InDesign-Based K4 Replaces QPS at GONG Verlag

K4 Publishing System replaces QPS System at German publisher GONG Verlag - SNAP Innovation supplies integration with issue planning, archive and ePaper solutions

Press Release

HAMBURG, Germany–(QUARKvsINDESIGN.COM)–February 17th, 2005–German pub­lish­ing house GONG Verlag has com­mis­sioned SNAP Innovation GmbH to move pro­duc­tion of their mag­a­zines to a pro­duc­tion work­flow using Adobe Creative Suite and SoftCare’s K4 Publishing System. The con­tract was signed in December 2004. This instal­la­tion replaces a work­flow built on the Quark Publishing System (QPS) and QuarkXPress.

Implementation of the new sys­tem began in January 2005. The assign­ment com­pris­es the sup­ply and inte­gra­tion of Dataplan’s page plan­ning sys­tem JournalDesigner in addi­tion to K4 Publishing System, as well as SNAP e@sypaper for archiv­ing and auto­mat­ic ePaper pro­duc­tion. An inter­face to the com­mer­cial sys­tem VM (Verlagsmanager) of muellerPrange GmbH & Co​.KG allows GONG Verlag to inte­grate com­mer­cial data with the tech­ni­cal work­flow for the first time.

Edwin Örtel, IT man­ag­er at GONG Verlag explains the rea­sons for replac­ing QPS with K4: “This new solu­tion responds per­fect­ly to our needs con­cern­ing mod­ern pro­duc­tion. The tech­nol­o­gy pro­vides a database-driven pro­duc­tion with seam­less and trans­par­ent inte­gra­tion of the entire pub­lish­ing process from ad man­age­ment to con­tent syn­di­ca­tion. We expect a high lev­el of improve­ment as the inte­gra­tion of ads, edi­to­r­i­al, graph­ic, repro and con­tent syn­di­ca­tion depart­ments leads to sig­nif­i­cant cost sav­ings. Thanks to the sys­tem’s mod­u­lar com­po­si­tion the changes can take place grad­u­al­ly. The prod­uct strat­e­gy is clear­ly com­mu­ni­cat­ed by the sup­pli­ers and is based on inter­na­tion­al com­put­ing stan­dards while the licens­ing pol­i­cy meets publishersËœ needs.”

“GONG’s deci­sion clear­ly shows that the Adobe tech­nol­o­gy and the K4 Publishing System have become a new stan­dard for pro­fes­sion­al pub­lish­ing work­flows. This is due in part to the stan­dard­ized data­base inter­faces which enable the inte­gra­tion of all pub­lish­ing process­es with just a small cus­tomiz­ing effort,” says SNAP sales man­ag­er Paul Hörbelt. Since 1999, the K4 Publishing System has been suc­cess­ful­ly deployed at mag­a­zines, news­pa­pers and oth­er sites such as German pub­lish­ing group Milchstrasse, FOCUS, Playboy, Capital, Time Out New York and Metro Newspapers with more than 60 sys­tems sold.

About K4 Publishing System
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The award-winning K4 Publishing System has become a stan­dard for pro­fes­sion­al pub­lish­ing work­flows built around Adobe InDesign and Adobe InCopy. With its mul­ti­level secu­ri­ty con­trols, ease of use, and robust cus­tomiza­tion options, K4 sup­ports a trans­par­ent and secure pro­duc­tion work­flow for indi­vid­ual work­groups or entire pub­lish­ing enter­pris­es. K4 offers full sup­port for template-based, text-driven and layout-driven work­flows, simul­ta­ne­ous work­flow between lay­out and edi­to­r­i­al, work­flow rout­ing, sta­tus track­ing, remote access and much more. K4 pro­vides work­flow capa­bil­i­ties for images and ads, as well as for oth­er file types such as word pro­cess­ing or spread­sheet files. One of the hall­marks of K4 is its open SQL inter­face, enabling oth­er sys­tems such as asset man­age­ment or auto­mat­ed pre­press to be linked to K4 with­in the enter­prise. Articles are stored in XML for­mat and can be eas­i­ly repur­posed for use on the Web. K4 has been suc­cess­ful­ly imple­ment­ed at mag­a­zine, news­pa­per and book pub­lish­ing sites rang­ing in size from less than 10 to more than 250 users.

About GONG Verlag
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GONG is one of the biggest German mag­a­zine pub­lish­ing hous­es, pub­lish­ing titles rang­ing from TV chan­nel pub­li­ca­tions and the marketËœs lead­ing ani­mal mag­a­zine, to wom­en’s titles, cross­word puz­zle and nov­el mag­a­zines. Some of the best-known mag­a­zines are TV direkt, Gong, BILD + FUNK, die aktuelle, die 2 and EIN HERZ für TIERE. Only recent­ly, three mag­a­zines (SUPER TV, nur TV and Aquarium) were licensed by oth­er pub­lish­ers. All in all, 28 reg­is­tered titles at the German mag­a­zine asso­ci­a­tion are pub­lished at GONG.

About SNAP Innovation
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SNAP Innovation GmbH was found­ed in February 1996 and employs today 20 peo­ple. From its start, SNAP Innovation has con­cen­trat­ed its activ­i­ty on client/server tech­nol­o­gy and data-processing in the print-media indus­try. SNAP focus­es on the devel­op­ment and sales of client/server data­base tech­nol­o­gy, spe­cial­iz­ing in inter- and intranet sys­tems. Today SNAP works with a num­ber of promi­nent nation­al and inter­na­tion­al com­pa­nies all over Europe and in the United States. SoftCare (Germany), Merlin (Germany), AO International (Belgium), Sinedita (Italy) and Vertical Systems (Sweden) are among them. Together with its part­ners, SNAP has pro­vid­ed solu­tions for cus­tomers such as Apple Computer, Cisco, Sun Microsystems and ITS Travel. In the pub­lish­ing area, com­pa­nies and news­pa­pers such as pub­lish­ing group Milchstrasse, KircherBurkhardt Berlin, De Lloyd N.V. (Antwerp), Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung, Leipziger Volkszeitung, Schwäbische Zeitung and Kölner Express rely on SNAP solutions. 

About SoftCare
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SoftCare was found­ed in 1990 and is a lead­ing devel­op­er of work­flow solu­tions for the pub­lish­ing indus­try, help­ing mag­a­zine and news­pa­per pub­lish­ers work more effi­cient­ly. SoftCare’s flag­ship prod­uct is the award-winning K4 Publishing System, the first edi­to­r­i­al sys­tem for pro­fes­sion­al pub­lish­ing work­flows based on Adobe InDesign and Adobe InCopy. SoftCare teams up with trained K4 System Integrators through­out Europe and the Americas to ensure high-quality ser­vices and sup­port for the sys­tem on a local level.