EP1578614B1 - Personalization of printed items, especially subscription newspapers/magazines - Google Patents

Abstract

In a method for the production of addressee-specific printed products wherein, for the completion of each printed product, a plurality of printed sheets ( 120 a, 120 b, 120 c) are assembled for forming inner pages of the finished printed product, provided with a cover page and stapled or bound, an EDP-supported database structure, which allocates to a respective addressee of each printed product information characterising the addressee, is provided. At least one of the printed sheets ( 120 a) becomes an addressee-specific printed sheet as a result of the attachment of addressee-specific information to at least one predetermined location. The printed products are provided after the completion for an addressee-specific delivery on the basis of information from the database structure and/or on the basis of the addressee-specific information on the personalised printed sheet ( 120 a). A plurality of addressee-specific media ( 126 ), the format of which is different from that of the finished printed product, are produced using information from the database structure, each medium ( 126 ) containing characteristic information for a respective addressee, and, for the completion of the respective addressee-specific printed product, at least one of the plurality of addressee-specific media ( 126 ) is attached to the at least one addressee-specific printed sheet ( 120 a).

Description

The present invention relates to a method for producing personalized printed matter and a system for producing personalized printed matter.

In the printing and publishing sector, it is often desirable to distribute printed products that are produced in large quantities in personalized form to addressees. For example, personalized advertising cards are known in which, in addition to the advertised product or advertised service, the name and address of an addressee or the like are printed in each case. The production of such personalized advertising cards usually takes place in a two-stage process, in which anonymous advertising cards are first printed in a first stage and the corresponding addressee-specific information is printed before the advertising cards are sent.

It is also known in the subscription sales of newspapers / magazines or in the distribution of catalogs or brochures to realize a personalization, which is that after production of the product names or addresses of addressees are printed, which greatly simplifies the shipping of these products. Furthermore, it is quite common to print not only name or address on a product ready for shipment, but also often a personalized cover letter or a personalized invoice is attached to such shipments, when the preparation for shipping is. According to the preamble of claims 1 and 22 corresponding US 2002/0046089 A1 is mounted on the front or back cover sheet of a magazine summarized from several sheets advertising booklet. Of the Content of the brochure is tailored to the respective addressees of the magazine, depending on the affiliation of an addressee to different addressee groups different brochures can be attached. Again, the address can simply be printed on the front of the brochure.

In a single printed sheet consisting of printed matter, for. As a magazine or advertising brochure, it is known from DE 195 12 501 A1, for personalization of individual sheets with addressee-specific information, eg. B. the amount of a voucher to print and then in a saddle stitcher the personalized sheet together with the other anonymous sheet in a known manner to the journal or booklet together. In order to recognize as possible very easily occurring allocation errors in this approach and to be able to intervene, this provided for the collation of personalized printed sheet intended investors saddle stitcher on a pre-feeder and downstream main investor, between which the personalized printed sheet fanned over a conveyor line, so that a reading device can read a label affixed to the personalized printed sheet and the personalized printed sheets are identified upon collation. However, this method is associated with some equipment and logistical effort.

More recently, in the distribution of newspapers and magazines, methods have been introduced by means of which personalized information can be printed on a predetermined page of the journal after the collation of already printed individual pages or printed sheets before the magazine is then made available for shipment , In these methods, therefore, a finished anonymous printed product is first produced, to which, before being made available for delivery at a predetermined location, address-specific or personalized information is printed. The printed product is only shortly before being made ready for dispatch, usually between the operations to be performed during collating / stapling or packaging of the printed product, and therefore essentially in a single addressing-specific working process, so that the correct assignment of addressee-specific information and information can be achieved associated with each printed product no difficulties. These methods are much easier to handle and do not require too much additional effort, so that they have prevailed over the way shown in DE 195 12 501 A1. However, hereby only address-specific information can be printed on predetermined locations of printed sheets.

From US 5,590,912 it is known to staple addressee-specific media between two successive sheets of a stapled printed product.

The object of the present invention is to specify a method and to provide a system by means of which addressee-specific information of any desired type and form, in particular as addressee-specific media attached to the printed product, can be attached to a printed product intended for a predetermined addressee.

To achieve the above object, the present invention according to a first aspect, a method for the production of addressee-specific printed products according to claim 1, in which for the completion of a respective printed product a plurality of printed sheets for forming inner sides of the finished printed product collected, provided with a cover sheet and is stapled or bound, wherein an EDP-based database structure is provided, each of which assigns information to an addressee of the respective printed product, which characterize the addressee, wherein at least one of the signatures becomes an addressee-specific signatures by affixing address-specific information at at least one predetermined location, the articles being provided upon completion for address-specific delivery based on information from the database structure and / or based on the address-specific information on the personalized signatures in which a plurality of addressee-specific media, the format of which is different from that of the finished printed product, are produced using information from the database structure, wherein in each case one medium contains characteristic information for each addressee,
characterized in that at least one of the plurality of addressee-specific media is mounted on the at least one addressee-specific printed sheet on an inner side of the printed product for completing the respective address-specific printed product.

Preferably, several addressee-specific media are attached to the printed product.

According to the inventive method is provided on the one hand to produce the respective addressee-specific media due to the information provided in the database structure and on the other hand to carry out the production of the printed products so far that the addressee-specific media attached and the printed products can be completed. The printed products are in this case at least by attaching one of the already produced addressee-specific media on the printed product to address-specific printed products. Attachment in the sense used here is intended to mean that the respective addressee-specific medium is added in fixed assignment to a printed product, that is, for example, glued on, attached or enclosed. It should be emphasized at this point that, according to the present method, a respective printed product may also already be address-specific before the addressee-specific medium is applied, for example when each addressee is assigned a respective different printed product specific to it. In this case, an addressee-specific medium is attached to an already address-specific printed product, whereby care must be taken to ensure that the medium and printed product are assigned to one another.

The invention makes it possible, for example, to attach one or more further media personalized in the manner already described to a printed product. It could, for example, be thought to accompany a journal at any point, especially inside the magazine, postcards or even entire supplements that are tailored specifically to the particular addressee. In this case, it is necessary to produce in addition to the production of provided for a particular addressee, but anonymous in itself printed product and the corresponding intended addressee-specific media (ie postcards / supplements, etc.) and add the printed product.

Examples of addressee-specific media of the type mentioned are cards or postcards or discount coupons which are affixed to corresponding advertisements, but also CDs or smaller sample packs attached in this manner (eg cosmetics). In addition, the media may also be addressee-specific in that they relate to products or services specific to the respective addressee (eg addressee-specific offer catalogs on CD-ROM).

The completion of the printed products usually includes several sequential work processes, such as the printing of the individual sheets of a printed product, collating the sheet and then stapling the printed product. According to the method of the invention, depending on the application, some of these work processes may be carried out in parallel with the production of the plurality of addressee-specific media.

In the production of printed products, such as magazines or catalogs, usually the printing of the individual sheets of each printed product is carried out before each of these sheets is assembled to a finished printed product and then the compiled Bows stapled and finished for shipping. When using the method according to the invention, depending on the specific requirements of the individual case, it is possible for the final collation and stitching of the finished printed product to take place upon the completion of the printed products only after the application of an addressee-specific medium at a designated location of a respective one of the printed products. In this case, a respective addressee-specific medium is attached, for example, to a printed sheet of printed matter intended for this purpose, preferably directly related to its printing, and the resulting address-specific printed sheets are provided in a specific sequence for collating the respective addressee-specific durable product.

For example, the method can be configured such that anonymous signatures of the respective printed product, to which no addressee-specific medium is assigned, are gathered in sequence up to and including a printable sheet to be addressed specifically, to which an addressee-specific medium is assigned. Then the addressee-specific to be made sheet associated addressee-specific medium / associated with the sheet addressee-specific media attached to the sheet, which is easy because the sheet is now completely outside or on top of the stack of sheets to be assembled. Then, the other sheets of the respective printed product are then collected, if necessary. The just mentioned steps are repeated, if even more sheets are contained in the respective printed product, which are associated with addressee-specific media.

Another variant of the method consists in first assigning the printed sheet to be made to a particular addressee-specific addressee-specific medium / the respective printed sheet associated addressee-specific media are attached to the addressee-specific to be made sheet, which z. B. can be done directly in Zusammnehang with the production of the respective addressee-specific medium, since the corresponding sheet is then usually associated with any of the addressee. It goes without saying that, if appropriate, this step is carried out for all printed sheets to which addressee-specific media are assigned. Thereafter, all sheets of the respective printed product are collected in order, z. On a known collection line, including the signatures / signatures to which the addressee-specific media are attached. In this case, it must above all be ensured that the respective address-specific printed sheets collected for a printed product also carry address-specific media associated with the corresponding addressee. The advantage of this variant of the method is a somewhat greater flexibility compared to the aforementioned method variant, but it can only be used reasonably if it can be ensured that a reliable collation (eg via a corresponding feeder) is possible even with addressee-specific media attached to the print sheet. So mistakes rarely occur. This will usually be the case with media that does not differ too much from the format and type of prints.

On the other hand, however, it is also conceivable that upon completion of a respective addressee-specific printed product at least the final collation of a finished printed product takes place before an addressee-specific medium is attached. In this case, therefore, the sheets of a printed product are first compiled into a still anonymous printed product and only then is an addressee-specific medium applied to a corresponding sheet of this printed product, so that the printed product is now address-specific. This approach has the advantage that between the definition the addressee for a printed product and the completion of this printed product for shipping fewer steps than the two first-mentioned method variants, so that consequently fewer errors are to be expected. Moreover, this approach is most compatible with the methods known in the art. Of course, this method can only be applied if an already compiled printed product can be "opened" again so far that the respective addressee-specific medium can be attached.

It is favorable if the completion of a respective addressee-specific printed product and the production of the addressee-specific media are coordinated with one another in such a way that the sequence of production of addressee-specific media corresponds to the sequence in which the addressee-specific printed products are completed, since then a correct assignment of address-specific media and the corresponding printed products is relatively easy. In this case, the provision of the printed products for an address-specific delivery can be based on information from the database structure, on the basis of which the order of production of the corresponding address-specific media and the completion of the corresponding address-specific printed products was already established.

However, given the corresponding complexity of the production processes of addressee-specific media and printed products to be coordinated with one another and the subsequent provision for shipping, misallocations are to be expected with a relatively high degree of probability. In order to prevent erroneous addressee-specific printed products from being sent for delivery in this case, it is preferably provided that, additionally or alternatively, the provision of the printed products for address-specific delivery takes place on the basis of information, which are carried by an addressee-specific medium. Thus, for example, the addressee-specific information of a medium that is to be provided for shipping can be used to provide further information important for the shipping of the printed product (for example the mailing address or a corresponding invoice) or it can contain the address-specific information actually recorded with the corresponding, be compared from the database structure information taken so that misallocations can be easily detected.

After an addressee-specific printed product is substantially completely finished, the provision of the printed product for an addressee-specific delivery by means of printing and publishing technique known methods can be done in a relatively direct way, so that only in rare cases at this stage still misalignments should occur. However, this does not apply if the addressee-specific media are each assigned to an intended printed product after their production. For this reason, it is expedient if the completion of a respective addressee-specific printed product further comprises the reading out and storing of a machine-readable identification of an addressee-specific medium in association with the affixing of the addressee-specific medium to a printed product. In that case, the stored machine-readable marking can be used for further processing of the meanwhile address-specific printed product. If misalignments between a printed product and an addressee-specific medium have occurred up to this point in time, it can be ensured by reading out and storing the actually present machine-readable marking of an addressee-specific medium that the error is recognized or / and that subsequently a respective one assigned to the respective medium Shipping address or invoice is attached.

In view of the fact that due to the possibly very different nature and format of different addressee-specific media among themselves as well as the addressee-specific media and the respective printer product and the free arrangement of an addressee-specific medium on a sheet, a precise determination of the positioning of a label is not possible, this seems an additional measure of effort, because high-performance and flexible reading equipment must be used. However, it has been shown that it is precisely through the machine-readable marking that an extremely low error rate can be achieved, which ultimately justifies the increased expense.

If the machine-readable identification is read out and stored in the case of completion of a respective printed product, it can further be provided that the production of the addressee-specific media further comprises the attachment of the machine-readable identification to each medium. The attachment is in this case such that by means of the machine-readable identifier of the medium associated addressee can be determined. This ensures that each of the addressee-specific media receives a corresponding machine-readable identification in direct allocation to its production, preferably immediately after the medium has been produced.

It can be provided that, for the provision of an address-specific delivery, further addressee-specific information is attached to the essentially finished printed product on the basis of the stored identification of the at least one addressee-specific medium contained therein and / or on the basis of information from the database structure. As already mentioned, these may include further addressee-specific information, in particular a delivery address to the predetermined addressee or a correspondingly enclosed invoice and the like. According to the above Explanations can serve to query such information the stored label. In this case, additionally or alternatively, the database structure can be used.

Furthermore, it is preferably provided that the machine-readable identification is read out optically. For this purpose, proven methods are available in the printing / publishing / shipping industry, for example when sorting letters. In particular, it may be provided that a text in a machine-readable font, preferably an OCR font, is mounted on the medium to produce the machine-readable identifier. Such a text may be, for example, the name and / or address of an addressee who is to be printed anyway in many cases. In order to identify the text clearly, one uses a machine-readable font. For this purpose, z. B. OCR fonts a well-proven in the art means. It goes without saying that the machine-readable text can also be affixed to the medium in addition to the text that is actually to be printed, for example if the name / address is to be printed in a non-machine-readable script.

A method in which a machine-readable tag can be mounted on a medium in a particularly fail-safe manner is to place the machine-readable tag in the form of a bar code on the media. Such bar codes are used in many ways in the art. They are characterized in particular by the fact that when detecting the marking by means of corresponding bar code scanner only very low error rates occur.

The addressee-specific printed products are usually produced in a predetermined order, which is predetermined by corresponding logistical requirements, such as the sequence of the delivery routes or the combination of different address ranges to units to be jointly delivered. In such cases it is then advantageous when the associated addressee-specific media are prepared in an appropriate order or are placed in such order after production. The advantage of such a procedure is that, in order to assign a respective addressee-specific medium to the printed product assigned to it, only the two "piles" have to be processed in the predetermined sequence.

If a machine-readable identifier is used, then it can be provided that the machine-readable identifier is assigned to a current data record number, which is in each case assigned consecutively to a printed item to be sent to a specific addressee. The assignment is conveniently carried out in the predetermined order in which the printed products are to be produced. By virtue of this procedure, the printed products to be produced can be brought into a sequence that is favorable for shipping even before the printed products and the addressee-specific media are produced. This sequence then defines the current data record number, by means of which the assignment of a machine-readable identifier which has been recorded at some later time to a data record is directly possible.

If a predetermined sequence is specified in which the addressee-specific printed products are to be produced, then it may be advantageous to compare the order of the read markings with the predetermined sequence and to carry out appropriate corrective measures when inconsistencies are detected. So should a misalignment occur, for. B. because a wrong address label has been attached to an addressee-specific printed product or because in one of the printed matter an addressee-specific medium has been attached, which should be assigned to another printed product, so as soon as possible, in any case before sending the finished printed matter the respective printed products are removed from the production process and a renewed Production of the corresponding defective printed product may be initiated without address-specific medium only with printed address (reprinting). When introducing several, different addressee-specific media, it is conceivable to exchange only those pages that carry faulty addressee-specific media against "anonymous" pages. For this purpose, appropriately programmed fault scenarios can be provided. In particular, it may be provided to directly control the correct attachment for each addressee-specific medium. Also, a deviation of the finished printed products from the predetermined order may be corrected by causing a corresponding resorting before finally providing for shipping.

In the method according to the invention, it is also preferably provided that, in the production of the addressee-specific media, in each case static information which is identical for a large number of media is processed or attached separately from dynamic information which is different for each medium. In particular, it is provided here that two complementary print templates are used to produce one respective addressee-specific medium, a first print template being used for printing the static information, which is identical for all addressee-specific media. For printing the dynamic information, on the other hand, a second printing original to be created for each medium is used. The aim of this separation of variable data (such as name and address) and non-variable data (for example, the layout of an advertisement) is the sometimes significant reduction of the high volume data, since often the non-variable data include a much larger amount of data than the variable data addressee-specific medium. The preparation of the respective sentence documents for the non-variable data or the variable data can be carried out using conventional techniques, preferably computer-aided.

In order to increase the efficiency in the production of the addressee-specific media, it may be provided that several addressee-specific media are produced per operation, wherein the media are produced in an order in which as many media as possible can be produced simultaneously during each operation. In particular, it may be provided that the media are temporarily brought into a different sequence than the predetermined sequence during their production. This may be necessary, for example, to always be able to exploit the largest possible proportion of the surface of a printed sheet in printed media (postcards). After completion, the media are then possibly brought back into the predetermined order in order to carry out the further operations as described above.

By means of the method of the present invention, a plurality of different media may be used as addressee-specific media, for example smaller print products, preferably cards, postcards or coupons (for example discount coupons) on which at least the name of the addressee is printed. In addition, however, it is quite conceivable to use CDs, sample packs (eg, perfumes, creams or the like), textiles, etc. as the address-specific media. Above all, stapled or bound magazines or other brochures may be considered as printed products.

• eine EDV-gestützte Datenbank mit einer Datenbankstruktur, die jeweils einem Adressaten eines Druckerzeugnisses Informationen zuordnet, die den Adressaten charakterisieren,
• eine Druckerzeugnisproduktionseinheit zum Drucken eines Deckblatts eines jeweiligen fertiggestellten Druckerzeugnisses sowie einer Mehrzahl von Innenseiten des fertiggestellten Druckerzeugnisses bildenden Druckbögen, Zusammentragen des Deckblatts und der Mehrzahl von Druckbögen, und Heften oder Binden der Mehrzahl von Druckbögen einschließlich Deckblatt, wobei wenigstens an einem der Druckbögen, dem adressatspezifischen Druckbogen, an wenigstens einer vorbestimmten Stelle adressatspezifische Information anbringbar ist, und
• eine Versandeinheit, um das im Wesentlichen fertiggestellte jeweilige Druckerzeugnis für den Versand bereitzustellen,
• wenigstens eine Medienherstellungseinheit zur Herstellung einer Mehrzahl von adressatspezifischen Medien, deren Format sich von dem Format des jeweiligen Druckerzeugnisses unterscheidet, wobei jedes Medium für einen Adressaten spezifische Informationen enthält,
  dadurch gekennzeichnet,
• dass die Druckerzeugnisproduktionseinheit wenigstens eine Medienanbringungseinheit umfasst, zum Anbringen wenigstens eines aus der Mehrzahl von adressatspezifischen Medien an dem wenigstens einen adressatspezifischen Druckbogen auf einer Innenseite des Druckerzeugnisses, und
• dass die Versandeinheit, die Druckerzeugnisproduktionseinheit sowie die Medienherstellungseinheit derart aufeinander abgestimmt betreibbar sind, dass die durch wenigstens ein adressatspezifisches Medium adressatspezifisch gemachten Druckerzeugnisse für eine adressatspezifische Zustellung bereitstellbar sind.

For carrying out the method, according to a second aspect of the present invention, a system for producing address-specific printed products according to claim 22 is proposed, the system comprising:

• an EDP-based database with a database structure which in each case assigns information to an addressee of a printed product which characterizes the addressee,
• a printed product production unit for printing a cover sheet of a respective finished printed product, as well as a plurality of signatures forming inner sides of the finished printed product, collating the cover sheet and the plurality of signatures, and binding or binding the plurality of signatures, including at least one of the signatures, the addressee-specific signatures, address-specific information at at least one predetermined location , and
• a shipping unit to provide the substantially completed respective printed product for shipment,
• at least one media production unit for producing a plurality of addressee-specific media, the format of which differs from the format of the respective printed product, each media containing information specific to an addressee,
  characterized,
• the printed product production unit comprises at least one media attachment unit for attaching at least one of the plurality of addressee-specific media to the at least one address-specific printed sheet on an inner side of the printed product, and
• in that the shipping unit, the printed product production unit and the media production unit can be operated coordinated with one another in such a way that the printed matter made specific to the addressee by at least one addressee-specific medium can be made available for an addressee-specific delivery.

Preferably, several addressee-specific media can be attached to the respective printed product.

The printed product production unit may comprise, for example, a saddle stitcher with a plurality of investors for collating individual printed sheets of the respective printed product, wherein a respective media attachment unit is arranged upstream of a feeder for collating the addressee-specific printed sheet (associated with the addressee-specific medium / addressee-specific media). In this embodiment, the known arrangement of a saddle stitcher can be used, so that a conversion of existing equipment is relatively easy. The additional media attachment unit only has to be connected in front of the investor provided in each case for the addressee-specific signature, or the respective conventional investor must be replaced by an investor who has the additional media attachment function. However, it is a prerequisite that the investor also works reliably with the sheets provided with addressee-specific medium. This can be done with somewhat bulkier media, eg. As thick cardboard boxes, brochures or CDs cause problems.

Alternatively it can be provided that the printed product production unit comprises a saddle stitcher with a plurality of investors for collating individual printed sheets of the respective printed product, wherein the media mounting unit is connected downstream of the investors. Again, no conversions are required on the saddle stitcher, only a media attachment unit needs to be added to the work path between the investors and the stitching or binding station. The flexibility here is even greater than in the case described above, since with one and the same media attachment unit addressee-specific media can be mounted on each side of the printed product. However, since it is necessary to later refine the pages in an already collated printed matter, this method is especially useful if small, flat and light manageable (eg correspondingly flexible) media such as coupons should be attached.

It is also possible for the printed product production unit to comprise a saddle stitcher with a plurality of investors for collating individual printed sheets of the respective printed product, wherein a media mounting unit is directly followed by a feeder for gathering a print sheet specific to the addressee-specific medium / addressee-specific media. In this case, one needs for each addressee-specific to be made sheet a separate media attachment unit, which is also arranged in the work path of the sheets between the investors. This variant is therefore correspondingly expensive. It offers the advantage of being able to easily attach even complex media to the printed sheet lying on the outside or at the top.

Preferably, the media attachment unit is associated with an information acquisition unit which is designed to detect information contained in the media, by means of which the addressee assigned to the medium can be determined. The information acquisition unit can in this case be integrated directly into the media attachment unit. Alternatively, it is also conceivable to pre-store or store the information acquisition unit of the media attachment unit, but in this case it is important to ensure that the detection of the addressee-specific information contained on the medium takes place in a fixed allocation for attaching the medium.

The information acquisition unit may comprise, in addition to a sensor for detecting at least a portion of the addressee-specific information on a medium, a memory in order to store the detected addressee-specific information. Based on this stored information can then be determined at any time the addressee assigned to the corresponding printed product, so that accordingly further addressee-specific information, such as address stickers, can be attached to the printed product.

To generate the information on the respective addressee-specific media, by means of which the addressee assigned to the medium can be determined, it is preferably provided that the media production unit is assigned a correspondingly designed information transfer unit. This information transmission unit ensures that a corresponding, preferably machine-readable identification is attached to this medium in direct association with the production of an addressee-specific medium.

The information acquisition unit or the information transmission unit are preferably devices for optically detecting or transmitting signals, in particular an OCR type scanner or an OCR type printer or a bar code scanner or a bar code printer. Both types of systems are well known in the art and well tested. The system according to the invention can comprise, for example, a media production unit which is designed for the production of small-format printed products, preferably cards, postcards or coupons (eg discount coupons). Accordingly, then the media attachment unit for attaching postcards or smaller print products, preferably cards, postcards or coupons (eg rebate coupons) formed on printed matter. Again, it should be emphasized once again that this represents only one option out of a multiplicity of other conceivable variants, for example, media production unit or media attachment unit can be designed for producing or attaching CDs, textiles, sample packs and the like.

The system is preferably designed to produce stapled or glued magazines or brochures.

Fig. 1

ein Flussdiagramm zur Erläuterung der ersten Schritte im Produktionsablauf bei der Herstellung von Druckerzeugnissen, an die adressatspezifische Medien nach dem erfindungsgemäßen Verfahren angebracht werden.

Fig. 2

die Fortsetzung des in Fig. 1 gezeigten Produktionsablaufs.

Fig. 3

die Fortsetzung des in Fig. 2 gezeigten Produktionsablaufs.

Fig. 4

ein schematisches Blockdiagramm eines zur Durchführung des erfindungsgemäßen Verfahrens vorgesehenen Systems zur Herstellung von Druckerzeugnissen mit daran angebrachten adressatspezifischen Medien.

The invention will be described in detail below with reference to a preferred embodiment. It shows:

Fig. 1

a flowchart for explaining the first steps in the production process in the production of printed matter are attached to the addressee-specific media according to the inventive method.

Fig. 2

the continuation of the production process shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3

the continuation of the production process shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 4

a schematic block diagram of a system provided for carrying out the method according to the invention for the production of printed products with attached addressee-specific media.

By means of the method according to the invention, personalized printed products, in particular subscriptions sold by subscription, are to be produced. In this case, a (post) card or discount coupon personalized to a respective, known subscriber is glued onto a prefabricated advertisement which is printed in a journal subscribed to by the respective subscriber. It must be ensured that in the production of the magazine, the personalized card is attached according to the later shipping addressing in the magazine, so that each subscriber receives the addressed to him newspaper / magazine with the personally addressed card with advertising message.

Figures 1 to 3 show in the form of a flow chart the production flow chart of the production of such sold in the subscription periodicals according to the inventive method. Cards are affixed to magazines that contain personalized, ie addressee-specific information (so-called "Direct AD ^™ ") for a particular subscriber. A key benefit of DirectAd's lies in the personal touch of the reader, which allows a "dialogue" between the reader and the advertiser. Further advantages are the targeted delivery, as readers usually pay for their magazines and therefore ensure that their stored personal data are up to date, as well as on the cost side, as the postage costs for advertising can be saved.

A prerequisite for the individual approach of a single magazine customer via personalized advertising messages using Direct AD's ^™ is a customer database. Such a customer database is usually supplied by the magazine publisher of a subscription magazine and contains in addition to the address information of the subscriber as many other addressee-specific information, for example on the reading behavior of each addressee from which personal messages for the advertising medium can be generated. The database thus provides an "addressee profile" specific to a particular addressee.

After receipt of this database (step 2 in FIG. 1), it is first subjected to a check. In this case, on the one hand, it is checked whether the data received via any common data transmission method (for example ISDN, FTP, CD, etc.) has a conventional data format (eg dbase, EXCEL, text file) or if the data is at least in one of the convert common database file formats. On the other hand, it is also checked whether all data records are complete and whether the required data fields are available. This operation is usually done individually depending on the requirement.

Thereafter, in step 4, the assignment of different layout motifs of advertising to each customer. Here, for example, for advertising a particular company depending on the magazine and information from the addressee profile different advertising messages are assigned to the customer. If necessary, the corresponding address control can be generated based on the addressee profile in this step. Depending on the requirements, further data fields are created on the basis of the data fields present in the customer database by means of database commands known per se, and these are assigned, for example, to the motif name to be used or the personal salutation of the customer.

The data records generated in step 4 are then further processed in step 5 in the sense of the most efficient possible delivery. Above all, this processing includes a sorting of the data sets in accordance with Deutsche Post AG's guidelines for central bundle production (ZEBU), in order to adapt the production order of the printed products to the logistical requirements (for example, the sequence of the delivery routes of Deutsche Post AG). The processing is software-based, for example by the software "ICOM Infopress". In parallel to the preparation, the bundled inscriptions and pallet labels will be printed in this process, also supported by the "ICOM Infopress" software, to mark the magazines to be packed according to the rules mentioned after production.

Subsequently, in step 6, a temporary re-sorting of the data sets takes place in order to achieve optimum utilization of the printed sheets during the digital printing process of the cards bearing the personalized advertising messages. As a rule, it is necessary for cost reasons in the production of the cards bearing the personalized advertising messages to print several different personalized cards per printed sheet. Therefore, the data structure, ie in particular the order, in which the cards are to be printed, adapted to the order required depending on final format and planned further processing in the sense of the most efficient use of a single sheet. This step is preferably carried out in such a way that new, identical in structure with the edited customer database data fields are created by database commands and the corresponding parts of the customer database are transferred to this so-called print database. Subsequently, every new data record of this database prepared for printing is then stored with the data of the customer database sorted according to an optimized utilization of individual printed sheets. After processing, ie printing, varnishing and cutting the cards, the order of the cards now carrying address-specific information is sorted back to the order determined in step 5.

In order to create a map bearing a specific advertising message, graphics data regarding the design of the card layout are still required. This graphic data can be obtained from the respective advertiser in the same way as the database or it can be designed by the publisher / printer own designs (see step 1). As a rule, such a layout only contains a sample text or a placeholder at the point at which address-specific information should later appear in the individual cards. In step 3, after one or more proofs of the card layout this is checked by the publisher and the advertiser and released for printing.

Thereafter, the actual production shown in Fig. 2 of the addressee-specific information bearing advertising cards can be performed. For the part of the data which is merely static, ie identical for all the advertising cards to be printed, one set file is created separately for each of the front and back of the card (steps 7 and 8). Again, care is taken to ensure that the number, order and arrangement of each Printed sheet printed cards according to the pressure database generated in step 6 in the optimal order. Since all cards contain the same graphics and text elements, in this case the front and back of the card require only a one-page block file that can be used for all printed sheets. From this one-page block file, a corresponding Postscript file for digital printing is generated in steps 14 and 15 respectively for the front and back card of a sheet.

When dealing with the variable data extracted from the customer database (ie, data that is address-specific and therefore different from card to card), it is also based on the print database created in step 6 and the advertiser's layout preferences (eg, font) a set document for the front (step 9) and for the back (step 10) of the cards of a respective sheet with the determined in step 6 optimal number, order and arrangement of individual cards. These sentence documents generated in steps 9 and 10 contain only variable data. Since the variable data for each of the addressee-specific cards are different, of course, for each sheet to be printed a separate sentence document must be created. By separating variable and non-variable data, in most cases a considerable reduction of the large amount of data resulting in particular from the high print runs can be achieved and thus the entire production process can be optimized.

The processes described here can be carried out using conventional layout programs, preferably using the layout program "Quark-XPress" (Version 4.1 for MacIntosh) together with the Xtension for Quark XPress "Meadows Information System - Design Merge Pro" (Version 4.18) assign the individual variable fields of the respective record file to the respective data fields of the print database. Using the Design Merge Pro program, a one-page set document is also created from the one-sided documents linked to the print database in steps 10 and 11 for front and back. Each page of this multi-page sentence document corresponds to a printed sheet and contains the information of the datasets of the print database.

In steps 12 and 13, a software-supported check and adaptation of the variable data to the text fields specified by the layout of the card are carried out for each of the addressee-specific cards of a printed sheet. This procedure, which uses the Quark XPress Xtension "Meadows Information System - Copy Fit (Version 1.18)", automatically reduces or enlarges image data to the correct size and adjusts text fields according to definable rules. Preferably, by gradually reducing font size and spacing, text data fields whose content is too large for the defined text frame are gradually adjusted to the layout. Analogously, it is possible to adapt varying image data fields to the underlying image frames.

Subsequently, in steps 16 and 17, the two versatile batch files are converted to PostScript via standard printer drivers, which is the page description language of the digital presses used herein.

In steps 18 and 19, the printing of the address-specific information-carrying cards takes place in a media production unit. This can be done for example by means of an IBM Infocolor 70 color laser printer or preferably by means of a digital press "MAN Roland DICO-Press 500". In this case, a so-called "Bookticket" is generated for connecting the associated in post-script files with variable and static information. This can, for example, be done manually using an editor according to the manufacturer's defined syntax. The Bookticket gives the Barco Print Streamer upstream of the press all the information needed to print or impress on the variable information. Following the printing process, a coating of the motif side of a card with UV varnish is usually carried out (step 20, see FIG. 3). As already mentioned, the generated cards are then cut out of the respective signatures, cut to size and sorted in the dispatch order of the carrier magazines (determined in step 6).

Important for further processing of the addressee-specific cards according to the present method is that preferably already when generating the sentence file for each sheet, possibly even after generating the versatile set file for all printed sheets or after production of the cards for each individual address-specific card machine-readable encoding of this card must be done. In this case, this machine-readable encoding of the individual addressee-specific card takes place in that each card is assigned a serial number of the data record on which it is based, and on the card itself a text, i. a character string uniquely identifying the particular card is provided in a machine-readable font. In this way, the machine-readable encoding of an addressee-specific card via the data record number can be used to easily determine the data record of the print database or the customer database linked to it.

If non-machine-readable fonts (eg, scribes) are used as the text to be affixed to the card, the unique, current record number will be inserted into the variable data set document for the advertising postcard in the appropriate location on the front page. This can be done for example in a machine-readable OCR font or by means of a bar code.

Parallel to the processes described here for generating the addressee-specific information-carrying maps are the individual sheets the "magazine magazine" printed in a conventional manner (Fig. 3, step 21). In order to attach a card bearing an addressee-specific information to the respectively assigned point of the carrier journal assigned to it, the coding (for example the data record number) which is preferably printed on the card as an OCR font is first read out in step 22. The reading is done by a camera which is provided on the here preferably used for sticking the cards "Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG card adhesive WK 400". (Alternatively, for example, a "Muller Martini card adhesive 315" could be used). This camera is directly connected to the control software of the stapler "Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG Sammelhefter ST 400" (alternatively a saddle stitcher "Muller Martini Prima SB" can also be used), whereby the card adhesive is also included in the saddle stitcher is integrated. In this case, before the collation and stapling of the complete magazine, the individual card associated with a printed product to be printed together is stuck in the card adhesive to the appropriate sheet at the corresponding location. At the same time, the control software of the saddle stitchers performs the text recognition, ie the reading out and storage of the machine-readable marking contained on the addressee-specific card. Then, using this machine-readable tag, a comparison is made with the customer database sorted in the mailing order (step 25). On the basis of this comparison, further data, for example sender and recipient address, are determined from the database (customer database or print database).

After affixing the card with the addressee-specific message, all sheets of the "carrier journal" are collected in the saddle stitcher (step 24). Subsequently, in step 26, when finishing the printed product for shipment, the impression of sender and recipient address of the magazine is made on the basis of the comparison made in step 25. This operation takes place in the saddle stitcher conventionally known Inkjet printing process by commercial inkjet printheads and is controlled by the software of the saddle stitcher. Finally, the magazine is also stapled in the saddle stitcher.

If erroneously arranged or missing addressee-specific media are detected on a printed product in step 25 or / and in a later check read shortly before the delivery of finished printed products, an error log is generated, which is used as a basis for necessary corrections, eg. As any reprints or manual re-sorting of individual magazines, is used.

In the event that three different addressee-specific media are to be attached to different pages on a printed product, for example, the following error scenario can be preprogrammed. The basic aim of this scenario is to ensure that only targeted addressee-specific media are delivered and that bad pages are replaced by non-personalized pages. This is to ensure that at least two out of three addressee-specific media are glued to the right place in the printed product.

Should it be determined that the addressee-specific media are at least partially sorted incorrectly, the production process is stopped and the addressee-specific media is re-sorted in an extra machine. At the same time, the cause of the error is searched and fixed offline when production is stopped.

If one of the addressee-specific media is not removed from its correspondingly provided magazine before it is attached, an unpersonalized printed product is printed if the error has already occurred in the first addressee-specific medium. Then the error on the first magazine is fixed. The address software receives a Instruction to memorize a "buffer", ie to print no address on the unpersonalized printed product. Afterwards the production process will continue normally. If the error occurs only with the second or third addressee-specific medium, the intermediate pushing of an unpersonalized printed product is no longer possible and it is merely the production stopped, fixed the error on the corresponding magazine and then continue production, in the next printed product instead pages are inserted with already pasted address-specific media non-personalized pages.

If several addressee-specific media are withdrawn simultaneously from one of the magazines, then non-identical addresses would subsequently be assigned to a printed product. In this case too, production is stopped and the error in the respective magazine is rectified.

Furthermore, it is conceivable that an error only occurs after an addressee-specific medium has been withdrawn from its magazine, but does not stick to the printed product or falls down. In this case, production will not be stopped if at least two out of three addressee-specific media per printed product have been correctly applied, since such an error will not affect the production of the subsequent printed products. However, if less than two out of three addressee-specific media are attached to a booklet, production is halted for troubleshooting.

Finally, it is conceivable that, for example, because an addressee-specific medium is stuck in the wrong place, an error is noticed in the subsequent sticking of the address-specific medium actually provided for this point. If this happens already at the first address-specific medium to be attached, the production is stopped, the faulty signature (or the affected page) is exchanged and then the production is continued. This only happens at the second addressee-specific Medium, the faulty signature is ejected together with the already attached first addressee-specific medium and causes an immediate re-sorting with "good" signatures and the second and third addressee-specific medium. If the error occurs in the third addressee-specific medium, the defective signature is ejected with the first or second addressee-specific medium, and the third addressee-specific medium that has not yet been pasted is ejected. By software, the error is noted in the list of newly sorted printed products without addressee-specific media.

4 shows a schematic block diagram of a system for producing printed products suitable for carrying out the described method. In the system shown in FIG. 4, as is known per se, individual printed sheets of a magazine to be produced are gathered together via a gathering chain 110 in order to subsequently be stapled together in a stitching unit 112 and subsequently provided in a shipping unit 114 for shipment to become. The shipping unit 114 in this case also includes a control function for the finished printed products, so that faulty printed products can be sorted out before shipment in a defect stack 116. The individual printed sheets to be brought together are fed to the gathering chain 110 via corresponding feeders, of which three are shown in FIG. 4 by way of example as 118a, 118b, 118c. The feeders 118a to 118c each comprise a stack of similar printed sheets 120a, 120b, 120c, from which a sheet is drawn off during collation and deposited on the gathering chain 110. The control of the individual feeders 120a to 120c, the gathering chain 110, the stitching unit 112 and the shipping unit 114 is performed by a corresponding control unit 118 (so-called "selective binding controller") which is connected to each of the said machines for exchanging data or control commands is (dashed lines in Fig. 4). To be shipped as part of the completion, For example, in the shipping unit 114, to also print names and addresses of subscribers, the control unit 118 is connected to a database system 115 in which a customer database is stored.

The system shown in FIG. 4 further comprises a production unit 122 for addressee-specific media 126. By means of the media production unit 122, for example, postcards associated with a specific advertisement can be produced on which addressee-specific information, for example the name of the subscriber, is printed in addition to the advertisement information. These addressee-specific media 26 are to be attached to the printed products in such a way that each print product associated with a particular subscriber also has the respective addressee-specific medium 126 assigned to it. The media production unit 122 is also connected to the customer-database-supported computer-aided database system 115 in order to be able to query the corresponding address-specific information as well as the order in which the production of the media 126 is to take place.

The feeder 118a to 118c, the gathering chain 110, the stitching unit 112 and the control unit 118 comprising the printed product production unit 100 is also associated with a media mounting unit 124, by means of which an addressee-specific medium 126 is attached to a printing sheet 120a provided for this purpose. After attaching the addressee-specific medium 126, the respective printed sheet 120a is then deposited on the corresponding feeder 118a, so that a stack of the now address-specific sheets 120a in the predetermined order arises on the feeder 118a. The media attachment unit 124 is additionally assigned an information acquisition unit 130, by means of which at least part of the addressee-specific information attached to the respective medium can be detected, such that the data record of the customer database associated with the respective addressee-specific medium 126 can be determined. This information is stored by the control unit 118, so that all further steps can be carried out on the basis of this information.

In addition or as an alternative to the media attachment unit 124, the pressure generation production unit 100 may also be assigned the media attachment unit 124 '. The media attachment unit 124 'differs from the media attachment unit 124 in that an addressee-specific medium 126 is attached to a respective printed product only when the individual printed sheets of the printed product have been assembled into a complete magazine, ie at a later point in the production process of the printed product. Otherwise, the function of the media attachment unit 124 'corresponds to that of the media attachment unit 124; in particular, the media attachment unit 124' is likewise assigned an information acquisition unit 130 '.

The media production unit 122 is accordingly associated with an information transmission unit 128, by means of which machine-readable information is transmitted to a respectively produced addressee-specific medium 126. By reading this machine-readable information, the addressee assigned to the respective medium can be determined in a later step.

Claims (31)

1. Method for producing addressee-specific printed products wherein, for the completion of each printed product, a plurality of printed sheets (120a, 120b, 120c) are assembled (24) for forming inner pages of the finished printed product, provided with a cover page and stapled or bound (27), an EDP-supported database structure, which allocates to the respective addressee of each printed product information characterising the addressee, being provided (2), at least one of the printed sheets (120a) becoming an addressee-specific printed sheet as a result of the attachment of addressee-specific information to at least one predetermined location, the printed products being provided after the completion for an addressee-specific delivery (26, 27) on the basis of information from the database structure and/or on the basis of the addressee-specific information on the personalised printed sheet (120a), a plurality of addressee-specific media (126), the format of which is different from that of the finished printed product, being produced (3, 7 to 20) using information from the database structure, each medium (126) containing characteristic information for a respective addressee, characterised in that, for the completion of the respective addressee-specific printed product, at least one of the plurality of addressee-specific media (126) is attached (23) to the at least one addressee-specific printed sheet (120a) on an inner page of the printed product.
2. Method according to claim 1, characterised in that a plurality of addressee-specific media (126) are attached to the printed product.
3. Method according to either claim 1 or claim 2, characterised in that, during completion of each addressee-specific printed product, the final assembly (24) and stapling (27) or binding of the finished printed product take place only after the attachment (23) of an addressee-specific medium (126) to a provided location in the printed product.
4. Method according to claim 3, characterised in that the completion of each printed product involves the following steps:

   a) assembly of anonymous printed sheets (120b, 120c) of the respective printed product, with which sheets no addressee-specific medium (126) is associated, in sequence up to and including a printed sheet (120a) to be made addressee-specific, with which an addressee-specific medium (126) is associated;

   b) attachment to the printed sheet (120a) to be made addressee-specific of the addressee-specific medium/media (126) associated with the printed sheet (120a) to be made addressee-specific; and

   c) assembly of the further printed sheets of the respective printed product, optionally with repetition of steps a) to b), until all of the printed sheets have been assembled.
5. Method according to claim 3, characterised in that the completion of each printed product includes the following steps:

   a) attachment to the printed sheet (120a) to be made addressee-specific of the addressee-specific medium/media (126) associated with the printed sheet (120a) to be made addressee-specific and optionally carrying-out of this step for all further printed sheets to be made addressee-specific, with which addressee-specific media (126) are associated (23); and

   b) assembly of all of the printed sheets of the respective printed product in sequence including the addressee-specific printed sheet (120a)/the addressee-specific printed sheets to which addressee-specific media (126) are attached (24).
6. Method according to either claim 1 or claim 2, characterised in that, during completion of each addressee-specific printed product, at least the final assembly of the finished printed product takes place before an addressee-specific medium (126) is attached.
7. Method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterised in that the completion of each addressee-specific printed product also involves reading out (22) and saving a machine-readable marking of an addressee-specific medium (126) in association with the attachment (23) of the addressee-specific medium (126) to a printed product.
8. Method according to claim 7, characterised in that the production of the plurality of addressee-specific media also involves attachment (9, 9a, 10, 11) of the machine-readable marking to each medium (126) such that the addressee associated with the medium (126) may be determined by means of the machine-readable marking.
9. Method according to either claim 7 or claim 8, characterised in that the provision for an addressee-specific delivery also involves the attachment (26) of additional addressee-specific information to the substantially finished printed product on the basis of the saved marking of the at least one addressee-specific medium (126) contained in the printed product and/or on the basis of information from the database structure.
10. Method according to any one of claims 7 to 9, characterised in that the machine-readable marking is read out optically.
11. Method according to any one of claims 7 to 10, characterised in that for producing the machine-readable marking, a text in a machine-readable font, preferably in an OCR font, is attached to the medium.
12. Method according to any one of claims 7 to 10, characterised in that for producing the machine-readable marking, a bar code is attached to the medium.
13. Method according to any one of claims 1 to 12, characterised in that the addressee-specific printed products are produced in a predetermined sequence and the associated addressee-specific media (126) are produced in a corresponding sequence or are placed in such a sequence after production.
14. Method according to any one of claims 6 to 13, characterised in that the machine-readable marking is associated with an operating data record number, which in each case is continuously assigned, in the predetermined sequence in which the printed products are to be produced, to a printed product to be dispatched to a specific addressee.
15. Method according to claims 12 and 14, characterised in that the sequence of the read markings is compared to the predetermined sequence and on detection of discrepancies, corresponding corrective measures are carried out.
16. Method according to any one of claims 1 to 15, characterised in that during the production of the addressee-specific media (126), respective items of static information, which are identical for a large number of media, are processed and/or applied separately from items of dynamic information, which are different for each medium.
17. Method according to claim 16, characterised in that two supplementary prints are used for producing each addressee-specific medium (126), a first print (14, 15), which is identical for all of the addressee-specific media (126), being used for printing the static information and a second print (16, 17), which is produced or is to be produced for each medium (126), being used for printing the dynamic information.
18. Method according to any one of claims 1 to 17, characterised in that in the production of the addressee-specific media (126), a plurality of media (126) are produced per operating step, the media (126) being produced in a sequence in which optimum efficiency per operating step is achieved.
19. Method according to claim 18, characterised in that the media (126), during the production thereof, are placed temporarily in a different sequence from the predetermined sequence and are placed in the predetermined sequence after completion.
20. Method according to any one of claims 1 to 19, characterised in that relatively small-format printed products, preferably cards, postcards or coupons, on which at least the name of the addressee is imprinted, are used as the addressee-specific media (126).
21. Method according to any one of claims 1 to 20, characterised in that the printed products are stapled or adhesive-bound magazines or brochures.
22. System for the production of addressee-specific printed products, comprising an EDP-supported database (115) having a database structure, which allocates to a respective addressee of a printed product information characterising the addressee (2), a printed product production unit (100) for printing a cover page of each finished printed product and a plurality of printed sheets (120a, 120b, 120c) forming inner pages of the finished printed product, assembly of the cover page and the plurality of printed sheets (120a, 120b, 120c) and stapling or binding of the plurality of printed sheets (120a, 120b, 120c) including the cover page, wherein addressee-specific information may be attached to at least one of the printed sheets (120a), the addressee-specific printed sheet, at at least one predetermined location, and a dispatching unit (114) for preparing each substantially finished printed product for dispatch, at least one media production unit (122) for the production of a plurality of addressee-specific media (126), the format of which differs from the format of the respective printed product, each medium (126) containing specific information for an addressee, characterised in that the printed product production unit (100)- comprises at least one media attachment unit (124; 124') for attachment of at least one of the plurality of addressee-specific media (126) to the at least one addressee-specific printed sheet (120a) on an inner page of the printed product, and in that the dispatching unit (114), the printed product production unit (100) and the media production unit (122) may be operated in coordination with one another such that the printed products, which are made addressee-specific printed products by means of at least one addressee-specific medium (126), may be provided for addressee-specific delivery.
23. System according to claim 22, characterised in that a plurality of addressee-specific media (126) may be attached to the respective printed product.
24. System according to either claim 22 or claim 23, characterised in that the printed product production unit (100) comprises a gatherer stitcher comprising a plurality of feeders (118a, 118b, 118c) for assembling individual printed sheets (120a, 120b, 120c) of the respective printed product, a media attachment unit (124) being connected upstream of each feeder (118a) provided for assembling the addressee-specific printed sheet (120a).
25. System according to claims 22 to 24, characterised in that the printed product production unit (100) comprises a gatherer stitcher comprising a plurality of feeders (118a, 118b, 118c) for assembling individual printed sheets (120a, 120b, 120c) of the respective printed product, the media attachment unit (124') being connected downstream of the feeders.
26. System according to any one of claims 22 to 25, characterised in that the printed product production unit (100) comprises a gatherer stitcher comprising a plurality of feeders (118a, 118b, 118c) for assembling individual printed sheets (120a, 120b, 120c) of the respective printed product, a respective media attachment unit (124') being connected immediately downstream of a feeder (118a) provided for assembling a printed sheet (120a) to be made addressee-specific using an addressee-specific medium/addressee-specific media (126).
27. System according to any one of claims 22 to 26, characterised in that an information detection unit (130; 130'), which is configured for detecting information contained in the media (126), by means of which the addressee associated with the medium (126) may be determined, is associated with the media attachment unit (124; 124').
28. System for the production of printed products according to any one of claims 22 to 27, characterised in that an information transmission unit (128), which is configured for transmitting to the media (126) information, by means of which the addressee associated with the medium (126) may be determined, is associated with the media production unit (122).
29. System according to either claim 27 or claim 28, characterised in that the information detection unit (130; 130') or the information transmission unit (128) optically detects or transmits detectable signals and is configured, in particular, as an OCR font scanner or OCR font printer or as a bar code scanner or bar code printer.
30. System for the production of printed products according to any one of claims 22 to 29, characterised in that the media production unit (122) is configured for the production of relatively small-format printed products, preferably cards, postcards or coupons, and the media attachment unit (124, 124') is configured for the attachment of relatively small-format printed products, preferably cards or postcards, to printed products.
31. System according to any one of claims 22 to 30, characterised in that the system is configured for the production of stapled or adhesive-bound magazines or brochures.

Images