Gannett Co. Inc. joined McClatchy Co., E.W. Scripps, MediaNews Group and several other newspaper publishers outsourcing ad production work to overseas firms.

The publisher tapped Los Angeles-based 2AdPro to produce ads for the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle, Press & Sun-Bulletin in Binghamton, N.Y., and several other papers, said Austin Ryan, Gannett’s vice president of production.

“We are not doing a wall-to-wall replacement like some other newspapers,” he said. “But we do believe we can gain some economies and we will be rolling this out at other properties that make sense.”

Ryan said Gannett is also working with other outsourcers in addition to 2AdPro, which is backed by Indian software developer Ninestars Information Technology Ltd.

“We’ll look at this as it evolves, but we believe there are relationships that go beyond ad production and there are relationships (between ad personnel and local advertisers) that we do not want to get rid of (by outsourcing every function). Relationships are a big part of this business, and we want to maintain them,” Ryan said.

 

BMI gets more work

Meantime, The Bakersfield Californian said it would outsource its printing, tech services, fleet services and paper handling to Brad Moseley Inc.

Reno, Nev.-based BMI already oversees packaging and other postproduction operations at the paper under an agreement signed in February 2004.

Richard Beene, president and chief executive officer at The Californian, said 34 people are affected by the decision. BMI will begin managing the paper’s press activities in mid-March, hiring its own staff to run The Californian’s presses and fleet.

BMI named Don Kay, former vice president of operations at MediaNews’ Inland Empire newspapers in Southern California, to head up BMI’s press operations, overseeing The Californian.

Wayne Roberts, who served as postpress manager at The Californian, was named plant manager.

Brad Moseley, president of BMI, said he expects to take steps to improve The Californian’s operations and exploit commercial opportunities as part of his strategy to cut costs and boost revenues.

The paper doesn’t have any plans to replace or upgrade any of its existing press capabilities, anchored around a 23-year-old doublewide press from TKS (USA).

 

Cutting web to 46

The Californian will, however, cut its web width from 50 inches to 46 inches this spring in a bid to cut newsprint consumption. Pressline Services Inc. will perform the work.

“We’ve been successful in holding down costs for The Californian’s postpress operations, and we believe we’ll be able to do the same thing here,” Moseley said.

“We’ll be bringing in some new production practices, and by having one company do (both press and postpress), it will allow us to break down the walls and gain some efficiencies.”

Kay, who spent 14 years with MediaNews, said he intends to improve The Californian’s printing capabilities through such steps as deploying color management software and reformulating existing chemistry and fount solutions.

BMI may also examine purchasing some inexpensive singlewide presses to lure additional commercial work, he said.

“When I was with the San Bernardino County Sun, we printed USA Today so I have lots of experience making sure our quality is high,” Kay said. “We improved the quality there with chemistry, software and prepress, and we’ll be bringing some of the same approaches here.”

Herald pulls back

In another development, The Miami Herald canceled a plan to outsource some of its copyediting and page layout design work to Mindworks, a prepress production firm based in New Delhi, India.

The newspaper late last year said it would test the concept by letting Mindworks produce a weekly section of Broward County community news and other specialty advertising sections.

But in mid-January, the paper put the brakes on the test. “We’ve decided this would not be an appropriate use of this service so it won’t be tested nor will other newsroom and editing design like it,” according to a staff memo issued by Herald Executive Editor Anders Gyllenhaal.

“The more we looked at the prospects of editing and layout from outside the newsroom, the more it was clear these skills involving news judgment and experience are not likely to work well from afar,” the memo said, according to The Herald.

The daily will, however, outsource some of its advertising production to San Jose, Calif.-based Express KCS, following the lead of other McClatchy Co. newspapers such as The Sacramento (Calif.) Bee.

Express KCS maintains a production facility in Gurgaon, India, and handles ad production for select McClatchy properties, the (Minneapolis) Star Tribune, the Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn., and a number of northern California dailies owned by MediaNews Group Inc., including the San Jose Mercury News.