TWELVE months ago, The Irish News, the best performing regional daily morning newspaper among all Irish titles, and PCS, solidified their partnership, as the newspaper took on PCS’s portfolio of publishing solutions.
The portfolio includes Knowledge, the editorial solution as well as advertising, production and circulation solutions.
The Irish News set out to achieve a fully integrated system, allowing for a harmonious, comprehensive workflow, without having to import information from other systems during the publishing process.
The newspaper has achieved the desired integration as well as additional efficiencies and perspectives created by PCS’s all-inclusive portfolio spanning various departments at the newspaper.
Integration of production, planning and editorial processes, means that there is ‘much more accountability as to what is exactly going on the page’ according to Liam McMullen, systems manager at The Irish News.
This accountability means that there is no last-minute discovery that a page is partially incomplete and it’s always clear ‘how much of the newspaper there is left to do when using Knowledge because of the real-time visualisation it creates.’
Managing director Dominic Fitzpatrick praised PCS for its partnership approach: “The publication solutions provided by PCS have allowed The Irish News to improve our workflow, enabling us to make efficiencies in a number of key areas.
“The system also provides us with a terrific solution for the digital platforms we are introducing.”
As well as having this global view of the newspaper at all stages, The Irish News finds it useful to have a precise record of who put the content on the page and when, as well as easily accessible archives of previously published editions.
Small efficiencies and records such as these created by the portfolio all add up to produce both cost and time savings at The Irish News.
For example, the ‘CRM system’ within PCS’s advertising solution offering clear and accurate information about advertisers, will have revenue impacts, whereas the advertising production solution means that advertisements can be rebooked and small amends made by the front office without having to ‘interface with pre-press at each stage’ which was previously a laborious activity.
Such efficiencies also lend themselves to The Irish News’ digital endeavours – the ability to expand digitally was an important requirement for The Irish News prior to taking on the solutions and Knowledge is proving to be the catalyst in moving this forward because of its ability to publish to a variety of digital channels seamlessly via a web CMS.
Said managing director of PCS, Phil Walker, ‘We are proud to have formed a partnership with a title held in such high regard as our first Irish client. We hope that The Irish Newscontinue to see the extensive benefits of our publishing solutions as they increase their digital activity in 2015 using Knowledge to provide a greater digital presence.’
The PCS portfolio is evolving with the fluidity of the publishing industry, and The Irish News is witnessing this first hand as they enter their second year of the partnership, holding a digitally-focused ambition and a global view of their title at all times.
