No AI assistance was used in the preparation or writing of this article.

Just what does your program do? If I have been doing things one way for years, why would I think of changing? This is a question many people wonder, but don't always have the time to stick around and hear my response.

So here we go-read it on your own schedule :).

As is written on our about us page, this program was founded over 10 years ago. I was a frustrated graphic designer, doing tedious work. For example, an ad would come in at the last minute. But this ad demanded a right side, and demanded up front placement. In this case, my boss chose to comply with the demand [what do you do when this happens? let me know and I can post it]. So he would come stand behind my seat, and that's when the fun would begin. We would spend what felt like hours moving around 20 pages and ads, juggling the entire book to keep everyone happy while getting this ad in it's demanded spot. And then, after spending hours preparing the final book for print, we get the call that every publisher has nightmares about. It was the secretary. Drumroll here... "You forgot to place Joe's butcher shop!" And he needed right side up front placement!" And as you start clenching your fists the next call comes in... "Mike's Pizza never approved his ad! He hated it! He will not pay if you run this ad!" And I can go on and on.

I had worked at another magazine that had a reservation and layout automation software, but it was prohibitebly expensive and lacking features I wanted. So I got to work, with the goal of creating an affordable solution for small local shoppers. Over the years I have enlisted the work of numerous programmers, and slowly but surely the system has taken shape.

As of now we offer the following software programs for advertising print magazines:

1: Full ad reservation software. We completely manage your reservations from A-Z. Get a list of all reserved ads for the issue, as well as a list of which ads either did not come in yet or were not approved. Create multiple run packages for any reservation, saving hours of time and to-do lists. See any customer's history and info at the click of a button-and preview any ad he/she ever ran. Details on this component can be seen here.

2: Ad assignment module. You can assign each page manually if you want the highest level of control, or you can have this feature do it for you. You can use this component regardless of which CRM you use for ad reservations. You would export your reservation data and import it to the list, and work from there.

Here is how it works. When an ad is reserved, you mark down if there are any custom rules for the ad. Rule examples can be right side, top of page, outside placement, first 15 pages and more. When your book is ready you click "assign ads" in our program, and all ads are assigned pages  based on the rules you set. This is all editable and you can tweak it afterwards of course. Do you have Color and BW pages? Color ads get placed on color pages, and BW ads on BW. Need to add 4 color pages at the last minute? No problem! Just change your max page setting and generate the assignments again-and voila! Your brand new page layout is ready with all rules followed again. Click here to see how it works.

3: An entire visual flatplan solution with full indesign automation, easy for anyone to use. As written above, you can use this component regardless of which CRM you use for ad reservations. You would export your reservation data and import it to the list, and work from there. You can assign ads to pages, move pages around, swap pages and ads, and much more. Preview any ad, get notified which ads are missing and which pages are incomplete and more. You can keep working until the end-and here is the best part. Once you are ready, you simply click a button to create the actual file. InDesign will open and read your custom instructions, leaving you will a fully laid out, editable file! Click here to see a live preview in action.

4: Invoice and tearsheet/payment link automated emails. When you close your book, at the click of a button every single reservation can get his invoice, together with a tearsheet and custom payment link! You can continue to use any bookeeping software you want, just with many hours of time saved. Click here to see how it works.

We know how expensive some programs can be, and we make sure to keep this price low. To be clear, the program is worth many hundreds of dollars a month and competing programs can indeed charge that much. But in this case-we offer more for less. Not a gimmick, not a catchy phrase, just the truth. Want to hear more? Send me an email or give me a call at 718-705-4939, I can't wait to hear from you!

Until next time,

Yaakov Herskovich

www.layoutsystem.com

yaakov@layoutsystem.com