Solving the Puzzle of Automated Regionalization Printing

By: Ed Zintel

The automated regionalization of USA Today has been going on since July 2013. The Gannett newspaper with a circulation of more than 3.2 million is printed in different locations throughout the country. This means that some advertisers in the “Nation’s Newspaper,” as it calls itself, might want national coverage, while other advertisers might only want to advertise in a specific region, or set of regions. Additionally, elements such as TV listings need to differ from one side of the country to the other.            

This has always been possible, and practiced, but in the past it was a complex process requiring multiple software packages and manual, page-by-page intervention.            

So how did USA Today come to automate such a process? What was the technology used, and how can that technology benefit other publishers and newspapers?            

In a recent news release about the automation, it was announced that PuzzleFlow Solutions’ Automator technology was used to automate the processes. E&P contacted PuzzleFlow to learn about the technology and to ask if it could be used by other publications.            

The PuzzleFlow system uses something it calls “PDF stamping” to make the automation possible.            

“We get a file containing metadata from Gannett’s publication planning software,” explained Richard Laframboise, operations manager at PuzzleFlow Solutions. “This gives our system information about where each page will be printed, what content is common and what content is regionalized on each page. At the same time, the system processes, or has processed the various pages, or independent elements—like the separate ads—used to regionalize the pages. It also dynamically places the various rules, cut-lines, boxes, even some text around regional ads that require them.”            

Master “base” pages are committed to the system and the metadata from Gannett’s layout planning software is parsed to identify region, regionalized content, and “stamping” position.            

“All the heavy-lifting is done using our own PDF library, managed by an underlying database that keeps track of ads pages, files, stamping information, and page distribution information, amongst other things,” Laframboise said.            

Speaking with Josh Franz, a workflow systems analyst at PuzzleFlow Solutions, we mentioned that the USA Today automated regionalization printing system seemed to be very customized for Gannett, and rather high-end. Was there a way to use this technology for smaller publishers?            

“Yes there is,” Franz said. “We do customized solutions for enterprise clients such as Gannett and others, but we always do so with non-enterprise publishers in mind as well. Most PuzzleFlow products include the Automator platform and use our PDF library as a foundation.”            

He went on to explain that smaller publishers can take advantage of a hybrid type of OPI, “similar to stamping,” in order to prevent ads from being damaged or corrupted during page layout. PuzzleFlow calls it “automated ad pre-processing,” Franz said.             Essentially, the Automator system pre-processes (pre-flights, checks, corrects) ads as they arrive or are completed in-house, in many cases, days before they are scheduled to run. Dimensions, color separations, quality, and so on are verified using information parsed from any 3rd-party ad booking system, and adjustments are made if necessary—often automatically based on customizable rules.          

“Preflighting ads is not new to the industry,” Franz said. “A number of systems can be used to pre-flight ads. The benefit of the Automator-based system is that the final normalized ad (converted to PDF by the PuzzleFlow system if necessary), checked and verified, is, like the stamped ads for Gannett, placed on the page at the final stage of processing, rather than at layout, protecting the ad file integrity.”            

Since not all publishers have the resources of a Gannett, and can’t provide planning metadata, the Automator system provides an EPS or PDF proxy, a low-res place holder that can be sized and rotated. This proxy is placed during layout, rather than the final ad PDF. When the finished page is printed (PS or PDF) and processed through the Automator system, it is checked, saved as a PDF (if not already a PDF), and then the actual ad file is inserted where the proxy was.            

“This has multiple benefits for the non-enterprise publication,” Franz said. “It makes the final page files smaller, faster to write from the layout system, quicker to move through the network, and less complex for page processing. More importantly, this technique adds a level of security, maintaining the file integrity of each ad.”            

Since errors can be introduced when a file is “placed” in a layout and “encapsulated” during the Postscripting or PDFing process, the technique of assembling the finished elements of the page in PDF form during production eliminates that possibility.             “This is a technology similar to the stamping used at Gannett that can benefit any publisher,” Franz said. “For instance, it is currently in use through Automator at places such as Pioneer Press in Michigan, The Villages Daily Sun in Florida, News Publishing Co. in Georgia, and through our publisher software for magazine publishing at Bauer magazines in Europe.”