Jenkintown PA (February 5 2008) – Managing Editor Inc. (MEI) an Adobe Systems portfolio company and a leading provider of software solutions for the publishing industry announced that Wenner Media is using the SoftCare K4 Publishing System to manage design and editorial workflows across all three of its magazine titles.
Wenner Media publishes renowned music magazine Rolling Stone entertainment title Us Weekly and lifestyle publication Men’s Journal. All three made the switch to K4 Adobe® InDesign® and InCopy® from workflows based on Quark®.
“We were able to roll out all three titles in an extremely quick timeframe ” said Paul Leung system administrator for Wenner Media. “We’ve already seen K4’s potential for speeding up production and we’re excited to see what else we can do with it in the future.”
With a circulation of about 1.8 million Us Weekly is the largest Wenner Media title and the first to go live with K4. The magazine which purchased an 80-seat system was able to make a complete transition to K4 after just two issues. The quick changeover also included an upgrade from Macintosh OS9 to OSX.
Daniel Schrier editorial systems project manager for MEI said the Us Weekly staff accepted the challenge of mastering a new system without interrupting its weekly production schedule and was eager to start working with industry-standard Adobe technology.
“They trained and went live with no hesitation ” he said. “They ran a very tight ship in terms of the transition. The art production team really stepped up. They created templates and mastered the software very quickly.”
Rolling Stone was the second Wenner Media title to switch over to K4. The magazine’s system includes 60 users who also transitioned quickly: The staff went entirely live on K4 after four issues.
Rolling Stone is planning to use K4’s powerful XML Exporter add-on module to repurpose magazine content for use on its Web site www.rollingstone.com. The magazine’s staff is also considering using K4 to standardize its electronic content in a format that would someday allow it to be repurposed in other ways such as for release on DVDs along with special editions or through any other multimedia channel.
Men’s Journal was the third Wenner Media publication to roll out K4 and its staff was able to get going faster than both Rolling Stone and Us Weekly — Men’s Journal produced an entire issue its first time using the new system and on a much earlier schedule than expected.
“Going through the transition was a bit of a refresher for the Men’s Journal staff so they just ran with it ” Schrier said.
New York-based K4 integrator DPCI also provided hands-on InCopy and InDesign training and support for Wenner Media. Ivan Mironchuk technical services manager at DPCI was involved with the K4 implementation for all three titles
“We held a lot of repeated training sessions to make sure we were covering all of their requirements and needs ” he said. “We were able to provide rapid support and we were there for all three titles’ first close using K4.”
About K4
The SoftCare K4 Publishing System integrated with Adobe InDesign and InCopy allows publishing professionals to manage design and editorial workflow and to control the entire production process. With its multi-level security controls open SQL architecture and robust customization options K4 supports a transparent and secure production workflow for individual workgroups or entire publishing enterprises. K4 is a product of SoftCare GmbH of Hamburg Germany. With more than 240 systems installed in publishing houses agencies and magazines worldwide K4 has already revolutionized the editorial workflow for more than 13 300 users. MEI is the exclusive distributor of K4 in the Americas with more than 100 installations managing more than 7 500 users.
About MEI
Managing Editor Inc. is an industry leader in the development of quality proven software solutions for the evolving publishing industry. The Page Director® Series of Advertising and Classified Layout Systems K4 Publishing System Integrated Production Suite (IPS) Wave2 self-serve advertising platform and IPS AdTrac deliver automated pagination workflow customer relations and digital asset management solutions to newspaper and magazine publishers as well as to other print and electronic publishing markets. MEI is a portfolio company of Adobe Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: ADBE) and has twice been named a laureate of the Computerworld Smithsonian Collections. Additional information regarding MEI’s products and services can be found on the company’s Web site at http://www.maned.com.
About DPCI
DPCI is an interactive technology agency that delivers integrated content management solutions for organizations that need to deliver information and content across a range of channels. DPCI helps customers design and deploy Web Content Management Systems (CMS) Digital Asset Management (DAM) Multi-Channel Publishing Portals and Workflow Management solutions as well as other custom development applications and projects.
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