woodwing

Tokyo felt like muggy mid-August last Friday, September 16th, as WoodWing Gold Partner Visual Processing Japan (VPJ) hosted their VPJ Solution Symposium inside the cool and comfortable Conrad Hotel Tokyo near Shinbashi station. Three hundred publishing industry professionals from throughout Japan attended the event which opened with an inspiring keynote by WoodWing CEO Hans Janssen.

http://www.vpj.co.jp/vpjsympo/ (Japanese only)

Following Hans’s demonstration of the exciting new world of interactive publications, Mr. Fuyuki Ban, head of magazine publisher Hearst Fujingaho’s Production Department, came on stage to talk about a recent and very real revolution inside his company: Their newly implemented WoodWing Enterprise publishing system. Over one hundred editors and thirty production staff at Hearst Fujingaho work with over fifty outside design companies to produce the print editions of Elle Japon, 25ans, Mens Club, Modern Living and other market-leading Japanese fashion magazines. Established in 1989, the Tokyo-based publisher had previously relied heavily on print proofs, file transfer services and motorcycle couriers to meet deadlines. The fragmented yet tight-knit, highly disciplined nature of the Tokyo publishing community has sustained this essentially manual workflow to an almost irrational extent, but the need to compete in media beyond paper--web, mobile phones, and tablets--are straining it to the breaking point.

Thanks to VPJ’s expert integration services, Mr. Ban and his team successfully implemented the WoodWing Enterprise system across Hearst Fujingaho’s entire editorial and print production workflow. With VPJ Technical Director Mr. Ryo Harada assisting with demos, Mr. Ban showed how replacing traditional file-based production with a true workflow system improved both reliability and speed of their processes. A particular highlight was how much easier it was to get editors to use InCopy. Although there was the usual disgruntled push-back and some veteran hold-outs amongst the editors, especially those used to pen-on-paper editing not wanting to take on the responsibility of typing final copy, the adoption of InCopy by the editorial staff went very smoothly thanks to WoodWing’s Smart Connection technology and Enterprise’s InCopy article routing functionality. The system Mr. Ban manages has become one of the largest InCopy installations in Japan.

Now that all text, image and layout assets are managed in WoodWing Enterprise as discrete digital assets, the stage is set for multi-channel print, web and tablet publishing at Hearst Fujingaho. There has been a lot of chatter over the years about this concept but very few in the Japanese magazine publishing industry have invested in the systems necessary to making it happen, relying on the sweat equity of an increasingly overwhelmed workforce instead. With the foundation in place to stay profitable while taking advantage of all these new opportunities, Hearst Fujingaho can now focus on building its future.