The Era of the Communications Provider

In today's marketplace, it is important that print providers offer more than just printed product. Print providers must transform their businesses into communications providers, offering a suite of services that encompass multiple forms of media.

Customers are no longer looking to their printer as simply another vendor for a static brochure or magazine; today's savvy customers are looking for a business partner that understands their business and can play the part of marketing consultant. The customer wants the printer to ask questions, analyze their business needs, and respond with recommendations for the best choice of printed, web-enabled and other products and services that make their businesses more successful.

Web-Enabled Services

An obvious alternate media for many customers is the web (as in world-wide web).

During a typical production cycle of a magazine, a great deal of effort and expense is expended to generate content. Then, that time and expense is often nearly duplicated to re-purpose the content into usable forms for the web (graphic file formats, PDF to HTML, etc.).

Since the files submitted to the printer must be refined to meet precise specifications required for the printing process, why not re-purpose those same files for alternate media such as the web at the same time? The print provider is in a unique position to provide this service to its customers.

That is precisely the thought process behind Hagadone Printing Company's Hawaii Digital Library; the files that are used for print are re-purposed into web-optimized media. Those assets are then added to a database-driven application that generates the required web pages. In the case of Hawaii Digital Library, the web site generation is fully automated, allowing the publications to be posted to the internet before, after, or about the same time that the printed product is delivered to the customer, at the customer's option.

Hawaii Digital Library offers publishers a unique competitive advantage. The site is visited 3,000% more often than Hagadone's own web site, for example, with visitors from all over the world (with an especially strong following from the mainland US and Japan). The site offers many features. Both English and Japanese versions are available (see Japanese Guide to Hawaii, for example) and the site allows each publisher to have its own "independent site", separate from all other publications (see Homes and Land of Honolulu and Oahu or Gecko Group).

Erwin Hudelist
President, Hagadone Printing Company