Cross-Media Publishing Platform makes it so much easier to manage rotkreuzmagazin's many text and layout variants

SNAP Innovation may have set a record for fastest rollout, taking just a month to install and ramp up the Cross-Media Publishing Platform vjoon K4 at corps. Corporate Publishing Services GmbH (corps) and TiMe, corps' prepress service provider. Just three months later, 21 publications were running on vjoon K4. One is rotkreuzmagazin. With its strong focus on local news, this German Red Cross magazine comes in many different local editions. The many versions had complicated publishing efforts. vjoon K4 simplifies the process to save time and money.

Published quarterly, rotkreuzmagazin comprises a common front section and 20 different regional sections. Even the regional editions' front page and table of contents vary, as do the number of pages. Publishing so many different versions entailed a great deal of effort. The workflow was labor-intensive, time-consuming and error-prone. Every layout had to be created in a dedicated Adobe InDesign document. vjoon K4 streamlined and accelerated these processes. "vjoon K4 is an excellent match for all our demands. The layout and text variants provided in version 6 resolve the issue of working with different regional versions in the best possible way," notes Marc Terstal, head of production at TiMe.

Easier to use with more options and less effort

vjoon K4 affords corps and TiMe many possibilities for adapting the text and layout of a publication. Editors may generate any number of text variants for different regional or language versions. Each version is then linked to the respective layout. Meanwhile, graphic artists can work concurrently on variants of a layout, for instance, to incorporate images of regional relevance or accommodate texts of different lengths. vjoon K4's capabilities extend beyond merely managing different versions. It also enables contributors to work with alternative designs, for example, for the cover pages. So many creative and administrative options could make things complicated, but the proven and professional workflows of vjoon K4 tame this complexity. "A complex publication such as rotkreuzmagazin with 20 or more versions of layouts and articles is so much easier to control with vjoon K4. It makes the publishing process far more consistent, and is very easy to handle," notes Thomas Classen, senior officer and head of publishing at corps. "We are confident that over the long run, vjoon K4 can help us produce more publications with the same number of employees because it controls processes from end to end and automates many tasks throughout the workflow."

Building on this success, corps and TiMe plan to take further steps to make rotkreuzmagazin even more local, target group-focused, and attractive. One is to add additional local sections to the front and regional sections. "The K4 Web Portal will be used to tie in external contributors who are not editors by profession. The tool is easy to handle, so it requires no professional skills," says Thomas Classen.

To learn more about how these companies have deployed vjoon K4, see the vjoon user story covering corps and TiMe http://www.vjoon.com/index.php?id=184&rid=t_23688&mid=295&aC=b3458613&jumpurl=0