A System for Selling and Planning Zoned Inserting

For most newspapers, advertising is and will continue to be the most important source of revenue. Advertisements are typically printed on the pages of the newspaper. Inserting and geographically-targeted inserting are other ways to advertise and are gradually being introduced in Europe. However, the offering of geographically-targeted inserting for small zones causes big changes in all the phases of the production chain. Specialised systems support is required to manage this. VTT Information technology has developed a system prototype to support the selling and planning of zoned inserting. The following paper presents the complexity of this task and describes how the system handles it and supports users in making the right decisions. The system helps in the co-ordination of printing, inserting and distribution. It also makes it possible to store inserting-related production knowledge into the system for everybody to utilise. It is a web-based system with a browser interface to enable selling from remote locations. The advertising selling and booking processes are becoming electronic and this also has an effect on the system requirements. This aspect is also discussed in the paper.