Going electronic: who controls the buying decision? - includes questions to ask before choosing electronic equipment - Folio: Source Book 1991

Going electronic: Who controls the buying decision?

If you're seriously considering buying an electronic publishing system, here's the advice of veterans who have crawled through the decision-making minefiled: Be sure to get opinions from everyone whose job is affected before deciding what hardware and software to purchase.

Arbitrary and uninformed decisions on equipment, and management mandates on systems the art and editorial departments don't want--and maybe can't use--frequently lead to resentment, affecting productivity and morale, they say.

The buying-decision process may start at any point. At large- and medium-size publishing firms, top management generally looks to manufacturing or its production department to drive equipment purchasing decisions. In smaller firms, the publishers themselves often carry the ball. But exactly who makes the final decision doesn't seem to be an issue, according to interviews with decision-makers and users. What's important, they say, is how the decision is made.

Some publishers prefer to form an internal task force to recommend system needs--with representatives from editorial, art, production, manufacturing and data processing. Others choose to bring in an experienced outside consultant to add a more global perspective to the electronic publishing decision--as well as to install equipment and train users.

"There's a lot of resistance to change," acknowledges Eve Farren, who as electronic production manager at Hearst Magazines oversaw the partial automation of many titles, such as Cosmopolitan (with a text-oriented, PC-based Bestinfo Inc. editorial network) and Victoria (using Macintosh and Scitex' graphics-oriented Visionary pre-press link for production).

The key is to work closely with editorial, art and production people, carefully analyzing workflow and then determining where automation can save money, according to Farren, who has since left Hearst. "We focused on magazines that had above-standard costs--extremely high AAs (author's alterations) and revises," she says, "because those are cost areas that, with technology, you can address."

Assessing a publication's flow--and, along the way, getting editorial and art interested in desktop systems--can sometimes take several months, Farren says. Her strategy is to say abreast of technology; meet frequently with representatives of editorial, production and art; come up with a recommendation for the best software and hardware solutions; and arrange for live demonstrations wherever possible.

"I encourage the decision," Farren asserts. The goal is to have the final decision arrived at by consensus, with everyone feeling he or she has contributed, she adds.

Top management sets stage

The stage was set for automation at Hearst when top management made a decision that it was necessary to cut production cost and improve the bottom line.

"It's become a very serious goal as prices for work in the various [pre-press] plants have gone up," Farren says.

In addition to holding planning meetings among staffers at each title, Farren participated in a small upper management task force formed at Hearst Magazines Division to produce a two-year, $3 million budget for the parent corporation to automate editorial operation at 15 magazines.

Meanwhile, a small task force representing manufacturing and the business side is looking longer-range. Its objective is to assure that all systems--editorial and noneditorial (such as advertising and accounting)--are as compatible as possible and capable of sharing resources, such as file servers.

Like Hearst, Conde Nast has been carefully, and slowly, automating editorial operations, although its demanding art requirements have limited the immediate extent of automation to text. Particularly in a large operation, "I think a publication should proceed slowly," says Sharon Schanzer, who as manager of PC services was responsible for initiating, designing and implementing a plan for 800 PCs throughout Conde Nast.

Schanzer--now a vice president at Madison Technologies Inc., Demarest, New Jersey, a consulting firm specializing in editorial systems for magazines--says magazines don't have the luxury of making mistakes.

"You can definitely start slowly. That's one of the great things of a PC environment," she notes. "You can spend just $3,500, buy an IBM AT compatible and a laser jet, learn on Ventura, add PostScript, then add a scanner. It can grow into a $150,000 system if that's what you require."

In making the decision, "a first step--and it sounds obvious, but is hasn't proven to be--is that an institution has to understand what it is doing," says Madison's president, Jonathan Jacobs, who was a senior editorial systems analyst at Conde Nast who created computer-based editorial tools. "It has to know what DTP is, and whether it is going to be appropriate."

Before Conde Nast bought its 50-PC system for Conde Nast Traveler, "we talked to everyone--from the top editors to the researchers," Schanzer recalls. "We presented this beautiful workflow diagram saying, 'This is how things work.' And, they said, 'That's completely wrong!' Then we tried again, and they said, 'No, that's wrong.'

"What we found out is the workflow changes every day, so we decided the system had to accommodate that," she says.

Accommodate changing

workflow

A careful analysis often shows that "people are not doing things in the most efficient way," adds Jacobs. "They see their job titles and figure (in their own minds) what they should be doing."

However, when considered in the greater context of the editorial department, an editor could possibly save a magazine money, for example, by keying in some basic typesetting code while editing an article, Jacobs observes.

"A major consideration is that desktop systems integrate everything--editorial, design, and typography," says Schanzer, and everyone who is involved should be in on the decision.

Those who are left out, she adds, are going to be hard convince that the system selected is the right one for their organization.

Mandating 'not ideal'

One publishing company where editorial systems were purchased without significant involving users, according to an editor who works there, is Chilton Company Inc., Radnor, Pennsylvania.

Chilton initially got into electronic typesetting about seven years ago when it purchased an Atex system. "The basic decision was made by printing production people," recalls Stan Stephenson, editor-in-chief of Chilton's Motor/Age. A few editors--not including Stephenson--"were kind of kept advised, [but] print production people tend to be the experts and they know what's good for the rest of the world," he says.

Their attitude, he adds, is, "'You're going to take what we order, and you're going to like it.' It's not the most ideal situation."

When Chilton decided to purchase a PC-based Bestinfo network, it, again, didn't consult with Stephenson and other editors about their needs. Calling it "another regrettable step in this whole process," Stephenson says the decision was "dictated by financial considerations rather than practical terminal-editor-writer use considerations."

The Motor/Age editor-in-chief is particularly miffed by the fact that "a big concern of the financial people is equipment utilization. Ideally, a system should be set up in such a way that there is one terminal per editor. They think it's deplorable that terminals sit around and nobody is working at them.

"That is an abysmal lack of understanding of what the creation process is in writing," Stephenson contends, adding, "You can't be writing a story every day of the week just to keep utilization up. It's simply pre-posterous."

Invited to comment on the purchasing decision-making process at Chilton, Spencer Collman, vice president, manufacturing, said he had "nothing to contribute."

Overcoming 'IBM

mentality'

Macintosh buffs often face problems in large corporations with politically powerful MIS (management information systems) departments wed to International Business Machines Corp. mainframes. Such was the case nearly four years ago at MacMillan Professinoal Journals, Florham Park, New Jersey, when Terry Kennedy was managing editor for five publications. Kennedy, who now is art director at Modern Drummer Publications, Cranford, New Jersey, wanted Macs for editing and page make-up.

Corporate headquarters in New York, however, resisted. It wanted the Macintoshes strictly justified in written proporsals and then insisted that the MacMillan at department also buy an IBM.

Headquarters "wanted it to be [all] IBM," Kennedy says. "They were always looking at the IBM standard and we were modeled against it. We were always being scrutinized. But the Mac really was a lot friendlier."

Kennedy eventually won the Macs. The requisite PC was shuffled off on an editor, she adds.

CMP assessing needs

In general, buying and installing DTP systems is far easier for medium-size and smaller publishing firms, and for relatively new titles with young editorial and art staffers not set in their ways.

One medium-size company, CMP Publications, Inc., Manhasset, New York, devoted nearly a year to assess exactly what was needed to produce all of its titles, most of which are tabloids with considerable spot-color and four-color graphics.

Says Stephen Grande, CMP's director of manufacturing, "My main focus was analyzing standpoint--and matching the operational need with a system configuration. The task it performs is really the thing we are looking for," and it doesn't matter whtether the solution turns out to be a desktop system or a large, centralized system, he says.

Adding complexity to the decision is the fact that CMP's titles cover a broad mix of editorial requirements. They range from electronic systems business tabloids, such as Computer Reseller News and Macintosh News to standard magazines such as Information WEEK and Long Island Monthly.

A big advantage, however, Grande says, is that CMP'S editors are relatively young. Their average age is in the mid-30s and "you don't see the politics you see in the larger, more mature companies," Also, "there are no hard-core Atex junkies or Apple junkies," although CMP does have an Atex system, along with PC-based Bestinfo Inc.'s Wave4.

"We've established editorial task forces that sit in and participate on a 'Needs Definition,'" the CMP executive says. The editors are saying, 'This is what I have to do. I don't care whose label is on it, as long as it serves our needs.'"

The only exception is Macintosh News, whose editors want to use Apple Computer Inc. equipment so they can test hardware and software--and better identify with readers.

A task force has been established within CMP's manufacturing group, which Grande sees as a combination service bureau and systems integrator for the rest of the company. Besides Grande, the task force includes a systems manager, technical projects manager and microsystems expert. Also sitting in are production editors and editorial directors, he says.

By defininf requirements internally, rather than using an outside consultant, "you build a bond between the system group and the editorial group," he says. "It becomes a group effort--an achievement by the company."

The smaller, the easier

For small publishers, the purchasing decision-making process is generally swifter. At Modern Drummer, for example, David Creamer, then art director, showed publisher Ron Spagnard how a Macintosh 512 would save money.

Creamer, now a desktop systems specialist for pre-press service firm TSI Graphics, Cranford, New Jersey, says he provided virtually all the push for the company's desktop system. The editors "didn't have that spark of wanting to learn" computers, he adds.

Today, editors at Modern Drummer use "hand-me-down" Macintoshes originally bought for the are department. "As the computers got more powerful, and we wanted to do more projects, we [art] got better computers," Creamer recalls.

Kennedy picked up the desktop systems ball after Creamer left. "We're a very small company, so I just do the research and present it to the publisher," Kennedy says. She recommended an improved network wiring scheme, for example, which has been installed.

Two other small companies that quickly upgraded to electronics from typewriters are CSK Publishing Inc. and JHS Publishing Inc., Saddle Brook, New Jersey, both headed by Steve Schneider, president and publisher. They publish several automobile-oriented titles, including VETTE and MuscleCars.

Four of his editors encouraged him to automate. "They were tired of working the old-fashioned way with typewriters, and said they couldn't keep up with the volume. They had to travel, shoot photos, write."

In making his decision, Schneider also talked to a consultant and a number of friends and did a lot of reading. "I don't make unilateral decisions," he says.

Schneider initially bought IBM clones and WorPerfect word processing software. He considered adding Ventura, but eventually abandoned the setup in favor of a Macintosh network. The PC clone network "was much more finicky than Macintosh," he recalls.

The first Macintosh II was installed in November of 1988. Today, the network has grown to include two Mac IIs, a IIcx, five SEs and eight Mac Pluses with hard drives. The publisher also invested in full- and double-page monitors for his art directors and a low-resolution scanner for positioning photos. All the Macs are connected on a TOPS network.

Schneider, who estimates his total DTP investment at about $125,000, has some solid advice for others thinking of purchasing a system. "After you've come up with the budget and think you've got everything covered, you better damn well add 20 percent on top of that, or you'll be in trouble.

"Who kwould have known that the scanner needs its own computer? Otherwise it's tying somebody else's up. And if you're going to modem things, you better get a network modem with its own computer for transmitting. Otherwise, somebody can't do work," he notes.

"And if you are going to do the network correctly, you should install it through a Star system, which allows you to expand the network easily, but it also costs a lot of money. Unexpected expenses keep going on and on," Schneider warns.

Gaining support

Like many established publications, Business Week has a considerable investment in an Atex system for editorial, and telecommunications systems also are already in place. "A new system could be upsetting, if not done right," notes Robert Virkus, a consultant with Electronic Directions, New York, who was manager of systems operations at McGraw-Hill fro six years. He participated in a decision to move Business Week's graphics to Macintoshes--a move he says saved to weekly an estimated $500,000 a year.

Asked how DTP purchasing decisions should be made, the consultant says, "An ideal situation would be having the momentum come from the publisher, who should recognize that these tools will allow his people to be more creative, turn out a better product and, at the same time, save a lot of money."

However, "I'm not seeing that recognition from publishers. I have given proposals to publishers showing enormous cost savings," he notes. The proposals suggested an initial outlay of $70,000 to $100,000. They will not make that initial outlay. I've seen it a number of times."

More often, Virkus sees the "skunk works" phenomenon--"coming up from the bottom," usually from the art department. "It comes from the art director who goes to a show, or rads something, and wants these tools," he observes.

"The art director will then cajole, bribe or trick the publisher into getting one Macintosh in. Once one is in, he can show some cost savings fairly quickly, and it snowballs form there. The publisher and editor-in-chief get interested. Then a task force will be formes, and they'll start looking," the consultant says.

"Training is the most vital thing in the whole picture," he contends. "You want to get some introductory training right away, usually in-house. Then you take the key people and send them to some training program--usually three days of pretty intensive training," Virkus adds.

A "systems administrator," or "guru" is necessary, Virkus says. Often, someone who enjoys the technology simply rises to the fore. If so, "buy him a machine he can take home. You'll get the payback quickly. He'll become the trainer--the troubleshooter. He'll run the network for you."

One alternative is hiring a consultant for installation and training. A consultant with a publishing background can save clients time in getting up to speed on technical alternatives and system operation.

Nonetheless, Farren avoided bringing in outsiders." Consultants want an awful lot of money, and in many cases they tell you what you should be getting--and that doesn't work," she says.

"A lot of what I do is work in stages. You don't want to do the whole thing at once. Consultants want to do that, but Hearst doesn't work that way," she says. "We take it in steps; we're slow." Merging text with design at a magazine could take two years, for example, she notes.

No time to wait

No matter what route is taken, the desktop purchsing decision is not an easy one, all agree. "The hardest decision is figuring out what makes sense," says CMO's Grande. "Is it microcomputers, or do you go the big systems route? The cost value between having a big system versus desktop system is diminishing. It's making the decision harder."

While the temptation is great to wait and see what happens with technology and prices, publishing "is an aggressive market. You don't have time to wait," Grande says. "We set clear goals on how quickly we're going to evaluate systems, how quickly we're going to make a decision, and how quickly we're going to implement it."

New technology that comes along later "can enhance what you have at that point," he observes.

Jim Strothman is editor of Computer Pictures magazine, and is a former associate editor of FOLIO:.

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