MEI MEDIA CONTACT

Paul Weinstein
P: 215-886-5662 x278
F: 215-886-5681
pweinstein@maned.com



Thu, 12/18/2008 - 11:10 | by admin
Mainland Press and Country-Wide Publications benefit from MEI's low-cost advertising layout solution
NP Solutions Logo

New Zealand-based distributor NP Solutions recently profiled two of its AdForce customers, Mainland Press and County-Wide Publications, in its newsletter. Both publishers benefit from streamlined production workflows with AdForce, MEI's cost-effective, easy-to-use advertising layout and issue management system for small- to mid-size publications. [Stories reprinted with permission from NP Solutions.]

Country-Wide Publications Upgrades to AdForce 5.3

Country-Wide Publications, which has been running AdForce for the past three years, has upgraded to the latest version, AdForce 5.3. The software is is integrated into the publisher's AdFactory suite of applications.

The new version provides more user control over ad conflicts, the state of unplaced ads, and page attributes regarding the “gravity” as to where ads will be placed, such as to the top, bottom, left or right on a page. Users also now have the ability to apply various attributes across multiple pages and editions.

AdForce 5.3 adds new Workspaces functionality by allowing users to save displayed runsheet and toolbar palette positions and issue zoom settings. The current issue view is saved, as well as any applied runsheet filter. The software also allows users to modify page dimensions on exisitng issues. If a user is changing web sizes, for example, this can simplify the conversion process.

Additionally, a “Duplicate” button has been added to the Properties area. This speeds the creation or changing of properties.

 

Mainland Press Installs AdForce

Click to expand.

The AdForce ad layout application is now enhancing the production workflow at Mainland Press in Christchurch, New Zealand.

NP Solutions installed AdForce version 5.3, performed the set-up with the help of staff and trained the application.

Mainland Press books its ads in QuickBooks, which has been customized with unique fields to provide additional booking information, such as the depth of ads and the number of columns. Notes and page placement information are also contained in specific fields.

This information is exported from QuickBooks to a .csv file and massaged further before it is imported into AdForce to create the ad runsheet. Once the data is imported, various filters are used within AdForce to more efficiently layout the ads in the paper.

In addition, specific editorial holes have been created in templates to assure that space is available from issue to issue.

Once ad placement is complete, AdForce creates a layout file, which is imported into Adobe InDesign. There, the pages are separated and the actual ads are linked to the page.

Mainland Press publishes the Bay Harbour News, Nor’West News, Southern View, Pegasus Bay News and Best Motorbuys. Regular features cover such varied topics as food, fashion, health and beauty, gardening, real estate, sports, motoring and the arts, as well as profiles on local identities.

Each paper has its own distinct identity and its own dedicated editor to ensure the focus is on local content.

NP Solutions is the exculsive distributor of MEI products in Australasia. Products include advertising layout applications AdForce, ClassForce, ALS, CLS, and ALS for Magazines, as well as the K4 Publishing System for editorial and design workflow management.