In this day and age, who doesn’t want to save money? In publishing we are embroiled in an eternal battle with the budget. Every aspect of our business costs money in some form or another - distribution, prepress, paper, market research, and, of course, manufacturing aka printing and its related functions. When times are lean we as print producers need to work smarter than we have ever worked before. Recently I took a hard look at how we do business and re-evaluated some of our systems for getting from rough edit to final bound and delivered title. I thought my proverbial orange had already been squeezed of all its juice, but I was in for a big surprise. I thought I’d share with you what I found and where we as a publishing group have saved many hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, adding greatly to our balance after we compare our P&L.

Poor Workflow: The silent budget killer.

The first area we tackled was workflow. How do we get from point "A" to point "Z"? Tightening up workflow can have several benefits. It can cut time off your production cycle and, as we know, time is indeed money (it also can equal burnout for a publishing staff). We cut our content proofing cycle down to three proofs: one initial content proof, one for verification that all alterations/corrections were made as a result of that initial proof, and a final content proof as needed. This saved time and materials and while not a drastic savings it did add to the final amount saved. As I like to say, "If I found it on the sidewalk, I’d pick it up".

Now a proofing cycle like this depends on the person proofing and making alterations using a great degree of attention to detail. I have the highest regard for our editors and art directors/designers, so this was a non- issue for us. Needless to say, proofing needs to be done right the first time and it’s simply not acceptable to shoot out proof after proof because different people are catching different things on different proofs.

Our guys get 2 shots at it and that’s all. If more changes are requested I make a stink over it. We also established a carved in stone workflow which (known only to me and the production folks) had enough wiggle room to accommodate a disaster if one arose. The staff was informed formally that failure to meet established deadlines was not acceptable and that it was a professional obligation to ensure that their individual deadlines were met in order not to impose on someone downstream.

Initially, this was understandably a hard pill to swallow, but over time it has become our norm and I’m happy to say that we do not miss hard deadlines…well…not often Our printer also likes that. Other than the obvious efficiency of a carved in stone workflow, we do save money by doing the job right to begin with and not having to pay for re-do’s at the 11th hour of the project. We strive for perfection and, in doing so, achieve excellence.

Prepress: It’s the rubber that meets the road.

Prepress costs can be outrageous. (Sorry to all service providers out there who I just alienated with that statement.) For us, having in-house prepress capability takes the sting out of the bill, but there is still a wad of cash that goes out the door with our files each month. To minimize our costs, which normally equate to time spent on files by prepress, we began a process of preflighting our own files in our department prior to them hitting the Iris. This saves prepress the trouble and saves me a day in the schedule waiting for proofs.

For our two titles that use PDF/X1a, we do all file conversion in our department so, again, little needs to be done once in the capable hands of the operators. This could be applied to any production group. The more you do in-house, the less you get billed for services when the files go out. As my friend Michael from Easy Riders says, "If done at vendor, return to sender." I also count imaging as part of the prepress aspect of our jobs. We spend a great deal on having original, reflective art brought into RGB and then color corrected after conversion to CMYK. I’m currently working with an outside group to have images too large for a flatbed scanner shot with an extremely highend digital camera. Since there is little set-up required I’m negotiating a very attractive cost per shot for our needed images -much less than our current charges.

Purchasing your own paper: Do you dare?

I’m not sure, but I suspect that there are many out there who let your printer buy and keep inventory of any paper they use. If you print in quantities that can justify mill orders STOP THIS PRACTICE NOW! Granted, there are some advantages to letting printers do this. But from my experience, it mostly relates to the client having to do less work because they do not have the time to purchase the paper .

There are three basic options for those of us who choose to save the 20% (average) on their paper costs by purchasing it themselves.

a) Working directly with a mill. This is scary because you had better know not only paper, but the industry surrounding it with all its norms, trends, etc.

b) Working with a firm that represents a specific paper company.

c) Working with a broker.

I elect to use the second choice and have seen great results in efficiency and cost savings. If anyone was trying to find savings anywhere in their process - "paper" is always my first thought.

At the plant: It’s where the rubber meets the road.

Once files have been shipped to the plant, the dollar signs begin piling up. Every action at the plant has a charge associated with it. So I do as much at the forefront as possible in order to realize some pretty significant savings at the printer.

Here are a couple of rules for this road: Send only locked down files that have been preflown at your location. This ensures that no work will be done to them at the plant just to make them printable. Ask your printer if they have a preferred file format and provide it to them using their provided specs . This takes care of any questions upfront and, again, ensures that your files flow smoothly once in the printer’s hands. No prelim challenges equal less money you spend. Look into what is being done with your files at the printer and confirm that you agree with each action. Ask questions and if an operation is deemed unnecessary ask the printer not to do it. Again, this saves money, but be very sure that the operation is truly not needed or you could be risking success on press.

Last, but certainly not least, establish a close working relationship with your printer and always treat them as team members and not employees. Now this is not cost cutting, but I feel it ties in very well. Yes, I know you help pay the bills, but I’ve asked a few favors in my day that my printers might not have been so eager to comply with if we didn’t see each other as co-workers and friends. Mutual respect breeds success for both parties. At the end of the project ask for an invoice that has all costs entered as line items and check them against your proforma invoice. You’ll be surprised at how any simple, unintentional, errors are made that would normally just be paid.

Advertising: A little saves a lot.

If you’re a publisher, archiving your own advertising is relatively simple. By doing so, great savings can be realized. We developed a common sense system of archiving and picking ads up as needed for future issues. We also have the client’s proofs returned from the printer for use with pick-ups. When CDs are burned for the issue prior to it going to the printer, ads are also burned and assigned their page number for that specific issue. As I said, it’s very simple and can save a bit of money off your final invoice.

Distribution: It’s the road the rubber meets.

This sometimes overlooked aspect of our business can be, if not managed properly, a real money pit. Ensure that as few cartons as possible are being used to ship newsstand. This may sound strange but they cost a great deal and can really take a bite out of your monthly budget. Also look into how items are being shipped. Question providers’ rates and look for lower ones. If something can be shipped slow boat - make it so. We also take advantage of two features offered by Quad Graphics Multimail and Dropship. By ganging up as many magazines as possible into specific carrier routes we see a hefty saving in postage, up to 15%.

In closing, just when you think you’ve squeezed all the juice from that production orange there is almost certainly more to be found. I feel that given the current business climate, it’s not only our responsibility to continue to look for creative ways to save on costs, but it can be vital to our company’s very survival.

Until next month, my very best to you all!