“As a manager, I had a finite amount of time to solve all the problems, and could not wait too long,” he said. “We needed to eliminate the single points of failure. We knew that we needed to take steps along the way to ensure that all of the pages will print as expected, without encountering problems at the final stage of the process.”

Added to mix

Searching for help, Hines turned to the Internet, in the process finding prepress vendor OneVision Inc. and its Asura preflighting software.

After contacting the firm, “OneVision told me to send our worst file to them,” Hines said, adding that the repaired files took only a minute or two to process, a vast improvement from the 20 minutes previously required.

Hines said he then rolled out Asura to The Courier-Journal’s production environment, adding it to CCI Europe, Digital Technology International, ProImage and Database Publishing Solutions’ apps already in operation.

In addition, the paper deployed OneVision’s Solvero app, an interactive tool that integrates with Asura and lets production staff highlight specific areas in need of attention, such as a font or image, within a file. Finally, the paper rolled out Asura Balance, a workflow distribution engine that evenly distributes incoming advertising files to Asura.

Today, The Courier-Journal uses Asura to preflight every advertisement. The process is simple: ad files are first placed into a queue or drop folder. Asura then checks the file, fixes any PostScript errors, and creates a new PDF. When Asura finds a serious file error that is likely to cause problems when it goes to print, it will reject the file and detail what’s wrong with the file. Courier-Journal staff then has the information needed to take steps to correct the file in-house or contact the advertiser well before the ad is scheduled to print.

“Asura enables us to improve our customer service, because we can get back to the advertisers much sooner, and right away if there is a problem,” Hines said. “We can tell our clients, ‘If you give us the file, it will print’ and that they do not have to worry about it.”

By automatically spotting potential problems early in the production process, OneVision enabled the paper’s staff to save time and become more proactive, Hines said.

“We have experienced substantial cost savings, primarily because the software touches on many areas of production,” he added. “Now, the ad production staff gets to go home on time, and can focus on the next day’s work because they are not battling last-minute errors, and not having to be detectives.”

The Courier-Journal now uses Asura to verify every page before the paper goes to print.