Case Study

 

This leading media company is a family-owned business operating in 14 different countries, reaching over 200 million people. Their publishing division produces hundreds of print and digital titles, including top-selling magazines in the women’s service category. Each year, they publish over 100 special interest editions that cover a wide range of topics, from health and celebrity life to cooking and sports.

Challenge – The need for a scalable, cloud-based asset management solution

The company was previously using Media Grid for asset management, with approximately 60% licensed content feeds and 40% owned assets. As their content library expanded, Media Grid became inefficient and difficult to maintain.

“Media Grid was hosted on-premise, and server capacity issues required IT personnel to manage content transfers on weekends. This led to overtime expenses or additional time off for staff, leaving us short-handed.”

The system’s limitations in search functionality further impacted productivity, making it difficult to locate assets for reuse. Faced with these challenges, the company began searching for a more robust, cloud-based solution.

Solution – PictureDesk, a cloud-based hub for quick and easy digital asset sourcing and search

PictureDesk enabled the company to upload owned assets and integrate licensed content feeds from various agencies and photographers. The platform’s auto tag feature automatically applied metadata to existing assets, making previously unsearchable images easily accessible.

“Auto tag was a huge lifesaver. We had an archive of over 15 years of photos without keywords. PictureDesk’s search capabilities are tremendous—we can now easily reuse valuable photos using keywords, visual search, or AI search. It’s a game-changer in efficiency.”

Additional PictureDesk features include:

  • StarTracker™: Streams near-real-time celebrity photos.
  • Automated Photo Billing: Tracks and reports on licensed asset usage for simplified accounts payable.
  • Metadata Enrichment: Enhances search functionality.
  • Cropping Tool: Facilitates visual searches by focusing on specific products or logos.
  • Lightbox Galleries: Enables quick and efficient image curation.

Results – Quantifiable cost and time savings

With PictureDesk, the company’s photo editors now source visual assets in minutes instead of hours. The platform’s ability to locate and reuse owned content has dramatically reduced costs.

“Our special interest editions consist entirely of repurposed content from past publications. A full-size food photo typically costs around $100, and a 100-page recipe book requires 100 images. By reusing our own photos, we save $10,000 per issue, resulting in annual savings of over $1 million.”

Looking Ahead – Expanding revenue opportunities

“PictureDesk provides valuable insights into our content, which opens up opportunities for syndicating our owned assets and creating a new revenue stream. Additionally, we are working on system integrations that will further maximize revenue from content reuse.”