In the Production Driver’s Seat

Just how important is DALIM TWIST (Booth 4245) to the Bonnier Corporation’s workflow? Simply put, says Shawn Macey, Digital Media Services Director for Bonnier, “If TWIST goes down, everyone goes home for the day.”

Headquartered in Winter Park, Florida, Bonnier Corporation is one of the largest U.S. consumer publishing groups, owning 40-plus brands including such highly touted titles as Popular Science, Saveur, and Field & Stream. Its multi-platform media program includes magazines, events and digital media, connecting people to their passions.

While the majority of brands are created in Orlando, Bonnier also has editorial and production offices in New York City and Irvine, California. All three offices use DALIM TWIST to prepare accurate editorial and ad PDFs for print publication and, more recently, for the various titles’ digital platforms, including iPad Apps. DALIM TWIST also controls all the proofing.

“We process approximately 45,000 pages through our TWIST system annually,” says Macey. “These are just the editorial pages. There are many other processes for the ad portal and digital workflows.”

Tools in End User's Hands

By automating such repetitive tasks as preflighting, file optimization and conversion, color management, and trapping, DALIM TWIST lets editorial designers slash production time and view finished pages instantaneously. “They see immediately if something isn’t right,” acknowledges Macey. “TWIST makes them more efficient and better designers.”

Similarly, using TWIST for advertising lets production managers get ads to clients faster for approvals. “Advertisers can upload their ads through our website portal, which feeds directly into the TWIST workflow.It automatically preflights the ad and handles all the production tasks, including alerting the production manager that ads have arrived,” explains Macey. “Time as much as anything is the big thing; we are all doing multiple things, multiple jobs. The time savings are essential.”

Making the Complex Ordinary

DALIM TWIST also pushes out files for Bonnier’s digital platforms, taking complex workflows and making them an ordinary part of the process.

“We’ve had an iPad app for about two years,” explains Macey. “After we process our final print PDFs, TWIST optimizes the iPad files, taking each title, its specific trim size and process, and outputting jpegs for iPad pages. Because all magazine trim sizes are different, we need to calculate the reduction for the iPad. Using TWIST, it is only done once, during initial setup; from that point on, TWIST takes over,” explains Macey.

“It would take an incredible amount of time to do everything manually,” says Macey. “We are able to build these complex workflows and, for the end user, it is a simple interface.”

The span of what TWIST can handle is also key. “Not only can it process multiple file formats, but it also takes on database integration for us,” says Macey. “It writes the data back into the database that we report on—edit pages, ads, and how many proofs, for example.”

Blanchard Systems, Bonnier’s systems integrator, was instrumental in the initial workflow setup, and is still significant to the operation. “They’re fantastic,” says Macey.

Adds Macey, “One of the best things about TWIST is that it is never down. I watch all the thousands of files of ads and editorial pages being processed. We’ve had very few problems, but whenever we do, Blanchard helps out. They remotely log in, fix it, and we’re on our way.

“Which is the way it has to be; TWIST drives all our production—it needs to be running.”