Melbourne, Australia

Pagemasters Headquarters

Pagemasters operates four main departments at its head office in Melbourne with a staff of about 75.

The TV Listings department provides virtually every TV listings guide in Australia, as well as New Zealand. A sophisticated database drives the editing and production process, with staff using InDesign to typeset and produce pages according to the specifications of clients.

The Puzzles department compiles and creates a range of crosswords, puzzles, comics and quizzes for inclusion in many of the "diversions" pages in newspapers. The crew also creates its own crosswords, as well as daily trivia quizzes and other puzzles, and generates pages containing "service" information such as law court lists and sharemarket details.

Racing formguides are a part of nearly every newspaper – and Pagemasters’ Racing department puts most of these pages together for the Australian and NZ market, using data and content from AAP Racing  Services.

The News & Design department offers a full range of editorial production for newspapers and magazines, as well as generating editorial content such as TV highlights, film and DVD reviews and publishable images. Our expertise also extends to design services: working with clients to launch a new publication or redesign an existing one, and offering ongoing production of their pages.

In June 2011, Pagemasters Melbourne was incorporated into the expanded services for Fairfax Media. Alongside the work done in Brisbane and Sydney, Melbourne staff provide subediting services for the general news, business and sports sections of The Age and Sunday Age.

In late 2012, News Limited outsourced the subediting of its network of more than 70 community titles across Australia to Pagemasters. Within months, the publisher also contracted Pagemasters to subedit nine regional newspapers, including the Geelong Advertiser, Gold Coast Bulletin and NT News. Pagemasters staff here and in other states combine to provide News Limited a high-quality, cost-effective network of editorial services all year ’round.

Sydney, Australia

Pagemasters expanded its subediting services for Fairfax Media’s flagship Australian newspapers in June 2011, establishing a multi-site operation across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

Complementing the existing production centre in Brisbane – the home of features-based design and subediting since September 2008 – the expansion involved the addition of general news, business and sport to Pagemasters’ service agreement.

Pagemasters Sydney, which is located at AAP’s head office in Rhodes, focuses on servicing Fairfax’s Sydney Morning Herald and Sun-Herald. It is integrated with the Melbourne facility, which services The Age and Sunday Age, and Pagemasters Brisbane, through AAP’s sophisticated communications network.

In late 2012, News Limited outsourced the subediting of its network of more than 70 community titles across Australia to Pagemasters. Within months, the publisher also contracted Pagemasters to subedit nine regional newspapers, including the Geelong Advertiser, Gold Coast Bulletin and NT News. Pagemasters staff here and in other states combine to provide News Limited a high-quality, cost-effective network of editorial services all year ’round.

Brisbane, Australia

In 2008, Fairfax Media decided to outsource sections of its flagship daily metropolitan papers – Melbourne’s The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald – to Pagemasters.

After establishing a new centralised facility in Brisbane, we began design and subediting services for a range of weekly features sections, from real estate and motoring, to fashion, entertainment, food and lifestyle.

As with the New Zealand operation, vital to the Brisbane set-up is that the editors and section editors at the publications retain control of all content. They decide what is going where on a daily basis and instruct Pagemasters staff accordingly.

The editors decide on the look, feel and philosophy of their publication. Issues of style, design and display are in the hands of editors and final decisions are theirs.

Software has been developed by Pagemasters to streamline the communication of content requirements. This is to ensure clear and concise instructions on what is wanted on each page and how it is to be displayed.

There is transparency throughout production – editors at the titles can view their pages at any stage of the process.

In July 2009, a new unit was established in the Brisbane office to provide metatagging services for Fairfax Media. Our digital archiving support team processes the several thousand stories and photos used across Fairfax’s stable of publications each week.

In late 2012, News Limited outsourced the subediting of its network of more than 70 community titles across Australia to Pagemasters. Within months, the publisher also contracted Pagemasters to subedit nine regional newspapers, including the Geelong Advertiser, Gold Coast Bulletin and NT News. Pagemasters staff here and in other states combine to provide News Limited a high-quality, cost-effective network of editorial services all year ’round.

Auckland, New Zealand

In late 2006, APN New Zealand decided to outsource the development, set-up and management of a centralised subediting operation to Pagemasters, to provide editorial services for its stable of daily newspapers, community titles and magazines.

The first pages were produced at the Auckland office in August 2007. We employ 60 production journalists and associated staff and operate daily from 4.30am to midnight.

The services extend to the country’s largest daily newspaper, the New Zealand Herald, seven regional daily titles, a Sunday paper, weekly community papers and weekly and monthly magazines. Well over 1000 pages are produced each week.

In Auckland we have built a newsroom to replace the traditional subeditors’ quarters of a daily newspaper.

By centralising production of multiple publications, we achieve greater efficiency, filling in the "troughs" of downtime that existed in many newsrooms for decades.

London, United Kingdom

In January 2009, Pagemasters began providing subediting services to the London Daily Telegraph and its sister paper, the Sunday Telegraph, from our editorial production centre in Sydney. We handle about 150 broadsheet, tabloid and magazine pages a week.

In this model, the Telegraph retains the design of the pages in London. They are then moved into production each day for Pagemasters staff to check, edit, typeset and copyfit, write headlines, captions and proofread before returning the finished pages which are reviewed by Telegraph editorial staff before going to press.

Thanks to the wonders of remote access and a 10-hour time difference, all this could be achieved overnight for our English friends.

In early 2011, Pagemasters relocated this work to London where a new office now offers Pagemasters services to the European market.

North America

In August 2009, Pagemasters announced a deal that will lead to the services it has pioneered in Australasia being offered to newspapers in North America.

Under an alliance with The Canadian Press, Pagemasters North America will provide newspapers in Canada and the US with a complete range of editorial services.

Pagemasters, under an agreement with The Canadian Press, provides consulting and advisory services and earns revenue based on the success of Pagemasters North America.

Visit www.thecanadianpress.com for more information.