Dealing With Digital Ads
John McKinney of The Oregonian in Portland told SuperConference attendees the story of an e-mailed digital ad that arrived with the words "the home of uncaring service" in the lower-left corner. The epitaph, and another like it, both found their way into the paper.
Welcome to the brave new world of digital advertising. But the march continues, largely driven by back-end production. "It will never happen if pre-press doesn’t push," said Jeff Turner, president of J.J. Grace Inc. in Van Nuys, Calif., a division of TC Advertising.
By year’s end, the Los Angeles Times will require all ads to arrive via Adobe’s Portable Document Format (PDF). Some attendees, however, cautioned that PDF remains far from a magic bullet, with bugs still present in even the newest version of Adobe’s popular Acrobat software.
Others underscored PDF’s role in answering a long-unheeded call for standardization. Alan Darling, chairman of the Digital Distribution of Advertising for Publications Association, portrayed PDF, and its newer iteration PDF/X-1, as important steps in eliminating the mutliplicity of ad formats snarling the digital-ad process.
Digital ads, however, require applying new thinking to once-analog steps further up and down the production cycle. Curt Walters, systems manager of grocery-insert printer Fisher Printing in Orange, Calif., discussed electronic-proofing software. Its QuickPrint system allows customers to enter comments on electronic proofs or mark up erroneous areas. Based on PDF, QuickPrint is being refined so pages can automatically be sent to newspapers for printing. Fisher Printing has slashed courier and fax costs 78 percent, and cut charge-back errors 28 percent. But that’s not the most important benefit, Walters said: "Cost savings aside, if we can make our customers happy, that’s the goal."
Robert Dagostino, digital-advertising manager of The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, explained his paper’s use of adPop, an electronic-tearsheet system. It offers many advantages: accuracy, the ability to repurpose ad materials across media platforms, shortened billing cycles and automation. However, Dagostino cautioned that advertisers and sales reps may still want the option of printed proofs.
Another headache in this brave new world involves the often time-consuming process of cleaning up digital images for publication. El Paso Times Production Director Gary Hughes said his paper is working with Agfa Inc. to refine a color-management system called Intellitune. The system allows operators to batch-process images taken in similar conditions and destined for similar uses, such as multiple photos for an automotive or real-estate section. Along with reducing hours and rolling back ad deadlines, the Texas paper recently added a 56-page quarter-fold automotive publication containing more than 500 photos each week.
For such technology to work, however, machinery must be continuously recalibrated, Hughes cautions: "Calibration is the most important element of a good color-management system. [It’s] the key to success."