Jersey Shore Business Journal

Catamaran Media expands production department

April 01, 2009

SEAVILLE – At a time when many businesses – particularly newspapers – are cutting back, Catamaran Media is expanding.

The company, with offices in Seaville and Egg Harbor Township, publishes The Gazettes, The Wildwood Leader, as well as the Current newspapers in Atlantic County and several summer publications, including the SandPaper and Free Time.

According to publisher Rick Travers, The Press of Atlantic City was looking at options for its ad design (production) department, trying to find a more efficient means of creating ads for publication.

That work had been done in house, but could have ended up being outsourced almost anywhere in the world, Travers said. Instead, it ended up in Seaville.

“Every business goes through that,” Travers said, pointing to his company’s decision in 2001 to shutter its printing press and move the printing operation to an outside company based in Camden County. Before that, the printing was done in North Wildwood on a press owned by the company. Outsourcing that work meant a better rate and a better looking paper, Travers said.

“We decided it would be better for our readers to have an independent printer do the work,” he said.

The Press was looking to do something similar with its ad design, which could have meant shipping the work to Bangalore or Seoul.

According to Travers, Catamaran Media was able to come up with an offer that made sense to the Press, not just in terms of price, but also in terms of having a crew that works in the same time zone, and is knowledgeable about local businesses.

According to Paul Scully, who manages the production department for Catamaran Media, his people had taken on the ad design work for one of the Press sections starting in 2008. That worked well enough for the management at The Press to be willing to move its entire operation. Under the new arrangement, Scully said, his crew does all the ads for the Press, as well as for the four Gazettes, the Leader, the Currents and other Catamaran publications.

According to Scully, this could not have worked until the technology reached its current level, with most of the work taking place electronically.
He said he hired new people to cover the additional work, including four who worked for the Press. There are 10 people working as designers now.
Both Scully and Travers said the new arrangement has been in place for the past several weeks, and seems to be working well.
There are no guarantees, Travers said. If some time in the future another option proves to be more efficient, or can do the same or better work cheaper, that’s what will happen, he said.

“That’s the way the free market works,” Travers said.