When Producing Better Magazines Actually Costs Less

censhare customers are a fine group of people, and among some of the most innovative, thought leading names in their industries. Not least of these is Danish publisherEgmont, which has diversified over the years to become a leading and award winning Nordic media group with 100+ years of success. We uncover part of this journey through the words of current Publishing Director, Marianne Gram, and discover how censhare has and continues to support organizational changes.

Feeling the Squeeze

Aside from the problems encountered by publishers all over the world caused by the rise of the digital at the turn of the century, magazines in Scandinavian countries had a further hurdle to overcome: a much smaller addressable readership than in countries like the UK or Germany, because relatively few people speak the language. Danish publishers might sell 10,000 issues where a UK equivalent would sell 100,000. So, the need to stay profitable has meant that some publishers had to become a lot leaner a lot faster than others.

Egmont saw its chance to diversify and took it. It recognized that the world of media was changing rapidly and decided that the only to grow was to diversify to include subsidiaries, joint ventures and acquisitions which will still be relevant to its established magazine audiences, whilst keeping its magazines as profitable as possible.

Marianne Gram, now Publishing Director for Egmont, started as a trainee journalist in the late 80s and could feel the print industry slowing down even then. She joined Egmont in 2010 and today, digital innovation and new technologies are part of every aspect of the business. The media group still aims to tell stories which inspire, but they now do so via hundreds of subsidiaries across the world covering not only print publishing, but also media such as film, TV, ecommerce, digital marketing, and gaming - the group is seriously diverse!

Tightening Purse Strings & Streamlining Processes

Egmont is handling the decline in print revenues by optimizing what it already has - automating much of its production in censhare and placing a focus on the reuse of content wherever possible. Magazine layouts, for example, used to take artists hours, and they would often need reworking multiple times as decisions on images and copy changed during production. This previously outsourced layout process was brought back in house and automate - templates were set up in censhare and handle 70% of pages across its 13 titles.

This has freed its employees time from consuming, deadline driven activities and significantly increasing the quality of their output and consequently, the quality of the end product.

Costs Down, Quality Up

As it acquires new companies that will be relevant to its established audiences, retaining readers is key for Egmont and this is exactly what it is able to do thanks to its creatives now having the time to spend time on things which make the difference - like attending photo shoots or working on magazine refreshes to keep brands as relevant as possible for as long as possible. And despite reducing the cost of producing them, Marianne says that the magazines have never looked better.

You can read the Egmont success story here.