Who hides behind the different professions at Auxipress? In this interview, Tim Puttemans - Head of Print, takes us behind the scenes of his job.
With the expertise of more than 160 employees, Auxipress is the Belgian leader in media monitoring and digital audience listening. Who hides behind these different professions? What do they do on a daily basis to support brands in their growth? In this interview, Tim Puttemans – Head of Print, takes us behind the scenes of his job.
Hello Tim! Thank you for agreeing to answer our questions. To get to know you better, can you tell us which position you hold at Auxipress and how long it has been?
I have been working at Auxipress for 13 years. Being a trained journalist, I started out as a reader at Auxipress while working as a freelance journalist on the side. The job of a reader is to read the media, newspapers and magazines to select the articles that speak about our clients. For the past two years, I have been the head of the “print department”, which means that I take care of all the print media, including newspapers, magazines and the specialized press. Daily, I coordinate the team of readers, I help the sales and customer service staff with the various customer requests, etc.
As you are the head of the print department, you are part of the wider “production” team. Can you tell us more about the work of readers in this production team?
The production team at Auxipress is divided into two sections: the readers and the editors.
The reading team consists of seven people who come to work at 5 a.m every day. They start by reading the newspapers with the help of algorithms, they cut out the articles that mention clients in a specific program and they send the articles to our system so that the editorial team can work on those later.
After the work of the readers is done, the seven editors are in charge of synthesizing and reworking these articles in French, Dutch or English, send the most relevant news to our morning customers.
As far as cutting is concerned, how does it work exactly?
When I started, we received four large bags full of newspapers and magazines in the post every day. Then, four people had to manually cut the newspapers and glue them onto an A4 sheet to send them to our customers by post.
With the digitalization, this has changed a lot!
We now work on computers and are equipped with two computer screens: one screen on the left contains the newspaper, this is where the cutting is done with digital scissors. The second screen on the right allows you to select the articles you want to send to customers or to the editorial team.
Can you describe your “typical day” at Auxipress?
In the morning, I deal with customer requests and new orders. On top of that, I coordinate the team which consists in checking that all the newspapers are being processed correctly and checking the availability of all supplements and weeklies. I also make sure that all the newspapers and magazines are integrated in the system on time, so that the readers can start their work at 5am. I am also responsible for keeping our list of almost 1,500 publications up to date.
Have you seen any changes in your job over the years?
Yes, the health crisis has brought a lot of changes in my job and mainly in the way my team works. With the covid crisis, I noticed that teleworking was a benefit for the readers so that they do not have to come to the office too early in the day and they can work from home when the first publications arrive. Personally, I prefer to come here some days and maintain a balance between telework and face-to-face work.
And have you noticed a change in customers and their specific requests?
Yes, of course. The customers’ demands have become more and more specific. Some customers want a complete service, others do not. At the time, it was better to give one article too much than one article too little. Now, if you give an extra article, it is not always well received.
Has there been an evolution in the media over the last few years?
Yes, the big change is that some publications and magazines are disappearing, due to the fact that more and more mobile applications offer a digital format of free content. However, other magazines became more popular as readers prefer paper magazines, which are easier to read when there are many pages.
And finally, what do you like most about your job?
I like the fact that my job is versatile including team coordination, project coordination and other varied tasks. I have contacts with new clients, with salespeople, etc. Every day is quite different from the other and that’s what I like about it.
Thanks again to Tim for agreeing to take part in this interview. If you want to learn more about the different jobs at Auxipress, stay tuned…
