Press Center
Express-Expansion Group to Adopt Quark Publishing System 7
Political Weekly L'Express to Upgrade to Quark Publishing System 7 to Realize New Benefits in its Editorial Workflow System
PARIS - 1/10/2008 -
The Express-Expansion Group has announced that the
editorial team at the weekly magazine L’Express is currently testing Quark
Publishing System® (QPS®) 7, the latest version of Quark’s editorial workflow
system, with the intention of adopting it permanently in the next few months.
Founded in 1953, the magazine started using QuarkXPress layout software in
the early days of desktop publishing. To maintain consistency and ensure the
publishing process was both well run and secure, in 1998 the Express Group
adopted QPS. Since its original implementation of QPS, the Express-Expansion
Group has adopted regular updates of the workflow system. L’Express and Styles,
its magazine supplement, are created using QPS 3.6.
QPS 7: A Strategic Vision Given the confidence the Express-Expansion
Group had in the original publishing system, they decided to test QPS 7, which
has been re-engineered and re-architected to offer its users a new level of
freedom in the way they approach their work.
“It’s an evolution, not to mention a revolution, because QPS 7 is just what
we’ve been waiting for,” explained Thierry Bérard, IT director for the
Express-Expansion Group. “Thanks to the system’s open architecture, it is at
last possible to have an interface between QPS 7 and other systems.”
As an example, Express-Expansion Group is looking to use Journal Designer, a
Dataplan solution, for managing thumbnails with QPS 7 in order to have a global
application that can manage production flows that include page layouts,
thumbnails, and follow up. The Dataplan tool is due to be used either with
QuarkXPress for all the other publications equipped with QuarkXPress 7 or as an
automatic interface with QPS 7 for L’Express.
QPS 7: Technological and Operational Benefits QPS 7 affords its users
a host of new benefits. “First, it is a great time saver because of the
automation,” said Bérard. “We can incorporate existing systems into its open
architecture, in particular integrating it easily with the Dataplan interface.”
Bérard also emphasized the stability of this new platform for users who are
working with QuarkXPress 7 on Mac Intel machines. He continued, “The combination
of Mac Intel, OS X, QPS 7, QuarkXPress 7 and Dataplan is a huge ‘value add’ for
the Express-Expansion Group in terms of technological and operational benefits.”
The magazine’s numerous contributors also appreciate the flexibility of the
new system, citing its enhanced layer and transparency management, the
redesigned user interface and the fact that content providers can work on the
layout through a simple client or a Web browser.
“Today, L’Express employs about 120 people, and QPS 7 is the solution for the
secure management of all our workflows,” concluded Bérard.
“The challenge of L’Express magazine, and of its supplement, Styles, was to
keep an editorial workflow as close as possible to the one the customer has used
for several years, while providing new opportunities in the publishing process,”
explained Gildas Duval, Quark sales manager for Southern Europe. “Opportunities
include cross-media publishing, a collaborative workflow and easy integration
with page planning, ad booking and other systems. QPS 7 offers all of these
benefits, based on an open, flexible architecture and an intuitive Web
interface.”
About the Express-Expansion Group The Express-Expansion Group produces
20 publications — magazines and internal newsletters — as well as numerous
special issues. The Group also organizes forums and trade fairs. Its online
activities include eight Web sites with free or subscriber services that offer
advertising opportunities. It also produces approximately 100 practical guides
every year in a variety of fields, including training, professions, recruitment,
management, and asset management. www.groupe-expansion.com
About Quark Quark Inc. (www.quark.com) is an innovative software
company providing design, production, and collaboration solutions that are
transforming the business of creative communications. Quark has provided
award-winning software for professional publishers since its flagship product,
QuarkXPress, changed the course of traditional publishing. Denver-based Quark
Inc. is privately held.
# # #
Quark, the Quark logo, QuarkXPress, and Quark Publishing System are
trademarks or registered trademarks of Quark, Inc. and its affiliates in the
U.S. and/or other countries. All other marks are the property of their
respective owners.
Contact: Sarah Rector, Quark Inc., srector@quark.com, 303-894-3753