Time Out commits to QuarkXPress and Quark technology platform with upgrade to latest version of Quark Publishing System

PRESS RELEASE

Time Out Group looks to the future by com­mit­ting to Quark

LONDON – October 5, 2006 – Quark Inc. announced today that Time Out Group, a lead­ing inter­na­tion­al brand and pub­lish­er of the huge­ly pop­u­lar Time Out mag­a­zine, guide books, and www​.time​out​.com, has cho­sen to update its exist­ing pub­lish­ing sys­tem by upgrad­ing to the lat­est ver­sion of the Quark Publishing System (QPS), a deci­sion that rep­re­sents a sig­nif­i­cant com­mit­ment to Quark tech­nol­o­gy. The Time Out Group has been suc­cess­ful­ly using QPS through­out its busi­ness for more than 10 years to pro­duce a large range of titles, and due to the company’s rapid and con­tin­u­ing expan­sion it required a sys­tem that would meet the future demands of its ever-increasing portfolio. 

Time Out Group, which required a pow­er­ful and flex­i­ble sys­tem that could adapt to the spe­cif­ic require­ments of the busi­ness, pro­duces a range of pub­li­ca­tions, includ­ing the pop­u­lar city guides and eat­ing guides as well as the week­ly mag­a­zines, and has con­tin­ued to extend its brand through its Web site and numer­ous licens­ing agree­ments for Time Out mag­a­zines across the world.

Automatrix plc, a lead­ing solu­tion provider to the adver­tis­ing, cre­ative, and pub­lish­ing sec­tors and a long time inte­gra­tor of QPS, will work to seam­less­ly inte­grate the new sys­tem into the exist­ing infra­struc­ture, pro­vid­ing Time Out with an enter­prise solu­tion to man­age its con­tent across all print and elec­tron­ic media. QPS will enable Time Out to pro­vide easy access to remote users, assist with the syn­di­ca­tion of con­tent, and improve work­flow across its many publications.

“The deci­sion to upgrade our sys­tem gave us the oppor­tu­ni­ty to eval­u­ate a num­ber of com­pet­i­tive prod­ucts on the mar­ket, includ­ing K4 and InDesign. However, after thor­ough analy­sis, we are con­vinced that the com­bi­na­tion of QPS and QuarkXPress is the ide­al solu­tion for Time Out. A key fac­tor for us is our belief in the direc­tion of the QPS solu­tion, which we are con­fi­dent will offer us long-term ben­e­fits with its next-generation technology,” said Simon Chappell, group IT direc­tor, Time Out.

“Time Out is fast becom­ing the world’s first tru­ly inter­na­tion­al list­ings and enter­tain­ment infor­ma­tion resource; there­fore, the enhanced XML capa­bil­i­ty of QPS is extreme­ly impor­tant for our con­tent repur­pos­ing and multi-channel pub­lish­ing strat­e­gy. We want­ed to con­tin­ue using QPS not just because we are famil­iar with the prod­uct, but because we have always found it reli­able and easy to use. There are huge sav­ings to be made by choos­ing QPS, as the exist­ing knowl­edge of our user base will reduce train­ing costs and the need to invest in new tech­nol­o­gy and hardware,” Chappell said.

Max Lyth, tech­nol­o­gy direc­tor at Automatrix plc, said, “We are delight­ed that this oppor­tu­ni­ty will allow us to strength­en and con­sol­i­date our rela­tion­ship with Time Out and Quark. Time Out has become a high­ly data-rich organ­i­sa­tion, and their com­mit­ment to an XML-driven strat­e­gy has result­ed in a solu­tion that will pro­vide a ful­ly inte­grat­ed edi­to­r­i­al and pro­duc­tion work­flow, con­tent man­age­ment, Web site devel­op­ment, and con­tent syndication.”

Ed Ewing, sales direc­tor of Quark, Northern Europe, said, “Having a glob­al brand like Time Out com­mit to the Quark pub­lish­ing plat­form is tes­ta­ment to its pow­er and flex­i­bil­i­ty and demon­strates their con­fi­dence in the future poten­tial of the solu­tion. Time Out recog­nis­es the impor­tance of invest­ing in a sys­tem that will improve pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and effi­cien­cy now, and will also address future changes and challenges.”

About Time Out

About Time Out London
Time Out was found­ed in 1968 by its chair­man Tony Elliott who still owns the Time Out Group. Time Out London is pub­lished week­ly on Wednesdays priced at £2.50. Strong edi­to­r­i­al integri­ty and defin­i­tive, inde­pen­dent­ly sourced list­ings have earned the Time Out brand inter­na­tion­al respect and recog­ni­tion as a reli­able source of infor­ma­tion to mil­lions across the world.

About time​out​.com/​london
time​out​.com launched in 1995 and now con­tains infor­ma­tion tak­en from all Time Out titles. Content includes over 3,000 nation­al eat­ing and drink­ing reviews, 12,000 film reviews, fea­tures, week­ly updat­ed London list­ings, com­pe­ti­tions, offers and great deals on all titles via time​out​.com/shop offers, show­ing that the Web site is as com­mit­ted to deliv­er­ing tar­get­ed cul­tur­al infor­ma­tion as are all the group’s print­ed titles.

About the Time Out Group
The Time Out Group Ltd now pub­lish­es over 120 titles world­wide, includ­ing 19 mag­a­zines and 97 guides.

About Automatrix
Automatrix plc was estab­lished in 1993. From the out­set, Automatrix has focused on a sin­gle activ­i­ty devel­op­ing and deliv­er­ing the best tech­nol­o­gy solu­tions to com­mer­cial & cor­po­rate pub­lish­ers, design con­sul­tan­cies and adver­tis­ing agen­cies. We have gained an envi­able rep­u­ta­tion as one of Europe’s most respect­ed devel­op­ers and sys­tem inte­gra­tors ser­vic­ing the cre­ative and pub­lish­ing sectors.

About Quark
Quark Inc. (euro​.quark​.com) is an inno­v­a­tive soft­ware com­pa­ny pro­vid­ing design, pro­duc­tion, and col­lab­o­ra­tion solu­tions that are trans­form­ing the busi­ness of cre­ative com­mu­ni­ca­tions. Quark has pro­vid­ed award-winning soft­ware for pro­fes­sion­al pub­lish­ers since its flag­ship prod­uct, QuarkXPress, changed the course of tra­di­tion­al pub­lish­ing. Founded in 1981, Denver-based Quark Inc. is pri­vate­ly held.
For more infor­ma­tion on QPS please vis­it (euro​.quark​.com/​en/qps)