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The perfect solution: Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. finds great success with WoodWing Software’s Smart Magazines.

When one of the largest and most prestigious magazine publishers in the world set out to find a better, more efficient editorial solution, it knew exactly what it was looking for. The new editorial system needed to be extremely versatile and powerful. It needed to offer a greatly improved workflow. And it needed to come with an impeccable track record.

Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. knew precisely what it needed in a new editorial system. And in every respect, WoodWing Software’s Smart Magazines fit the bill.

The customer
Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. is the New York-headquartered subsidiary of Hachette Filipacchi Médias. HFM U.S. reaches nearly 50 million readers in the U.S. through its 17 titles, which include American Photo, Boating, Car and Driver, Cycle World, ELLE, ELLE Decor, ELLEgirl, Flying, Home, Metropolitan Home, Mobile Entertainment, Popular Photography & Imaging, Premiere, Road & Track, Sound & Vision, Woman’s Day, and Woman’s Day Special Interest Publications. HFM U.S. also includes custom publishing, integrated marketing, database and market research as well as Hachette Enterprises. Hachette Filipacchi Médias is a subsidiary of Lagardère SCA.

A change in technology
The editorial team at HFM U.S. had been using Quark Xpress* and QPS* to produce its publications, but decided early in 2005 to switch to the Adobe Creative Suite of applications, including InDesign. When the decision was made to move to a better, more efficient system, the information services team at HFM U.S. started searching for the best editorial solution on the market. It didn’t take long to discover WoodWing.

HFM U.S. first started using Smart Magazines in the summer of 2005 to produce Popular Photography & Imaging, one of its 17 titles. The implementation was executed by DPCI, a New York-based technology services firm and WoodWing partner in North America. The Popular Photography & Imaging implementation not only proved that Smart Magazines was the right choice for HFM U.S., but also gave WoodWing and DPCI a chance to demonstrate that their blended customer service offering and responsiveness was an unbeatable combination.

Expanding the installations
Once the editorial team at HFM U.S. saw how well Smart Magazines was working with Popular Photography & Imaging, the editorial solution was installed in all its offices, allowing all 17 HFM U.S. titles to be produced using the WoodWing system. Officials from HFM U.S. discovered that Smart Magazines was the real deal.

“WoodWing’s Smart Magazines is a well-designed, modern and scalable editorial system,” said Tom Kawecki, Director of Information Services at HFM U.S. “It eases the digitization of our workflows and streamlines information flow between numerous groups at HFM U.S. Integration of Smart Magazines with our existing systems will present further opportunities of promoting our brands.”

A track record of success
Officials at WoodWing had no doubts that Smart Magazines would be the right solution for HFM U.S. Since coming on the market in early 2004, it took just over a year for  Smart Magazines to reach its 100th installation — an amazing accomplishment in such a short amount of time. As the industry’s most popular database-driven editorial solution, WoodWing's Content Publishing Platform (which is the basis for Smart Magazines) is in use around the globe. Publishers on five continents — magazines, newspapers, custom publications and more — have become sold on its power, versatility and efficiency.

What makes it such a powerful system is that it’s the only generic editorial solution that offers three-tier architecture. WoodWing Software President Erik Schut points out that because it’s available in so many languages — English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portugese, Spanish, and more — it’s helped Enterprise become a truly global phenomenon. It’s in use at publications of all types and sizes, so WoodWing officials were confident that it would be a terrific fit at HFM U.S. And that’s exactly how it worked out.

“We’re very excited that we were able to meet all the needs and expectations of Hachette Filipacchi,” said Brian Kruger, CEO of WoodWing USA. “They publish some of the best and most prestigious titles in the industry, so we knew their standards were extremely high. Their company is first-class in every way, and we’re thrilled that Smart Magazines is working so well for them.”