The ad production outsourcing movement didn’t miss a beat last month as three more McClatchy Co. papers and the Sun-Times Media Group said they would send a portion of their ad production overseas.

McClatchy’s Charlotte (N.C.) Observer, The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., and The Telegraph in Macon, Ga. — as well as the Chicago Sun-Times and its sister suburban Chicago newspapers — selected Affinity Express Inc. to oversee ad production.

Affinity, based in Elgin, Ill., maintains production facilities in India and The Philippines. It’s one of four companies — the other three being Express KCS, 2AdPro and American Outsourcing Solutions — targeting newspapers that want to farm out their prepress to outside firms.

 

Chuck Griffiths, vice president of operations at The Observer, said the paper made the decision to outsource ad production to take advantage of the Mediaspectrum ad tracking software Affinity uses to underpin its service. The outsourcer teamed up with Mediaspectrum last year.

“It wasn’t just cost-savings,” he said. “We liked the software Affinity has and it will give us capabilities in proofing, reporting and tracking.”

The Observer will cut 25 of its 41 ad production jobs when the move is completed May 31.

At The News & Observer, 16 jobs will be lost when Affinity begins work this spring.

Up-to-date systems

The Telegraph also decided to tap Affinity to capitalize on the firm’s ad tracking software, said Joe Mendoza, vice president of operations and IT regional manager.

“It gives us up-to-date technology and it will also let us focus on attracting more advertising,” he said.

All the newspapers will retain a core group of advertising staffers who will continue to deal with key customers.

The agreements with the McClatchy papers comes as Affinity aggressively courts North American newspaper clients, said David McTarnaghan, president of the firm’s advertising service.

“We believe we now have the hybrid of tools and technology to help integrate local sales resources with offshore resources,” he said. “We’re excited to offer these tools and we believe newspaper are a prime market.”

Affinity made a big splash in late 2006 when it was picked by The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch to oversee the ad production formerly handled by 90 ad designers.

But the first months weren’t smooth, said Joe Gallo, the paper’s vice president and chief information officer. It wasn’t until Affinity began using the Mediaspectrum software that conditions improved, he said.

McTarnaghan concedes Affinity ran into problems when the company began producing The Dispatch’s ads.

“It was a real learning experience for us, and we learned that we needed better tools and to have a single integrated tool to support both sales and workflow,” he said.

Systems  key

“Systems are very important in a deadline-intensive business like newspapers.”

McTarnaghan said that Affinity has ironed out many of the operational wrinkles it formerly faced and is now ready to capture a bigger piece of the outsourcing pie.

It has more than 40 newspaper clients in North America now, he said, with clients that also include The State in Columbia, S.C., and The Recycler in Los Angeles.

It beefed up its marketing efforts, adding former (New York) Daily News Publishing Technology Director T.J. Ceballos as vice president of solutions management.

And the company can draw on the financial resources of Ayala Corp., the Manila, The Philippines-based conglomerate that bought Affinity in late 2006.

“Newspapers are being forced to take a new look at their business models,” McTarnaghan said of the role outsourcers such as Affinity can provide.

“We’re not driving the market. What’s driving it is online advertising, and that is causing a huge change to take place. Our approach is not just making the ads, but helping papers sell them. That means you want to take a look at automating and to use tools to improve performance and to help newspapers integrate online and display ads and to help them transact business.”