Jenkintown, PA (August 16, 2006) – Managing Editor Inc. (MEI), an Adobe Systems portfolio company and a leading provider of software solutions for the publishing industry, today announced that the University of Pennsylvania’s student newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian, has purchased the K4 Publishing System. The award-winning Ivy League publication joins an impressive list of college papers already using K4, the popular editorial workflow software based on Adobe® InDesign® and InCopy®.
The Daily Pennsylvanian is produced by an all-student staff and covers not only the university but the surrounding Philadelphia metro area. The paper, which has a circulation of about 14,000, is published daily on weekdays when classes are in session (September through April) and weekly during the summer. About 200 students work in the business and news departments; the paper receives no funding from the University of Pennsylvania.
Along with the daily paper, which has been published since 1885, the DP staff also produces 34th Street Magazine, The Weekly Pennsylvanian and The Summer Pennsylvanian, as well as the paper’s Web site, DailyPennsylvanian.com. The paper’s 35-seat K4 system, which replaces a Quark Publishing System installation, will be used to produce all the print publications when it goes live this month, in time for the 2006-2007 school year.
General Manager Eric Jacobs said the DP has a long history of utilizing a database-driven publishing system, but the staff had become dissatisfied with the slow development of its existing software over the past few years. Meanwhile, Jacobs had been watching the impressive positive reviews of Adobe’s products.
“Our students have been increasingly interested in learning to work with InDesign and graduate with that experience,” Jacobs added. “When we looked at K4, we found it had the advantage of being based on the InDesign platform plus a number of useful new capabilities, some of which we’ve been requesting for many years on our previous system.”
The Daily Pennsylvanian has set a high standard over the years, winning several prestigious awards and rankings in college journalism. In 2004, it won the Pacemaker, awarded by the Associated Collegiate Press and the Newspaper Association of America Foundation, for a record-setting fourth consecutive year. The DP was ranked the most-read college newspaper by The Princeton Review in 1990, 1997, 1998 and 2001. This year, in addition to winning the College Newspaper Business and Advertising Managers top award as best college daily, the DP received a Gold Crown award from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association as one of the top college papers in the country.
In light of these accomplishments, the DP needed to be sure that it could rely on its new system. “Most important were the reports of smooth installation and solid reliability we received from existing K4 sites,” Jacobs said. “All the bells and whistles in the world aren’t worthwhile if the software isn’t rock solid reliable.”
In selecting K4, The Daily Pennsylvanian joins a select group of school papers — including the Yale Daily News, the Columbia Daily Spectator, the Indiana Daily Student, the Northern Star (Northern Illinois University), The Daily Barometer (Oregon State University), The Daily Toreador (Texas Tech University), the Daily Illini (University of Illinois), and the Daily Bruin (UCLA) — that use the system and have recognized its strengths in the college publishing market.
“In a college newspaper environment, staff turnover is high just by the nature of the beast,” Jacobs said. “New students join each semester, others graduate ... It’s crucial that our publishing system be easy for new students to learn the basics and get going, and easy to administer. We think K4 is both.”
Dennis McGuire, CEO and president of MEI, said The Daily Pennsylvanian is making a progressive decision by switching to K4. “The fact that so many respected college publications have realized the need for K4 in the newsroom proves the software’s growing reputation as the industry standard,” McGuire said. “Without question, experience using Adobe products better prepares these students for post-graduation jobs and strengthens their resumes.”
About K4The K4 Publishing System, integrated with InDesign and InCopy, allows publishing professionals to manage design and editorial workflow and to control the entire production process. With its multi-level security controls, open SQL architecture and robust customization options, K4 supports a transparent and secure production workflow for individual workgroups or entire publishing enterprises. K4 is a product of SoftCare GmbH of Hamburg, Germany. MEI is the exclusive distributor of K4 in the Americas.
About MEIManaging Editor Inc. is an industry leader in the development of quality, proven software solutions for the evolving publishing industry. The Page Director® Series of Advertising and Classified Layout Systems, K4 Publishing System, Integrated Publishing Suite (IPS), Wave2 and IPS AdTrac deliver automated pagination and workflow solutions to newspaper, magazine and book publishers, as well as other print and electronic publishing markets. Founded in 1990, the company was named a laureate of both the 1999 and 2000 Computerworld Smithsonian Collections. Managing Editor is a portfolio company of Adobe Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: ADBE). Additional information regarding MEI’s products and services can be found on the company’s Web site at http://www.maned.com.