PUBLICATION PRINTING -- Getting the Numbers To "Ad" Up
With their existing titles, publishers generally have responded to the challenges of depressed pricing and reduced demand in today's marketplace by focusing on aggressive cost control, both internally and throughout their respective supply chains. Printers have responded in a similar fashion to these same pressures, Marcoux says.
According to Marcoux, the motivation for aggressive subscriber list management remains twofold—minimizing wasted costs and a heightened demand among advertisers for magazines to confirm the "strength" of their subscribers' commitment to the title via a reduction in the number of "casual" readers. "From a printer's perspective, this will all translate into a reduction of run lengths for both subscriber and newsstand copies, coupled with increased use of versioning for enhanced targeting of both ads and editorial content," he says.
Outsourcing Opportunities
Publishers are looking to gain efficiencies throughout their organizations, agrees RR Donnelley's Knotts. "We are opening a record number of facilities management sites at our customers' locations because outsourcing their pre-media needs usually drives cost and time savings. We are also seeing a return to publishers buying paper through their printers, as printers can often drive significant savings and ensure consistent quality from paper mills. Publishers are also rapidly adopting new distribution solutions that drive out costs, such as co-palletization and mail optimization programs," he says.
The interest in, and implementation of, co-palletization has been extremely strong, Knotts asserts. "At RR Donnelley, we have reduced mail sacks by more than 98 percent. This ensures that magazines arrive in better condition and saves money," he says. "We have co-palletization running in two facilities now and anticipate expanding it to our remaining facilities by mid next year."
Hanson says Banta also has worked very hard to take advantage of new postal rate changes. "In 2002, we saved our customers $2 million in postage. Through October 2003, we've saved them $2.6 million in postage," he reports.
