After twenty-plus years designing Nutrition Action, the largest circulation health monthly in North America, The Page Group succeeded in streamlining the publication’s complex production process without compromising either editorial control or design standards.

Together with its publisher, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), Page grew the publication from a two-color bulletin-style monthly of the 1980s to the full-color feature-driven publication of today. Lauded for its highly readable content and accessible layout, Nutrition Action provides readers with vital, scientifically reliable information about nutrition, diet, and health.

However, the very nature of Nutrition Action’s content required numerous levels of revisions–sometimes as many as nine sets of proofs. “As a science-based publication, we’ve got to vet every fact through a variety of sources, often at different stages of the publication cycle,” says Nutrition Action Editor-in-Chief Stephen Schmidt. And often, when revisions were substantial, new design and layout solutions had to be implemented.

Anyone who’s produced a repeating publication knows how much work this entails; Page Group designers often worked through the night, incurring hours upon hours of production time– time that often had to be discounted. This, plus the high billings were a constant challenge to CSPI and The Page Group alike.

Back in 2006 Jorge Bach, art director at Page and Nutrition Action’s lead designer, had been following the emergence of a new program by Adobe called InCopy from its first mention in trade publications. Here was a program designed to simplify the production process for repeating publications–magazines and newsletters–allowing editors and writers access to text areas of the layout, while locking down all design elements. No more back-and-forth to get copy to fit. More control plus more collaboration–just what Page had been looking for. But Bach didn’t want to take chances on a newly launched program; he waited for Version Two to come out and then he acted.

Bach set to work to integrate this new tool into Nutrition Action’s production process. However, he soon discovered that InCopy’s developers had envisioned it operating within a single computer network; in other words, for in-house design departments. But what about an off-site design firm? Neither organization wanted to risk opening their network, so a cross-network solution had to be found. Bach was sure he could devise a work-around – a way to customize InCopy’s standard process to to allow for cross-network implementation. And after some trial and effort, he succeeded.

“In the end we took a nine-round production cycle and cut it to three,” says Bach. “Production time was reduced by a third; and the dollar amount billed to CSPI was cut almost in half. Happy client; happy design firm.

The Page Group is a branding and e-solutions firm located in Silver Spring, Maryland. It specializes in publication design and in promotional initiatives employing both conventional and online tools to en-hance their clients' visibility in strategic market segments.