1. T
he publishing industry has evolved greatly in
the last few years, largely due to the changes
brought about by the Internet. Indeed, few
industries have been more impacted than
newspaper publishing.
Our client Johnston Press is a large regional
publisher in the United Kingdom with a portfolio
of 13 paid-for daily newspapers and more than
200 local newspapers, magazines and websites.
In addition, the company provides a raft of digital
services to small and medium-sized businesses.
Each month their various news brands touch the
lives of more than 29 million people and they have
one of the largest monthly digital audiences of any
UK regional publisher. As they already produce
quality content for their readers, this means
a huge opportunity for online advertising.
Transforming Johnston Press’
Service To Advertisers
INTRODUCTION

2. THE ADVERTISING CHALLENGE
Johnston Press need to deliver great ads across
multiple media while reducing the cost of managing
them and improving turnaround times. Given the
online competition for ad spend, they also need to
give their advertisers more visibility in the process
and outcomes. Other challenges were:
• Delivering well-designed ads that provide
a great experience for readers
• Selecting a production partner to allow them
to offer quality ads at a competitive price
• Ensuring that ads were uniformly represented
and visually similar whether on print or digital
Express KCS in collaboration with Wave2 moved
Johnston Press to an all-digital ad production
workflow. The solution unifies and automates
digital and print ad production, trafficking and
management. It comprises one system to manage
workflow, assets, approvals and creation of digital,
print and video ads. The client has access to well
designed ad templates from which to base their
brief, and can track and mark-up their creation.
It allows designs to be created more quickly and
work in progress to be tracked from any mobile
device, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The ad booking system is integrated with
Express KCS’s proprietary award-winning system,
MediaFerry, a cloud-based workflow management
platform. A graphic designer in India picks up
the order and creates the ad according to the
brief and the advertiser can view it in MediaFerry,
even as it’s being designed. When the design is
complete, the advertiser views, marks-up
or approves it and then the ad is pushed to
the publisher for publication on the appropriate
dates. All of this happens within MediaFerry.
MediaFerry is integrated with a powerful ad
creation and distribution platform from Wave2
to bring further efficiencies. This is a highly
flexible solution where ad creation and publishing
to different online inventories are automated.
Supporting all ad formats from simple print
classified ads to high-end digital formats, the Wave2
Publishing Platform streamlines the workflow and
improves deadlines. The solution also provides
advanced analytics capabilities allowing the client
to obtain detailed real-time analytics on the
performance of the ad.
The advertisers get access to high quality graphic
design without having to deal with layers of
manual process and the publisher is refocusing
their sales force staff and reducing expenses.
OUR SOLUTION
• Express KCS and Wav2 were able to help
reduce Johnston Press’ operational costs
• We were able to take resource management
issues off of their plate
• Advertisers get ads created by first-rate
designers
• Advertisers’ print and digital ads share
design aesthetic
• Dynamic feedback of click-through rate,
ad designs, highlighting those that are
most effective
OUR VALUE
Johnston Press have taken advantage
of both the cost savings of offshoring
and Express KCS’ and Wave2’s
technology leadership to address
the challenges of reducing the cost
of managing ads and being more
responsive to advertising requests.

3. ABOUT JOHNSTON PRESS
Johnston Press is one of the largest local and
regional multimedia organisations in the UK.
We provide news and information services to
local and regional communities through our
extensive portfolio of hundreds of publications
and websites.
Each month our news brands touch the lives of
more than 29m people across our publishing
regions, delivering extensive coverage of local
news, events and information. We offer national
and regional advertisers a highly successful
platform to link them directly with local audiences.
ABOUT EXPRESS KCS
Express KCS Inc. is a global, independent provider
of creative production services across print, online,
mobile and video platforms. The company provides
print and digital advertisement production, creative
design, pre-media, editorial services, website,
app development, and video post-production for
brand owners, retailers, newspaper and magazine
publishers, agencies and partners in North America
and Europe. Express KCS is ISO 9001 certified and
employs 400 people across two production centers
in India.
ABOUT WAVE2
Wave2 empowers companies to transition
traditional business models and replace them with
dynamic, automated solutions that significantly cut
production costs as well as generate new revenue
streams. Using state of the art technology,
Wave2’s solutions embrace web, mobile and
print and come supplied with a comprehensive
suite of integration tools that allow for seamless
integration within existing IT infrastructures.
+1 412 961 8160 (US) +44 (0) 203 318 3012 (UK) enquiries@expresskcs.com www.expresskcs.com