50 Years Strong: Present Successes and Commitment to Continuous Development

As November arrives, we draw closer to our 50th birthday. While reaching half a century might suggest a slowing pace, at PCS, we remain dedicated to ongoing growth. We take pride in our accomplishments over the past five decades and aim to provide the publishing industry with improved systems.

In this chapter, we'll delve into our system enhancements over the past five years and our long-term commitment to progress beyond our 50th milestone. Some may say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but we firmly believe that with a willingness to adapt and learn, even an old dog can outperform the young pups.

The Re-write of Our Advertising System:

When we introduced ABS, it was set to revolutionise the way newspapers handled their display and classified advertising bookings, accounts, and customer interactions. It's safe to say that during the early '90s and beyond, it indeed accomplished its mission. Time honoured customers such as The Racing Post and Midland News Association wholeheartedly embraced this system, experiencing significant advantages from the efficiencies it facilitated.

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In 2015, we embarked on the ambitious journey of reimagining the ABS system. After four decades of pioneering desktop publishing solutions, we made a strategic investment in the future by onboarding a dynamic team of ten new developers, each bringing a wealth of diverse expertise to the table. This infusion of fresh talent and veteran staff served as the robust foundation for crafting our next-generation system.

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Originally christened as "Sales Knowledge," this innovative solution swiftly found its place within the Knowledge suite of offerings and was rebranded and launched into the market as "Knowledge Prospect." Our primary objective was to engineer a formidable digital booking engine capable of handling classified, ROP, and digital advertisements, all while keeping the customer relationships at the core of our solution's design. We utilised the knowledge of our partners to create a CRM that was geared towards newspaper and magazines.

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Knowledge Prospect has been successfully deployed at 15 sites, and our developers are consistently working hard on features and enhancements that our valued customers have asked for. Our training methodology stands as a source of great pride for us. Our dedicated support team puts in relentless effort to equip super users with the essential knowledge, enabling them to subsequently train their own staff. This approach has always been embraced and effectively implemented by our astute customers.

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Pulse Re-imagined:

Back in the 1990s, the original Pulse management system changed the landscape for newspaper publishers with its innovative capabilities. This all-encompassing system featured a robust graphics library, an advertisement archive database, streamlined insertion management, and provided comprehensive reporting tools. It seamlessly integrated with ABS and Linker products, offering a seamless audit trail from the inception of an ad to its final output.

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Notably, graphic elements found their home in a dedicated library, each linked with a unique reference number (URN). Completed ads were preserved in accessible formats, contributing to a streamlined archiving process. The ability to filter and preview archived ads before assigning new reference numbers streamlined operations. Pulse's meticulous audit history captured every action, enhancing accountability across the board. In 2012, our longest serving employee was tasked with a re-write to which he completed with the use of Adobe Flash Player, it was used for over a decade and was well-liked by our customers, but when Adobe announced the discontinuation of flash in 2017, we were faced with building Pulse from the ground up.

In our quest to form the perfect team for this project, we brought together a diverse group of individuals, each contributing their unique experience and knowledge. This exceptional team consisted of a PCS product specialist, an MNA Media consultant, four talented developers, and one creative UI/UX designer. We collaborated with our designer and product specialist to revamp the user workflow and interface.

Our initial approach was to aim for a modern, user-friendly, and accessible Pulse system. After several deep dive sessions with the MNA, we revealed a need for digital workflow enhancements. With this in mind, our team worked hard, ensuring all the needs of our customer were met. Then, through consistent releases and quality assessments, we fine-tuned the software before reaching the user acceptance testing phase.

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When it went live in March 2021, Steve Mills – MNA Ad-creation manager said, “The new version of Pulse is dynamic and user friendly – we can quickly and easily see a customer’s account, which includes all the adverts they have run in the past. In ad creation we have three queues – Print has the biggest volume of advertisements assigned, Creative is for when someone needs a fresh creative design, and then Digital for the digital adverts we make up. Our users are assigned based on their specific skill sets, so some are assigned to all queues - Print, Creative and Digital and some just to one or two. Jobs are then allocated to anyone who is available in the specific queue – ensuring no downtime. With the older version of Pulse, jobs would go into a queue, and it was up to someone in the ad creation team to grab a job. Now jobs are allocated automatically, and we find that this makes the system much more efficient – it’s clean and ensures the designer has all the assets and instructions ready to create the job."

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The entire team deserves praise for their outstanding efforts, particularly considering that a significant portion of this work was accomplished during lockdown. The continued development to this platform is now seeing digital enhancements such as the creative integration to Google ad manager, which is being worked on as we speak.

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Enhancements for Knowledge Publish:

Since its launch in 2010, it has empowered numerous publishers to share news and create newspapers and magazines with remarkable efficiency. Our editorial CMS has not only made its mark on a global scale at WAN IFRA, but also earned recognition including an InterSystems award that was given before its official market debut. Not long after its launch, Knowledge Publish was also a distinguished finalist in the prestigious UK IT Industry Awards, competing against industry giants like BT, Volkswagen, and The Post Office.

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As the years unfolded, our valued customers, the Guiton Group, enthusiastically adopted our new CMS, replacing our previous system, Adapt. Shortly after, the Irish News also embraced Knowledge Publish. This seamless workflow not only allowed them to work with greater flexibility but also markedly enhanced their overall efficiency. Of course, all of this wouldn’t be possible without our dedicated support and development staff, and we want to thank them all for their contributions.

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Knowledge Publish as an editorial content management system is known for its digital first approach, and in 2018 we wanted to enhance our automation within the system. As AI was rising through the technology industry, we decided to introduce an “Auto Template Placement” feature. This has streamlined the process by automating the placement of templates for pagination. These templates, carefully crafted and stored within the system, are designed to work seamlessly with InDesign. The CMS employs intelligent placement logic that takes into account various factors such as the specific section of the publication, the page's orientation, and the shapes and dimensions of the advertisements.

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By analysing these parameters, the CMS ensures that the right template is precisely positioned on the intended page within the edition. This automation significantly reduces manual intervention, minimising the risk of errors, and enhancing the efficiency of the publishing process.

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Once we’d mastered auto template placement, we moved onto our “Auto Edition Creation” feature in 2019. This enables the system to streamline the process of edition creation using pre-defined plan templates for pagination. Editors have the capability to establish publication plans and schedules, providing a structured framework for the production of upcoming issues. This means that issues can be prepared and made available for editing well in advance of their designated production and output schedule.

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By utilising these predefined templates and scheduling features, the editorial team can efficiently plan and prepare content for upcoming publications. This not only saves time but also ensures a well-organised and seamless workflow, allowing for the timely production and delivery of high-quality editions.

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In 2021, after the madness of the COVID-19 outbreak, we fixed our sights on not one, but two auto enhancements. “Auto Advert Placement” and “Auto Article Text Fitting” features. The first feature allows the system to streamline the placement of advertisements by automating the process, drawing upon the advert placement information received from the ad booking system. This integration between the two systems allows for a seamless and highly efficient workflow when it comes to placing ads within publications.

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Upon receiving the advert placement details from the ad booking system, the automated process ensures that each advertisement is precisely positioned within the publication. This includes taking into account specific criteria such as the dimensions, format, and requirements of each ad. By doing so, it minimises the need for manual intervention, reduces the potential for errors, and accelerates the overall production process. Advertisers can have confidence that their content will be accurately placed in the publication, contributing to a smoother and more reliable advertising experience.

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As for Auto Article Text Fitting, it works by utilising advanced text adjustment and fitting techniques through the InDesign server. The system seamlessly handles the task of adapting article body text content to precisely match the available space within the designated box on the template.

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This sophisticated process ensures that the text is not only displayed in a visually appealing manner, but also optimally utilises the available space without any wastage. The system takes into account the specific dimensions and layout constraints, dynamically adjusting the font size, leading, and tracking as necessary to maintain a harmonious and aesthetically pleasing text presentation.

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This automation not only enhances the efficiency of the layout process but also contributes to a polished and professional appearance in the final printed publication, where content seamlessly flows and fits within the designated text boxes.

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Automating NCS Circulation and Distribution:

It's not just Knowledge Publish that's reaping the benefits of automation improvements; our circulation system, NCS, is also undergoing development to enhance its efficiency. Originally crafted in collaboration with industry experts at Midland News Association, NCS was conceived with the primary aim of saving publishers both time and money by improving advertising sales and circulation management. This comprehensive tool tackled the intricacies of distribution, ensuring that newspapers reached their readers more effectively than ever before.

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NCS boasts a robust database of publications and newsagents, meticulously curated by an experienced team. The system features supply windows for efficient data entry, offers comprehensive outlet information, and allows for easy adjustments to distribution structures like 'runs,' 'drops,' and 'journeys.' These processes were thoughtfully defined for smooth operation. Recent enhancements include integration with Piano for subscription orders and improved direct debit functionality, automating collection amounts based on the order cost.

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As a legacy system, we take great pride in its ongoing development and continuous system support. In an industry where many systems have discontinued support, our commitment to serving our loyal customers remains unwavering for as long as NCS is needed. Throughout 2023, our primary focus has been on automating the generation of reports that can be easily emailed, in addition to implementing other automated features.

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Recently, we received some brilliant feedback from our long-standing NCS customer DC Thomson. Lorna Rankin said “Installation of our systems was very much a partnership to ensure the needs of our business was met. From our first meetings in 2015 there has been a mutual respect that has never waned. They listen to us as a customer and are always open to make enhancements to their systems. They will happily make any changes that we need as a business at our preferred time, even if that is out of hours. Should we ever need system support, the response is extremely prompt.” The dedication of the NCS team has also secured a contract extension until 2027 with Newsquest, which you can read more about here: https://pcs-publishing.com/newsquest-ncs-renewal/ ?

Staying ahead of the curve:

As a technology publishing partner our goal is to remain at the forefront of our industry. We achieve this by maintaining a commitment to ongoing system development, ensuring that our solutions remain current and capable of addressing the evolving challenges our customers encounter, in this ever-changing world of publishing.

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Recognising the pertinent demand for an editorial system in the publishing landscape, we are actively reconstructing our editorial content management and planning tools. We are incorporating state-of-the-art technology, placing automation at the core of the product, and improving workflows. In developing this solution, one of our primary priorities is to guarantee its user-friendliness and visual appeal on all devices. Our aim is to provide a single, multi-tenant, self-service solution designed to meet the future's demands.

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Now as a company with 50 years under its belt, we have had so many more successes than just those noted in this chapter, however, these have been our most recent, and we aim to persist in furnishing the industry with the tools required to deliver multi-channel media content, reaching local, regional, and even global readers for years to come.

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