16 Edition Suburban Weekly Newspaper Group Editorial and Pagination

REDUCE COSTS in editorial operations, pagination procedures, and technology across multiple locations, while maintaining and improving quality and service to community readers and advertisers

Project Focus

• Suburban Newspaper Editorial and Pagination Operations
• Assess and redesign operations model to improve organization structure, processes, workflows, procedures and tools
• Train and coach a client task team to implement changes

Client Gains: Financial and Operating Benefits

• 25% reduction in page handling process
• 22% reduction of annual labor cost due to efficiency gains
• Significant reduction of annual technology costs
• Training program for editorial department that can be modified for use in other operational areas
• Realigned editor’s functional responsibilities to focus 35% more time on the community

Key Changes that Supported Client Goals

• Developed an activity-based staffing model to reorganize and functionally realign the editorial operations of multiple publications in multiple locations
• Identified key indicators and reports, including: editor to masthead ratio; benchmarks and standards for department workflows and performance; reporting process from reporter through to publisher; and monthly financial reporting and review process for publishers and corporate management
• Centralized specialty products group
• Centralized the pagination process, redefined deadlines by masthead and revised processes to balance the intersecting needs of page production, masthead, pagination, production requirements, and deadlines
• Adjusted staffing and scheduling approach to support new processes
• Developed new communication processes
• Established training programs which covered performance management training for all editorial and management staff, and trained internal resources to be implementation coaches and skills trainers

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