The new company was unveiled on Tuesday, and given that the smart new wall murals that I saw on Tuesday afternoon apparently hadn’t been there 24 hours previously, it must have been a late night for someone.
Les has been in the pre-press industry for many years. He founded Kestrel in 1989, was later MD of Graphic Facilities Group and then chief executive of Fresh Media Group. He briefly retired to New Zealand but gave that up in 2009 to join Wyndeham Group as a consultant and is now MD of the newly formed Rhapsody.
So, how’s it all changed? The revolution in pre-press started in the late 80s, when the arrival of desk top publishing gave control to publishers and, almost overnight, took away the need for typesetters. Ninety per cent of the old repro houses were unwilling or unable to adapt and went to the wall.
Those that remained found their livelihood put under further pressure by the increasing use of digital imagery and the increased firepower of computing and broadband, which did away for the need for cromalins. A further tranche of pre-press companies, and presumably lots of courier firms too, packed up shop.
But, even ten years ago, Les estimated that there were about 100 pre-press companies in London; now there are about ten. Les’ previous company, Graphic Facilities Group, had employed a couple of hundred; Rhapsody employs just 39 in their London office and a further 10 off shore in India, and … they do more work!
But what do they actually do? Can’t publishers now do it all themselves?
Increasingly, it’s about process design and control, developing and supporting workflow systems to be used by their clients, like Rhapsody’s own Emagine, used by publishers such as IPC. Emagine enables IPC to put together lots of their titles without any additional input from Rhapsody whatsoever. Indeed Rhapsody never sees some of the IPC titles using their system. In addition to system design and support which forms a large part of what they do, they also provide specialist services where high end production values are required or for those titles were the editorial team either needs assistance because they haven’t got the necessary skills or simply as overflow at peak times for the publisher. Pre-press companies, or pre-media as we should now describe them, are increasingly focused on workflow control, ensuring streamlined processes and quality control – “orchestrated media” as Les likes to describe it.
Companies like his are becoming as platform-agnostic as their publishing clients. Yes, their heritage is print, but they are increasingly working with digital, and where the final destination of the content is doesn’t much matter to them.
On the subject of print, does it have a future? Deep intake of breath from Les. He’s had a long career steeped in print; his father worked in the print room at the Mirror; his current employers, Walstead Investments, owns the Wyndeham Group. He was clearly itching to say “yes, yes, yes” … but couldn’t.
“The migration from print to online will continue and will accelerate,” he said, “but who knows at what pace? I can’t see the demise of print in the next three to five years.”
“But will ereaders eventually kill off print?” I pressed.
Another deep intake of breath.
“The answer has got to be yes; will the current trend reverse, no. Will it accelerate, yes.”
But, he continued, perhaps the reality is more nuanced. He could see print newspapers being replaced by tablets, but found it harder to visualise Marie Claire readers giving up their print glossy.
And his eight year old daughter, as in to apps as any other modern child, still curls up in bed with a book. So perhaps, not a question of either or, but what format works best at a particular time.
Does Les buy a print newspaper? Not anymore. Perhaps the Sunday Times once a month, but he is happy to get his news from his iPad app.
It is clear that the app tidal wave is causing as much head scratching at pre-media companies as at publishers.
The big question for publishers is whether to go down the templated route for app design, which is low cost but perhaps a bit lacking in bells and whistles or what Les describes as the hard coding route where sophisticated function-rich apps are built every issue, like for BBC Good Food and T3, but at a price that Les estimates to be between £20-30k per issue.
Which way publishers decide to go will impact heavily on Rhapsody and pre-media companies. Do they skill up to become app creators or try to remain facilitators? As with print, it will probably end up being a combination of the two.
The future of print might be in question, but concluded Les, the future of media is incredibly exciting and he is convinced that the new breed of pre-media companies have an important part to play in it. Definitely worth coming out of retirement for.
