High-Tech Whiteboard Builds Community
When Mansueto Ventures (the company behind Inc . and Fast Company magazines), needed new office space for its 170 employees, CEO John Koten used the opportunity to deploy 21st-century technology to revive the publishing industry's venerable but (seemingly) outmoded "whiteboard" publishing process.
"I've spent my life in journalism," Koten said, "and before desktop publishing, layout rooms were a big part of the operation. The layout made us feel like we were actually producing a product. But the way publications are organized has changed. Today writers sit at their desks and look at their part of the publication - the part that they're editing or writing, rather than the whole process."
To recreate the sense of community fostered through the layout process and old-fashioned whiteboard often used in newsrooms to post articles and images, Koten turned to technology.
As Koten contemplated his idea - a wall of flat-panel monitors to display and update the pages of Inc . and Fast Company in real-time for all writers and editors to see during the publishing process - General Manager Kristine Kern went on a quest for the ideal space.
Kern landed on 7 World Trade Center, a 40,000 square-foot office on the edge of Ground Zero and the first green certified building in Manhattan - it was certified at gold status by the U.S. Green Building Council for environmental sustainability.
What's more, Mansueto Ventures was among the first tenants and designed their own floor of the building, a perfect scenario for bringing Koten's virtual whiteboard to fruition.
"Moving offices gave us the opportunity to bring John's technology vision to life," said Milan Patel, Mansueto Ventures' CIO. "And we did it with a focus on top-quality products with as little environmental impact as possible."
Patel teamed up with Dell to create the whiteboards. Two main video walls, each comprised of 40 Dell 24-inch liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors, are the focal point of the publishing house. A third display of eight monitors posts pages from Inc . and Fast Company's Web sites.
"The biggest challenge in implementing the idea was figuring out a way for 40 monitors to post images at quick frequency, without generating too much heat," said Patel.
To project articles and images on the Dell LCD monitors, Patel developed a customized publishing package, unofficially named Perspective. The software package works in conjunction with the current editorial management software used by Inc . and Fast Company, with the help of some minor modifications made to its image export capabilities.
The new Dell monitors and customized software have revolutionized the way the company compiles the various components of their magazines - from the text and images to the advertising - saving time and improving results. The monitors also save paper and ink, and at night the monitors automatically shut down, reducing energy and heat generated by the wall.
"Instead of trimming and posting, which was the downside of the old method, we can now incorporate new page elements as they evolve," said Rachel Moskovitz, editorial production manager. "An issue of Inc . magazine is about 76 pages of editorial, and with 40 screens, you can see a good portion of the magazine at one time - a great tool to visually look at the headlines and critique our work."
As the firm continues to refine and develop the software and reap the benefits of the new-age whiteboard, they have started to discuss the possibility of sharing the software with other publishing houses.
"The editorial department has really opened up, and this is a process that's been largely closed," said Koten. "With the new technology, we think editorial will continue to grow into an even closer-knit community."
