McClatchy awards print production deal to Express KCS

June 30, 2010 - PRLog -- Sacramento, CA – The McClatchy Company, the third-largest newspaper publisher in the USA, has selected Express KCS as the sole supplier for its company-wide print advertising production needs.
Express KCS, a leading independent media backoffice provider, has been working with some McClatchy newspapers since mid-2007 and was successful in winning the exclusive deal through its proven track record of high quality work, efficiency and consistent performance, underpinned by an innovative workflow solution.
Dan Dowis, McClatchy director of shared services, said the company wanted to simplify advertising production workflows and gain the maximum advantage from working with a single partner.  “The workflow Express KCS provides will help us to better share our resources across the company,” he said. “The hosted solution also helps reduce the cost of management systems, which contributes to our ongoing drive to increase efficiency.”
Robert Berkeley, CEO, Express KCS, said the company was delighted to consolidate its relationship with the media group.  “We have worked with McClatchy for three years and we consider the relationship to be more like a partnership, where our focus on quality and success is directly linked to theirs.”
“I’m delighted that we will be an ongoing part of the McClatchy story as they have the vision and strength to continue to build business in a changing, multimedia world,” Mr Berkeley said.  
A key factor in winning the contract has been the deployment of StudioOnline, Express KCS’s online workflow collaboration suite, for those newspapers which use external production.  It will help the smooth transfer of content and materials between advertisers, newspaper advertising booking systems and Express KCS, with volumes likely to reach up to 500,000 advertisements per year.  
Mr Berkeley said that Express KCS’s world-class cloud computing tool allows clients and studios alike to work simultaneously in a secure environment, easily managing large volumes of work, with full control of assets. “StudioOnline can integrate the production flows for businesses of any size, from the large properties with complex needs, such as The Miami Herald, to smaller, dispersed community titles,” he said.
About Express KCS
Express KCS is a leading independent provider of media-related backoffice functions, including creative design, advertising production, copy development and editing, multimedia publishing, image editing, packaging prepress, metadata management and manipulation, premedia, and web-based technology solutions. The firm maintains offices, and services clients, in North America, the UK, the Middle East and Australia and an ISO 9001 certified production center in Gurgaon, India.  For more than 40 years, the company has served the creative and agency markets. Their client base now includes some of the world’s leading media companies, agencies, publishers, FMCG companies and corporations.

About The McClatchy Company
The McClatchy Company is the third largest newspaper company in the United States, publishing 30 daily newspapers, 43 non-dailies, and direct marketing and direct mail operations. McClatchy also operates leading local websites in each of its markets which extend its audience reach. The websites offer users comprehensive news and information, advertising, e-commerce and other services. Together with its newspapers and direct marketing products, these interactive operations make McClatchy the leading local media company in each of its premium high growth markets. McClatchy-owned newspapers include The Miami Herald, The Sacramento Bee, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Kansas City Star, The Charlotte Observer, and The News & Observer (Raleigh). McClatchy also owns a portfolio of premium digital assets, including 14.4% of CareerBuilder, the nation's largest online job site, 25.6% of Classified Ventures, a newspaper industry partnership that offers two of the nation's premier classified websites: the auto website, cars.com, and the rental site, Apartments.com and 33.3% of HomeFinder, LLC which operates the real estate website HomeFinder.com.

Contacts
Duane Alexander, VP of Global Marketing and Sales, Express KCS
+1 412 961 8160
+44 (0) 20 3318 3012
http://www.expresskcs.com/contact.php

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Express KCS is the leading provider of creative and premedia services to agencies, media groups and corporations worldwide. StudioOnline is our secure, in-the-cloud, easy-to-use workflow and asset management system.