Oklahoma’s Improvement Zone
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| The Daily Oklahoman's advertising, editorial and information services offices are located in a 12-story building dubbed "The Tower." Inside, staffers are moving to team-based workgroups, such as the "Golden Pig" advertising team. |
by Anna America
Considering all the improvements The Daily Oklahoman has made over the past year, you might think the Oklahoma City paper is completing a major renovation.
You’d be right–sort of. Except managers don’t expect the renovation to end any time soon.
"This paper has always been very progressive and innovative. We definitely see improvements and change as an ongoing process, not one that will all of a sudden be completed," says Louis A. Messina, production director for the 201,892-circulation daily. "These days, that attitude is necessary to stay competitive."
With that in mind, a host of other improvements are planned for later this year, and Messina expects next year to bring even more. This focus on staying not merely abreast, but actually ahead of the curve has earned The Oklahoman recognition throughout the industry, including a TechNews Best Practices Award for its innovative microzoning program (Tech-News, July/August 1996, p. 9).
The Oklahoman’s sprawling 325,000-square-foot, 16-year-old production plant is located about 10 minutes from downtown Oklahoma City, in a mostly rural area that still contains a few small farms. Business, advertising, editorial and information-services offices are in an adjoining 9-year-old, 12-story building dubbed "The Tower."
During our recent visit, bouquets of smile-emblazoned balloons decorated every floor, celebrating improved medical benefits. Other signs of change were visible throughout the facility.
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| After page negatives pass through a 1,000-foot pneumatic tube from the Tower to the Oklahomanšs adjoining 325,000-square-foot production facility, they arrive in the plateroom. |
In what were recently advertising offices, for example, still-visible furniture imprints on the carpet are the last remnant of the Oklahoman’s traditional ad-building staff. Starting last summer, the paper began creating ad teams, transferring employees who used to be in ad sales, creative services and production into 11 cohesive advertising units–seven retail and four classified–that manage accounts from the initial sale and concept through production. The teams work together to build advertiser relationships that weren’t possible when different people worked on different ads from a given client.
Team members work together in open "pods." Their team spirit is demonstrated by the names they have given themselves–names like the "Dragons," "ER Team" and "Golden Pigs"–and the corresponding décor, such as a collection of stuffed oinkers.
Advertising also got a boost from new Neasi-Weber Admarc ad-management software installed last summer. Admarc sends ad-entry information to the paper’s AdManager system, which automatically creates an electronic jacket and a blank Multi-Ad Creator file for each new ad. When ads are released for publication, an Autologic Information International system generates EPS files and sends them to the paper’s Harris Publishing Systems Corp. NewsMaker editorial-pagination database, which then marries them to editorial pages automatically. Installed as part of a complete front-end upgrade in 1998, the Harris system, which runs on two Sun E-4000 servers, has helped the Oklahoman reach near-total pagination. That includes classified ads, which are handled using Harris’ AdPower system.
From ‘The Tower’ to Press Towers
A 1,000-foot pneumatic tube links the Tower to the production plant, carrying page negatives under a connecting crosswalk to the plateroom. There, two inline plate scanners are installed between the plate processors and plate benders to capture ink-density information, which is sent to the press controls and on to the press units. Plate and page information is obtained from a bar code on each plate.
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| Inline plate scanners capture ink-density information for press-control systems. By year's end, the paper plans to use computer-to-plate technology for 25-to-30 percent of all plates. |
A new Western Lithotech DiamondSetter computer-to-plate system is on order and expected to arrive mid-year. "We anticipate producing 25-to-30 percent of our plates on the CTP equipment by year-end and will likely look at purchasing another CTP machine in 2001," says Messina. In preparation for the new CTP lines, the paper also recently added another K&F Printing Systems Vision plate bender.
Across the hall in the pressroom, recent additions include digital inkers and EAE Group press controls. The controls replace a 16-year-old Goss PCS system. Each of three quiet rooms will be equipped with two new control consoles for setting ink on new Goss digital mini-page packs. Ink, water and folder settings are controlled from the consoles. The EAE system also supplies production, press-layout and imposition information.
The Oklahoman operates three 10-unit Goss Metroliner presses, and is awaiting the arrival of two Goss Global Newsliner towers and a 2:3:3 jaw folder. The new equipment will be installed at the end of an existing Metroliner, allowing Metro and Newsliner units to run into either folder.
"The new equipment, which should be operational by late summer, will provide additional capacity for zoning and also extra color capacity," Messina notes.
Into the Microzone
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| To assist with zoning, the Oklahoman's Goss Metroliner presses will soon be complemented by two Goss Newsliner towers and a new 2:3:3 jaw folder. |
The Oklahoman’s operation really shines after the paper is printed, when its impressive microzoning program swings into action.
Advertisers can target customers in a whopping 271 "plots" within 68 ZIP codes, seven days a week. Each of the paper’s microzones represents a small area within a single ZIP code, typically a square mile in size and representing 600-to-800 home subscribers.
Microzoning began in 1992, in response to pressure from grocers who needed to better focus their insert advertising. An Oklahoman task force with representatives from advertising, circulation, marketing, packaging, transportation and information services worked out the plot boundaries.
Once designated, zones were field-checked and their adherence to ZIP codes verified by the U.S. Postal Service. The entire effort was facilitated by mapping and geocoding software.
To distribute papers to carriers, the existing circulation systems assigned each route to a truck. "Those trucks were already identified per ZIP; now we had to designate a plot as well as the ZIP and area," says Circulation Director Gerald Beattie. "This ‘truck file’ would become the primary, ongoing control for the computer’s definition of a plot."
The complex inserting job is handled by five Heidelberg inserters: three 1472Ps, one 1372P and one NP630. The massive, 29-into-1 NP630 is used primarily for pre-inserting the Sunday product; the other four are used on daily and Sunday editions, says Glenn James, packaging and distribution manager.
Zone changes on the inserters are handled manually, except on the NP630, which is equipped with the ICON 300 control system. Not all machines have the latest-model control systems, so operators find all-manual operation easier than a mixture of manual and computer-assisted control.
On Wednesday, when grocery ads run, it’s not uncommon to have more than 100 different packages, James says. "And we average approximately 375 packages per week for all publications."
Advertisers may select newspaper readers only, or target each household in an area with a non-subscriber product delivered through the paper’s alternate-delivery company, Distribution Systems of Oklahoma.
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| The Oklahoman's mailroom handles a sophisticated microzoning effort, featuring 271 plots within 68 ZIP codes. Each represents some 600-to-800 home subscribers. |
Products are trucked to 11 distribution centers; each truck receives load numbers so it can be easily identified and guided at the dock. Bundle wrappers also are coded to identify each bundle’s contents, target distribution center and microzone.
James says one of the primary tools for making the process smooth is Heidelberg’s Prima software.
"Prima gets the ad orders from an Admarc file and the circulation numbers from a [Neasi-Weber] Discus file. It combines them to give us the information we need to ensure each contractor gets the correct ad packages and local sections in their papers," James says.
The first and last bundle of each package is checked, and copies are kept for one week. If an insert does not reach a targeted household, James can check the reserve copies and pull up the route. Armed with a route list, he then calls customers surrounding the missed household to see if others got the insert, making follow-up with supervisors and carriers an easier, more effective task.
Needed only once every couple of months, the verification process builds customer confidence, James says.
Starting in February, the paper added six community sections–previously circulated on Monday, Wednesday and Friday–to the Sunday Oklahoman.
"Some of the zone centers will receive multiple communities, so making sure that each carrier has the correct product will be more complicated," James says. "We hope, however, that on the business side we will pick up some new advertising from the smaller businesses that do not buy into the main section."
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| The mailroom includes five Heidelberg inserters, including a massive 29-into-1 NP630 used primarily for the Sunday paper. Except on the NP630, zone changes are handled manually. |
Beattie says James’ "sell-the-newspaper" attitude showcases one of the most important factors driving the successful microzoning program.
"You have to have buy-in from everybody in circulation. The packaging center needs to be a marketing function and needs to have a marketing mentality," he says. "It’s hard to get them to not worry about keeping costs down and instead look at the developing markets, but it is essential to your success." Although the Oklahoman’s microzoning program has meant higher circulation costs, the increase has been more than offset by the increased revenue, Beattie says.
Those are the messages he tries to impart to others in the industry who visit him seeking information on how to set up their own successful micro-zoning programs.
The ability to provide advertisers this level of service, he tells them, is essential not only to the future of the Oklahoman, but also to that of the entire industry.
"We’re about the only battleship left, and we better get it right," Beattie says.
America is a Tulsa, Okla., free-lance writer. E-mail, aamerica@webzone.net; phone, (918) 596-2426. Photos by Hugh Scott, The Daily Oklahoman.