Quark announced today that Recruit Media Communications, Japan's largest publisher of business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) publications that span lifestyle, automotive, human resources, travel, and education industries, has moved to Quark Publishing System 8 and QuarkXPress 8 to publish the wedding magazine Zexy.
Zexy is a monthly magazine focused on all things associated with weddings that is distributed in 17 regions with the largest regional issue averaging 1,500 pages per month. Recruit Media Communications now uses over 1,000 QuarkXPress 8 licenses to design and layout the intricate content of the magazine – including remote access to its field sales team – while managing the publishing workflow and all of the graphic assets using Quark Publishing System 8.
Taku Asakura, head of the IT Solutions Section in the IT Solutions Development Department of Recruit Media Communications' Services Development Office, said of the project, "The following were considered essential requirements in implementing a new production system: first, the ability to create a system that could be used immediately, even by those unfamiliar with or with no knowledge of desktop publishing; second, the ability to swiftly create layouts according to predetermined designs; and third, the ability to coordinate with our existing production management systems and to establish workflows."
Asakura continued, "In particular, in order to create a system that could be used immediately, even by beginners without operational experience, it was important to limit the many functions that come with desktop publishing software to just the necessary ones, to be able to delete unnecessary functions from the menu, and to have an API that could automate complex processes.
"Throughout the development period, we received flexible and conscientious technical support in response to our questions and requests, with everything from providing sample business logic code to server configurations."
To maintain the integrity of a substantial magazine like Zexy, Recruit Media Communications required a customized layout and workflow system that could control design rules while optimizing efficiency and enabling automation. Quark worked with Recruit Media Communications to customize a QuarkXPress user interface accessed through Quark Publishing System that makes it easy for design and content teams to adhere to the templates required for the magazine's layout. By integrating Quark Publishing System with Recruit Media Communications' asset management technology, contributors to the magazine can also easily access approved image and illustration assets.
With Quark's dynamic publishing technology, Recruit Media Communications has streamlined its publishing workflow and increased efficiency significantly. In addition, the implementation of Quark Publishing System and QuarkXPress has enabled:
-Automation and Collaboration: QuarkXPress 8 and Quark Publishing System provide a real-time workflow environment. Layout data created in QuarkXPress 8 can be partitioned and different project team members can carry out work simultaneously on components of text and images. Because Quark Job Jackets in QuarkXPress 8 is linked with Quark Publishing System, once content has been created by team members and their assigned tasks are complete, it can be automatically checked for initial production specifications. This reduces backtracking after a task is already complete and prevents any printing errors. Also, Quark Publishing System and QuarkXPress Server together make it possible to automatically process data in various ways using preinstalled scripts. Recruit Media Communication's system uses this function in the final stage to automatically forward already edited typesetting data for pagination, the next step in the process.
- Control: Quark Job Jackets in QuarkXPress 8 enable the transformation of production specifications set by the project director into file data for sharing with project team members. Details on usable fonts, styles, colors, and image quality are provided as rules, fulfilling Recruit Media Communications' requirement for standardization and simplification, while also reducing errors and costs associated with error correction.
- Extensibility: Quark Publishing System is a Java-based system with an open architecture, which offers Recruit Media Communications a highly flexible solution that is easily integrated with other systems.
- Accessibility: Using QPS Web Hub, team members can access work and advance projects from remote locations in real time using just a Web browser. This allows for an environment that makes it easy for additional project team members to participate in the creation of content, even if they are in remote locations or do not have desktop publishing on their local computers.
Quark's sales director for Japan, Shinichi Yamashita, said, "I would like to express my appreciation to Recruit Media for selecting Quark for such a high-profile project with a recognized and respected leader in magazine publishing in Japan. The project involved full migration from a third party desktop publishing solution. Forward-thinking initiatives like this one are exactly the types of dynamic solutions that professional and corporate publishers must invest in to remain competitive in today's multi-channel world. Quark will continue to actively help the publishing and printing industries, plus a wide variety of other Japanese companies, to disseminate information through various media, including print, e-books, the Internet and mobile devices."
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