Sept. 8, 2009 — Gannett consolidating ad production at 2 sites

Gannett Co. Inc. will consolidate ad production of its 83 U.S. Community Publishing newspapers at two new ad production centers to be located at the Des Moines (Iowa) Register and Indianapolis Star.
The transition, to begin this fall, will concentrate the bulk of U.S. Community Publishing’s ad production and prepress activities at the two newspapers. The full rollout will be completed in 2011.
Gannett will use DPS Inc.’s AdTracker enterprise edition software to underpin the centers. Sixty Gannett papers already use the software, according to Scott Waschitz, DPS’ vice president of development and client services.
Documents posted on the Gannettoid.com Web site said undisclosed staff reductions will occur as a result of the consolidation, but both The Register and The Star reported they expect to add employees once the new centers are fully operational.
The creation of the ad production centers mirrors what Gannett did in 2007 when it opened two regional toning centers — also based in Des Moines and Indianapolis — to process images groupwide.