For Keeps?A Digital Asset Management To-do List

The Quark file is missing, your advertiser's asking which format to send, and your publisher just informed you that the anniversary issue is due tomorrow. Do you search haphazardly through old file cabinets looking for reusable scans? Or do you subscribe to a better form of asset management before the proverbial waste hits the cooling device?Like Dickens' ghosts, experts recently delivered testament about DAM's past, present and future. During a Women in Production luncheon, several speakers explained the do's and don'ts of DAM. The following is a checklist of some unofficial rules for the digital road:Think Long term. Determine your needs, study a variety of DAM solutions and then choose one. Kathy Sandler, manager, training and information services, Hearst Magazines, warns that converting to digital will initially cost money, but eventually, publishers will not only save cost, but make money. At Condé Nast, for instance, the magazine publisher found ways of generating new revenue from some old assets. Owen Weekley, production manager, Condé Nast, says collectors spend a lot of money on vintage covers of The New Yorker. Hollywood studios also have a vested interest in seeing what the good old days really looked like from antique photography. When you go digital, be creative, Weekley suggests. Creative potential exists for publications with a famous arsenal of assets, as well as publications simply sharing content across issues, editions and divisions. For catalogers, DAM can mean creating a database wherein one office can trade content with another, without having to practice hand-holding (editors can browse and choose content independent of the corporate office), there is also no risk losing files via traditional shipping methods. No matter how you decide to organize your assets, agree Weekley and Sandler, there's still debate about who decides which solution to integrate and who should run the show.Appoint a ringmaster. Kirk Booth, director of operations, Avon Products, thinks IT should stay out of DAM since editorial more often than not, manipulates content. In contrast, Readers Digest's Laura Capasso-Fiorenza, insists that the IT/production marriage is crucial when it comes to serving up content from tech to editorial. Whoever plays watchdog, Roy Zucca, an industry consultant, emphasizes standardization, a practice that's gained momentum in recent years. Organizations such as the Graphic Communications Association, Digital Distribution of Advertising for Publication, Graphic Arts Technical Foundation and Women in Production help to get publishers, catalogers and agencies on the same page, even if in-house management has different digital drivers.In or out? Truth is, many publishers want to the be masters of their DAM domain. Since 1997, for instance, Readers Digest went from having off-site digital management to implementing a global in-house system with WAVE Corporation's MediaBank solution. Capasso-Fiorenza suggests that publication size, staffing and future objectives should dictate whether to self-manage assets or outsource. The more a publisher works with files, she counsels, the clearer the choice to in- or outsource will become.Andrea Van Benschoten, prepress analyst, Cahners Business Information, admits that while the Des Plaines, IL-based facility similarly opted for MediaBank, Cahners' operation in Morris Plains, NJ, still prefers an informal in-house solution, at least until its CTP conversion is complete. Ongoing concerns persist. Even if a solution's been implemented, the asset story doesn't end. At Avon, Booth admits Envoy's DAM solution was chosen for one main reason—to repurpose files to international divisions. The process, Booth brags, is a success. He claims the cataloger was losing revenue by shipping CD-ROMs around the world. Instead, files are now checked in and out of a central repository so that each Avon catalog division can use the same product shot as the U.S. headquarters. Zucca suggests that education for publishers and ad agencies is what separates good DAM from bad DAM. Not only will archiving and repurposing become more manageable when publishers and advertisers devise an electronic pipeline allowing them to quickly and effectively exchange digital files—of content and business data.-Natalie Hope McDonald

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For Keeps?A Digital Asset Management To-do List

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