Outsourcing options open up for publishers
Whether using suppliers at home or abroad, publishing companies in the UK are finding ways to save money and operate more effectively by outsourcing production processes – and it’s a tide that looks likely to grow stronger.
Magazine publishers were given some food for thought back in November 2006, when a printer – Paul Utting, CEO of Wyndeham Press Group, to be precise – stood before them at the annual Periodical Publishers Association (PPA) Magazine Production Conference, and told them that while many were busy considering or actually implementing prepress functions in-house, the better model going forward might be to “look at the entire magazine production process and ask what is core for publishers and what is not. Then consider outsourcing everything else”.
In this model, publishers would keep control of functions such as content creation, selling ads and building their brands, and all other processes could be outsourced. And, by the way, printers and prepress houses could develop to handle these functions for them, he suggested.
More than one production director this magazine has spoken to found the presentation to be a fascinating one. Strangely, the concept of outsourcing in general does not immediately make one think of publishers – images of major corporations awarding lucrative print and document management deals spring more readily to mind.
“We’ve been very happy with the prices, but much more than that, for a smaller independent publisher without specialist buying and production, it has been great to have all the monthly headaches taken away." Peter Furtado, History Today
The emergence of India as a base for handling a plethora of IT-related business processes has certainly made outsourcing a hotter topic in the publishing community, and there are numerous tales already of UK publishers gaining benefits from using suppliers on the sub-continent.
Somewhat closer to home though, some publishers have even been outsourcing the purchasing of their print – that is the printing of their magazines, and therefore a fundamental process within the context of their businesses. There are cost benefits of course, and more importantly for those concerned the management issues that can be encountered in dealing with a printer and a paper supplier are removed almost at a stroke.
History Today magazine, a 72-page monthly with a run length of around 40,000 copies, is one such magazine title that is procured through a print management firm. It works with Webmart and the production consultant Vic Lime, and has been enjoying the fruits of this relationship for around five years now.
“It has been an extremely profitable relationship,” considers the title’s editor Peter Furtado. “We’ve been very happy with the prices from them, but much more than that, for a smaller independent publisher without specialist buying and production, it has been great to have all the monthly headaches taken away. If there is a problem at the printer, they just deal with it. The buying power it has bought to the business is absolutely invaluable.”
Furtado says History Today is saving “easily 5% of the print bill”. Webmart is also handling more infrequent ancillary print requirements for the publisher as well, and handling paper sourcing, which he says was “way beyond our basic inhouse skills”.
Another magazine using the Webmart print management service is Prospect – Britain’s leading politics and current affairs monthly magazine. It has a high subscription base, and therefore a relatively stable print run of up to 40,000. Publisher John Kelly also points out that smaller publishers do not have the ace cards in their hands when it comes to print buying power, so getting associated with a print management firm allows muscle to wielded on its behalf to get more competitive pricing.
Kelly continues: “I find this service very good indeed – as good as having your own in-house print department. You are getting a commoditised price but not a commoditised service. I know my print and if I spent my time on it I could just about get the same prices, but I would have to work very hard, get up early and get to bed late to get a better price.”
Kelly appreciates the provision of such a service that removes the “hassle” from the publisher’s hands. He believes that Webmart has a very interesting model for print buyers – a transparent service where information is shared between all parties, ultimately driving prices down, which the print management company calls “enlightened capitalism”, says Kelly. New found production expertise with different formats and sizes for example, can be imparted to all.
Kelly adds: “Once knowledge is incorporated into Webmart it becomes available to everyone else. In the past it would be secret and guarded, but as Webmart works out how to do it better, it’s down to everyone to use that knowledge.
“Another interesting point is that the print management company is not rude or aggressive with suppliers. They know what they need to get for you and how to get it, so there’s no need to be confrontational. You’ve got to treat your suppliers like your best customer to get the best out of them.”
Both of these magazine publishers express surprise that more publishers of their ilk are not taking advantage of a print management service such as the one they use. “If you are a magazine publisher with a regular print requirement that rarely changes,” says Peter Furtado, “it’s not particularly useful to have internal specialist staff doing it, so I would have thought it made more sense to outsource. It seems fairly obvious, and we’re much happier working this way.”
Another UK publisher that has outsourced, though in a very different way, is Proprtyfinder Publishing (PFP), which uses a prepress supplier in India to handle ad production processes for its property titles, including London Property News and Surrey Property Magazine.
“Publishers should look at the entire magazine production process and ask what is core for them…and then consider outsourcing everything else.” Paul Utting, Wyndeham Press Group
Express KCS, which is based in Delhi, does order taking, copy chasing, proofing and approvals for the publisher, through to delivery of press-ready page files. Its Ella online ad production system allows regular advertisers to enter their own copy and images online to pre-defined templates.
PFP anticipates around 500 ad pages per month will be produced in India and projects significant cost savings compared with its previous ad production method. After an ad is sold, the details and flatplan position are passed to Express KCS, which works to several deadline points, requesting copy by email and then follow-up phone calls if needed. After the copy is received it is fl owed into ad templates and a PDF proof is sent back to the advertiser. The PDF can be electronically marked with amendments and finally approved, at which point a high res PDF is transmitted to the UK printer.
“Express KCS are fast, the quality is top class and they can deliver the capacity we need when we need it,” says Malcolm McCallion, general manager of Propertyfinder Publishing. “In addition, being able to give our customers the choice of creating PDFs online via Ella or using the Indian production team is a great tool for our sales team out on the ground.”
UK publishers are certainly being deliberately wooed by overseas suppliers as well. Last year, the PPA held a special seminar to outline the possibilities of outsourcing to India. The presentation was given by Pradeep Gupta, chairman of major Indian publisher and media services provider Cyber Media, who showed the breadth of processes in magazine publishing that Indian service providers can handle for UK companies, matching the quality of UK suppliers, he said, while delivering at potentially 50% of the cost.
There are numerous models for outsourcing offshore also, including the creation of a “captive unit” devoted to the publisher, but Gupta highlighted the importance – perhaps true of all outsourcing – of managing change effectively, carrying out impact analysis, documenting new processes and monitoring progress.
In India alone, the content-related business process outsourcing market is expected to rise from the current $520 million to $3 billion just in the next two years, and other territories are developing quickly. If domestic print suppliers also move in this direction for their publishing customers, as Wyndeham’s Paul Utting suggests they ought, one thing that is certain is that UK publishers looking to outsource are soon going to be spoilt for choice.