Advertisement booking systems
One of the problems facing magazines is organising their advertisement books. The high-end is well covered with specialist software serving publications which can afford many thousadns of dollars. What is there for less? We are still investigating, but in the meantime there are systems below which range from the low thousands up. We hope to provide more information in the near future as each company has been asked for brief details on how small a business could reasonably adopt their software. In the meantime, have a look at their web sites and judge for yourself.
Ad Depot
<http://www.addepot.co.uk>
This is an ad booking system producing a wide variety of reports including ad tracking. Entry is browser based. It runs on a Windows 2003 server using either Oracle or SQL server as its database and requires a Crystal Reports license per server for report generation.
AMC Enterprise (Atex Media Command)
<http://www.amc.com/products/enterprise/>
<info@amc.com>
The Enterprise system provides ad salespeople with the most effective tools to book, schedule, price, and process ads, including classified liner ads, display ads, combined classified and display ads, Web ads, and inserts. The system integrates and streamlines all facets of advertising sales, production and management processes: order entry, scheduling, pricing, composition (for print and electronic formats), pagination, and reporting. Enterprise effectively manages billing and account information for every customer who runs an ad in any publication, and automatically updates customer contracts.
Ad Producer links the Enterprise database with various third party advertising design applications. This interface enables the designer to import ad text directly into the third party application and to incorporate logos or graphics using the Enterprise Logo Manager. When finished, the designer can send the completed ad (with its ad status automatically updated) back to Enterprise.
AdLizard
<http://www.adlizard.com>
Lizard Research's AdLizard is a browser based online display advertising system, which enables customers of publishers to logon to a system that is installed on the publisher's server, and with templates built by the publishers, create their own ads. They are immediately provided with PDF proofs.
The company has more than 19 customers worldwide and through one system in Australia more than 180 real estate agents use the system to create their own ads.
AdPro
<http://eclipseservices.com/>
sales@eclipseservices.com
AdPro was originally designed in 1992 for the Daily Pennsylvanian. However
it is now used to track ads for dailies, weeklies, online publications, magazines, yearbooks, phonebooks, and shopping guides. Schedule ads, check past activity, enter payments, change ad sizes, and add more run dates on the fly. Reports can show revenue and space usage for future issues. AdPro uses the same interface and reports for classified ads as display ads. and classified can also be placed online for print and online use. A point is made that it appeals to student publications which have a high staff turnover. It is built on an Oracle database which runs on Mac, Windows or Linux servers. The AdPro application can run on Macs or PCs. Eclipse also sell and support AdForce and ClassForce layout software which integrate with QuarkXPress and InDesign.
Advanced Publishing Technology
<http://www.advpubtech.com>
<aptsales@advpubtech.com>
ACT Order Entry—a feature-rich, Windows-based classified/display advertising and billing system for a variety of publishing environments. It includes an easy-to-use, graphical ad entry interface and many customizable features tailored to your exact requirements. ACT Order Entry works seamlessly with ACT Accounts Receivable and PageMaster Classified Pagination to provide a complete solution from ad entry through production, billing and collections. Includes a version customised for real estate publications.
ATS ( Advanced Technical Solutions)
<http://www.atsusa.com/>
<bill.miller@atsusa.com>
Through total integration, AdVisor provides fast and efficient management of all sales through one application and one central database. By creating a unified environment for all advertising functions, AdVisor simplifies the complexity of order entry, customer and contract administration, reporting analysis and production. AdVisor combines the workflows of classified liners, legals, obits, display, ROP, preprints and online advertising into a seamless, cohesive process. This design, reduces parallel efforts and provides instant access to all current and historical sales, customer and financial information, which is key to successful business initiatives, customer relationship management, strategic planning, sales force automation and e-business.
Brainworks
<http://www.brainworks.com/home/index.php>
<info@brainworks.com>
Through a single database, Brainworks manages all of your advertising: display, classified and preprints, as well as billing, accounts receivable, contracts, layout, pagination, marketing, sales force automation and web/palm integration. Brainworks Display Advertising is a component of this unified solution, or may be implemented as an independent display advertising system and integrated with other third party billing, classified, layout, and pagination solutions.
Fake Brains, Inc
<http://www.fakebrains.com/ascout.htm>
<mailto:sales@fakebrains.com>
AccountScout is an accounts receivable and classified ad system including display ad scheduling, customer contracts, classified ad management and more.
AccountScout and RouteScout each have a software demo, a brochure, and instructions available for downloading. You can install and run the demo programs, but you are limited in the amount of information that can be saved to disk. Windows.
Harris & Baseview
<http://www.harrisbaseview.com/>
John MacEwen, VP of Sales <john_macewen@baseview.com>
New AdManagerPro comprises multiple applications bundled together. That means, for instance, you no longer have to exit Ad Taking to make Administration changes or post payments. Runs on Apple's OS X.
Interlink AB4
<http://www.totalcirculation.com/product/ab4_features.php>
<jackie@totalcirculation.com>
Interlink's Advertising Billing software focuses on newspaper billing. As a result, discounts publishers typically allow are handled as a matter of course--contract discounts, pick-up credits, agency discounts, contract rates, and volume discounts. Reports produced by AB4 include scheduled ads for a specified issue in forms for an ad build list, tearsheet, ad manager, and the page makeup department. One of the few to give pricing information, Interlink Ad Billing software is licensed on an annual basis, based on frequency of publishing and circulation: "The goal of sliding-scale fees is always to minimize fees through pricing that makes it possible for the largest number of publications to use the software. And while increasing frequency and circulation may result in higher overall fees, fees per copy always go down." First year fees range between $795 and $1,595, with follow-on annual fees ranging between $195 and $395. When purchased in combination with Interlink's Circulation Management software, the initial fees can be lower.
Mactive AdWatch
<http://www.mactiveinc.com/>
<sales@mactive.com>
The AdWatch production suite gives newspapers a complete solution for production with solutions for tracking, proofing, and post-production ad verification. Unlike many of the tracking solutions currently on the market, AdWatch lets you track ads of all types—print, Web, and even broadcast.
net-linx
<http://www.net-linx.com/index.php?id=52>
<info@net-linx.com>
net-linx provides advertising systems for newspapers and magazines ranging in size from 30 seats to 200+., and each system is effectively unique iso t is difficult to provide an accurate cost.
As nxAdvertising is Java-based, using a J2EE architecture, the server hardware can be Windows, Linux or Solaris based. Full clients can be Windows based; however, browser-based clients are available that support most modern browser software.
nxAdvertising covers ad entry and classified pagination with fast and powerful methods for scheduling, rating, and tracking ads in single or multiple products. It supports the sale of ROP, display, classified, and Internet ads. If publications have varying column widths, it will automatically manage the mechanics for accurate pricing and pagination.
It can be easily customized and tools allow the user to increase productivity by tailoring the user interface, receive up-sell prompts, and create custom individual or group reports.
NewsPublisher
<http://www.compu-books.com/generic7.html>
<Linda@compu-books.com>
NewsPublisher is a FileMaker database for ad bookings, both display and classifieds, as well as printing service scheduling and invoicing (useful for ad services like photography). It is aimed at the smaller publisher, costing just US$699 but you do need FileMaker Pro and the number of users is defined by the number of FileMaker licenses you have. It can export in tagged format for QuarkXPress and may therefore be adaptable to InDesign. Check the PDF on the above website for views of entry pages to show what it can do.
Pongrass Newspaper Systems
<http://www.pongrass.com.au>
<sales@pongrass.com.au>
Pongrass offer a complete suite of applications for newspaper and magazine advertising. This includes display ad booking, ad layout, ad tracking, as well as classified booking, pagination and editorial, all operating from a single SQL database.
Quark and InDesign for PC and Mac are supported for ad layout, ad tracking and editorial pagination. Optional modules for billing, web reporting and datawarehouse are also available.
Pongrass products are sold and installed around the world from Panama to Papua New Guinea. Customers include magazine publishers, small weekly to daily newspapers, and yellow pages directories.
Advanced Publishing Systems
<http://www.advancedpublishing.com.au>
<info@advancedpublishing.com.au>
Synergy Booking System plus QuickLayout dummying solution
SmartPublisher
<http://www.pre1.com>
Brian Jackson of Pre1 Software <brianj@pre1.com>
SmartPublisher includes units for contact management, display ad and classified/marketplace order entry and scheduling, credit card processing within the application, accounts receivable (credit, billing, collections and aging reports) and exports to Quark, HTML or Pagination Systems, also providing pproduction ad reports. Pricing starts at $5000 for a single user version and $7995 for a 3-user bundle. This product is based on FileMaker and is cross platform working on both Mac and Windows desktops.
Magazine customers include Best of New Orleans, Boston, Chicago, Harvard Magazine, Los Angeles, Madison Magazine, Memphis, New England Travel & Life, Philadelphia, Washingtonian., as well as several shoppers and alternative newspapers.
Software Consulting Services
<http://www.newspapersystems.com>
<sales@newspapersystems.com>
AdMAX combines ad order entry (including reservations for specific locations on pages), contract management, billing, contact management, sales analysis and accounts receivable in one intregrated system. It is available for retail/ROP advertising, classified advertising or the combination of both, the front-end for an enterprise-wide advertising system that includes retail ad dummying (Layout-8000), classified pagination (SCS/ClassPag), ad production tracking (SCS/Track) and an interface to editorial pagination (SCS/LinX).
Their preferred platforms are:
Servers, Linux or Unix. Desktops, PC’s running either Windows or Linux, or : Macs
They price by circulation, not by seat. The smallest daily newspaper customer we have now has a circulation of 25,000.
VisionData
<http://www.vdata.com/>
<sales@vdata.com>
Vision Total Advertising: Combined Display and Classified System. This integrated graphical system combines Classified Sales and Display Advertising Billing on a single common relational database, providing the ability to enter Classified Ad copy and billing information and process orders for Display Ads from a single screen. Classified Ads are entered through a full function desktop publisher that runs as a WYSIWYG window on the billing screen, providing the operator full access to all pertinent sales, scheduling and billing information. The same system performs accounting and billing functions. Also included are contact management screens, budgeting and a variety of optional items such as web ad placement and PDA adv. order entry.
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