General Solutions Partner

Need another pair of hands?

AffinityX can help. Introducing our new staff augmentation solution

Posted

On the heels of the coronavirus pandemic, we understand that nationwide labor shortages, retention of good workers, and keeping up with advances in technology have become increasingly difficult challenges.  We know these are real problems that newspaper publishers face as they plan for the future.

AffinityX has developed a new staff augmentation program that offers publishers the added expertise of a qualified workforce to supplement their existing employee base, with flexible terms to handle single jobs, part-time or full-time coverage.

  • Many companies are experiencing labor shortages, staff turnover and difficulty in retaining good workers.  NPR calls 2021 the year of “The Great Resignation”.  The pandemic and the rise of remote work have changed the way we view our lives and the world.  (Remote work provides safety and work-life balance.)  
  • Keeping up with advances in technology has become an increasingly difficult challenge, whether that is creative or pagination systems.  

AffinityX can fill in those gaps with well-trained, experienced staff supported by a U.S.-based implementation team!

RECENT PROJECTS:

Below are some recent examples of projects and tasks that we’ve taken on for local publishers:

Highly-decentralized nationwide publisher with 50+ small publications
Late summer 2021 start:

  • This publisher owns three weekly newspapers in Pennsylvania that manually produced their pages using InDesign.  When their staff member handling the work suddenly quit, there was no one to do the work except the local publisher.  This customer requested that we provide resources and take over the work immediately.
  • AX was able to put together all of the file transfer mechanisms, real time communication methods and resources aligned within just one week!  (The normal onboarding process is six to eight weeks for editorial page design.)
  • Within two weeks, AX was performing the tasks at an "acceptable" level and after three weeks "fully effective."  AX has been handling this work full-time for three months.

Smaller, One-Location Publisher
Spring 2021 start:

  • Due to staffing issues, this publisher was needing to augment its pagination staffing.
  • AffinityX shadowed the newspaper’s staff for just ONE WEEK.  The AX editorial paginators then dove in, took over, and immediately met and exceeded expected performance levels.
  • AX has been handling this publisher’s editorial page design for four months.

Regional Single-State Newspaper Group
Spring/Summer 2021 start:

  • AffinityX began working with this newspaper group in 2020, handling its ad production.  In 2021, the company had a staffing shortage and was in need of editorial page design positions.
  • AX was able to expedite onboarding the editorial page design within just four weeks (instead of the standard six to eight weeks).
  • The publisher was able to develop a brand new, digital-only publication, which was built by AffinityX from news feeds. 
  • AX has been handling this publisher’s editorial page design for four months.
  • The publisher for this newspaper group was so pleased with AffinityX’s work that he recommended AffinityX to a sister publication, and AffinityX is now producing two editorial publications for it, as well as providing a page designer at 20 hours per week!

Let us help you, too!

Our team can become an extension of your team to help fill in the gaps where help is most needed, whether that is with page layout, dummying, classified pagination, editorial pagination, special section design, image work, print and digital ad design or even ad trafficking.

Our production team designs, configures and lays out thousands of newspaper pages every year.  We are equipped to work according to all of your project milestones: ad deadlines, dummies, materials, proof deadlines, approval deadlines and press deadlines.  We’ve been in business for nearly 30 years, delivering more than 20,000 projects each working day, and more than 5 million fast-turn jobs a year, with shifts working 24/7/365.

AffinityX service offerings:

  • Ad Design (Print & Digital Display)
  • Dummying / Layout / Classified Pagination
  • Editorial Pagination
  • Special Section Design
  • Image Work (Clipping Paths)
  • Ad Trafficking

AffinityX is dedicated to the local media industry.   We are committed to your present and future success, and to help you evolve and grow your tightly-knit business successfully.  

David Grant is founder and executive vice president advertising services and can be reached at davidg@affinityexpress.com.