Educating The Medical Field
Printing Services at the New England Journal of Medicine produces a host of materials designed to educate medical professionals.
By Mike Llewellyn
Jim Collins took over as manager of Printing Services for the Massachusetts Medical Society, publishers of The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), two years ago. He says anybody would be hard-pressed to find a more beautiful in-plant in which to work.
Nestled in the mountains of Waltham, Mass., the in-plant is lit by the sun pouring in from towering, eight-foot windows.
The New England Journal of Medicine, says Collins, is the oldest continuous medical publication in the world. And it's the in-plant's job to supply its publishing parent with all the printed support it needs to keep health professionals around the country—and the globe—informed. In fact, very little work gets outsourced from the operation.
"The only things that go out are reprints that are too big for the shop," says Collins.
The NEJM is just one in a family of publications produced by the Massachusetts Medical Society. And while the in-plant is not responsible for printing the Journal, it is responsible for printing the society's 12 newsletters, the largest of which, Journal Watch, is a digest of news culled from a variety of medical journals.
"It pulls the best information and puts it into an eight-page publication," explains Collins, adding that the piece is printed two-over-two on a four-color Didde web press. After it's bound, it is sent to the internal mailing facility to be addressed and mailed to its 28,000 subscribers.
All of the publications printed by the in-plant are designed for education. Many are periodicals devoted to a particular area of study, like Journal Watch Psychiatry and AIDS Clinical Care.
In addition to the 12 newsletters, Printing Services also handles reprints of the NEJM and almost all of the organization's support printing. This includes promotional material, letterheads, envelopes and a monthly newsletter called "Vital Signs," says Collins.
The shop's extensive bindery area finishes much of that printing. It boasts two flat-sheet collators, a Stahl saddle stitcher, an MBO folder, a Polar cutter and a shrink wrapper.
The reprints, one of the largest regular jobs the in-plant is charged with handling, are actually a form of insourcing for the 12-employee shop, and it underscores what it means to run an in-plant at a publishing company—the in-plant produces products very close to the core business of its parent.
"All of the reprints are a request from outside [clients] for us to do work," says Collins, and so the in-plant charges directly for the service, which makes up 45 percent of its annual output.
Still, for all the money the in-plant does pull in, it hasn't been entirely smooth sailing.
The Rise Of The Internet
"The Internet is becoming the biggest challenge for us. Applications for seminars are on the Web now, and all of the publications we print are also online at the same time," says Collins. "As an organization, we're trying to find a medium between print and online."
In other words, just as the Journal struggles with the relevance of the printed medium, so must the in-plant—the in-plant and its parent are in the same boat.
Like all in-house printing operations, the in-plants at publishing companies often have to develop strategies to offset the dip in job orders that occurs when customers realize they can cheaply distribute information over the Internet rather than on hard copy. At NEJM, Collins says the formidable obstacle the in-plant finds in the Web has lead him to develop some strategies.
For starters, the technology has to be kept up-to-date. Collins says the shop's next order of business is to look into investing in digital equipment.
The in-plant already uses a Cymbolic Sciences platesetter to make plates for its presses, which include two- and four-color Didde web presses, a two-color Ryobi 3302 and a four-color Heidelberg Speedmaster, which was installed in 1998.
Collins says he is also looking into variable data output.
"But we need to figure out where exactly the customers want us to be with that," he says. For now, he reports that the strongest interest in the technology is coming from the marketing departments.
Listening to customers is a key part of Collins' strategy.
"We've gotten much bigger over the past five years, adding the Heidelberg and other equipment," he says. "That was because the customers wanted everything to be bigger, better and prettier."
Now, says Collins, his customers' needs are changing once again.
"Right now we need to figure out what the trends are with our customers. So we hold meetings with the clients. You really have to listen," he says, adding that the in-plant participates in meetings with managers from other divisions in the organization.
Close To The Parent Business
But despite the challenge that the Internet has placed before Printing Services, Collins says the shop has put itself in a very good position.
"There actually hasn't been a very big drop-off in work," he says.
To get the in-plant staff to operate more efficiently, Collins has focused heavily on cross-training, which may be the least difficult part of his plan.
"As a department, we've had the luxury to cross-train everyone. Most of the employees have been here for over 12 years," he says. In fact, five of them have been with the shop for over 16 years, and Collins says the staff "knows the work very well."
Because the in-plant is tied so closely to its parent's core business, Collins says he doesn't face the same challenges other in-plants do in trying to prove their value to their organizations.
"We do have to say 'Hey, we're worth it; we make you money," he says. "But a lot of in-plants have to continually show that they cut every dollar, and continually prove their worth. We do that automatically."
