The team of six production managers at IPC Media (pictured receiving the award) managed a fundamental shift in the pre-media production workflow of 35 consumer titles from the IPC Inspire portfolio onto the Emagine production management system, transferring the titles within an 8-12 week window and achieving all publication dates.
Utilising Emagine as the internal workflow tool, the IPC Inspire team took on control of all its titles including creating issues and flat-plans, managing detailed production information and costs, through to hands-on responsibility for the processing of final PDF’s through to the print sites. Rhapsody also developed bespoke cross-publishing workflows, enabling the simultaneous delivery of correctly profiled digital edition files to IPC’s e-magazine partners.
The transition to Emagine was completed in record time, says Rhapsody, with the majority of the titles transferred within 8-12 weeks and hundreds of staff trained across four operating sites. Through the use of Emagine’s collaborative workflow tools, production and editorial teams can monitor the progress of each issue in a transparent way, providing greater control over the titles and creating a more uniform and efficient way of working.
Talking about the IPC Inspire production team, the PPA judges were “unanimously impressed by the breadth of change delivered by this small team within such a short space of time. To train several hundred people whilst maintaining their day-to-day production activities demonstrated a superbly managed initiative.”
The PPA's Production and Environment Awards are dedicated to upholding and celebrating excellence in magazine production and environmental best practice, and were held on 29 March 2012 at London’s Oxo Tower.
