Leicester, England, United Kingdom
PERSONAL PROFILE Newspaper/Magazine print production specialist. 25 years experience in the Print Industry working for the Leicester Mercury, Northcliffe Media and Local World. Passionate about quality control within print production processes. SKILLS PROFILE - Complete understanding of production processes and procedures of Newspapers and Magazines. - Strong analytical and problem solving skills. - Ability to communicate clearly and effectively with all levels of an organisation. - Team player, who can also work on own initiative. - Ability to manage tight deadlines and prioritise workloads with a high degree of accuracy and minimal supervision in a fast paced environment. - Collaborative; ability to develop strong relationships with suppliers and departments. - In depth understanding of Adobe Creative Suite and colour management. Specialist in Photoshop and Acrobat. - Excellent understanding of 4 colour printing process CMYK RGB & Pantone Colors, including web offset/commercial printing and plateroom processes. - Excellent knowledge of Microsoft Office packages. Knowledge of working on a service desk operation (Sostenuto), 2nd line support to users
Lorry driver/Labourer for a week in Norway/Sweden. Assisting shop fitters fit Urban Decay retail installation at Taby Centrum Stockholm
- After the centralisation of all group operations, was hand-picked from my role within the Leicester Mercury to work for Northcliffe Media and join the business process team. - Responsible for the daily maintenance, administration and support of all advertising production systems; IPA Neptune, AdInposition page layouts, YEMO & Local Stars Digital. - Work closely with other areas of the business to carry out end to end testing of production systems for Print & Digital workflows. - Support/liaise with 3rd party suppliers in UK & India for advertising/production systems, including TAG Worldwide Publishing, LOCAL STARS and YEMO. - Monitor/change workflows, production processes and business processes for Local World. - Main contact for pre-press related print issues & quality control for over 100 titles for Local World. - Main contact for new publication requests for Local World, asking advice on specifications needed for the build, utilising knowledge of perfect bound, saddle stitching and stitch & trim newspaper products. - 1st line support to users via email or office communicator, 2nd line support to user via a service desk operation. - Knowledge of FTP, XML, Zips & .ini-.err workflow system files. Also basic knowledge of what involvement is needed for front end process needed for auto flighting of Digital and Video into DFP. - Projects – Projects rolled out during current role have included Illiffe integration project, which involved the training of users in the end to end booking/production processes. - North & south Northcliffe Media integration project rolling out copy process user training in other sites around the UK
- Pre-Press Technician, performing multiple roles on the composing room production floor for the Leicester Mercury newspaper & magazines. Proof Reader – Proof reading advertisements and editorial pages prior to print. Advertising Paste up Artist – create adverts using given copy/templates using bromide paper. Output Control Room Operator – Outputting of bromide paper for editorial. Scanning Technician – scanning in pictures using high end scanning equipment, so that they were calibrated for newspaper print standards using colour correction in Photoshop, using ICC profiles for newspaper. Creating clipping paths/Photoshop montages, for editorial content design. Using Agfa Intellitune to process editorial images, extensive knowledge or workings and workflows based around this. During my time in scanning my main achievement was being part of a project that gained a Colour Quality Club Membership for IFRA. Only 2 newspapers in the UK were awarded this during 1998. I was also involved in the calibrating of images for one of the 1st electronic newspapers in the UK, UK News. - Page output Operator – merging editorial and advertisement pages together, ready for output to press. Liaising with the platemaking & press department regarding output of editions for the Leicester Mercury met deadlines. Output and liaising with external commercial printers for niche and monthly magazines. - Email Supplied Artwork regional contact for Midlands and North, processing supplied PDF’s and checking and processing them into the Neptune advert database. Speaking to customers and advising on print/supplied element issues.