The term multi-channel publishing services refers to the media-neutral processing of data and its distribution using various media channels, including print and online. These services are a growing market that opens up new business opportunities for print shops outside their conventional core markets. Last year, this led Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) to acquire an interest in Neo7even, a German software house based in Siegen that was already active in this market, and to integrate this company's software into the Prinect print shop workflow. Heidelberg is now offering print shops this solution - a media publication system for publishing identical information in different media channels - under the name Prinect Media Manager. Media-neutral image, text, and video data is stored in a database and output for print and online media (websites, tablet shops, etc.) in an automated process. Any changes need to be made only once in the system. This ensures multi-channel publishing is efficient and cost-effective.

"Anyone seeking long-term success in the highly competitive print media industry needs state-of-the-art technologies and an eye for new business opportunities. The Prinect Media Manager opens up exactly such opportunities for print shops. This solution underlines our commitment to making rapid moves into new, promising areas of business through partnerships and cooperation agreements," says Jason Oliver, who is in charge of digital business at Heidelberg.

One of the first companies to use the Prinect Media Manager is BVD Druck+Verlag AG (BVD) in Liechtenstein. Founded in 1927, it specializes in high-quality advertising materials in short to medium runs. In recent years, BVD has focused increasingly on automated media publication to expand its future portfolio. It was initially unable to find a suitable solution on the market but recently installed the Prinect Media Manager from Heidelberg.

A pilot project involving a BVD customer aims to produce a campaign brochure from a database using a largely automated process and to distribute this in various languages via print and online channels. The customer stores its data in the central database of the Prinect Media Manager. Both it and BVD can access this data, so that changes only need to be made once and are then automatically adopted in all layouts. Unlike in the past, BVD is now involved from the creation stage and can speed up brochure production significantly.

"Here at BVD, we see promising business opportunities in multi-channel publishing solutions and in combining print and online services. The Prinect Media Manager now makes it both technically feasible and cost-effective for us to tap into this potential," says BVD Managing Director Peter Göppel.