How mi-connect reduces magazine production time with Roxen

At the German publishing group mi-connect, producing 13 trade magazines meant editorial and layout teams were constantly passing pages back and forth during production. The workflow slowed magazine production and left little time for higher-value editorial and design work.

mi-connect, together with Hüthig Medien and Ultima Media Germany, publishes specialist magazines covering industry, technology, business and professional sectors. Roughly 70% of the magazines’ pages follow recurring layouts and structures, making them well suited for automation.

To streamline production, the publisher introduced Roxen’s print automation platform. Standard page types are now generated automatically, while editors and designers can refine layouts whenever needed.

Crucially, Roxen’s deep integration with Adobe InDesign meant the team didn’t have to start from scratch. They could continue working in a familiar environment while still fine-tuning pages in InDesign whenever needed.

The transition was faster than the team expected.

The results were immediate. Production time per magazine dropped by 30–40%. One issue that normally required more than a week to produce was completed by the editorial team alone in just three days. Editors can now assemble pages themselves in minutes, freeing the layout team to focus on more complex and design-intensive work.

The group is working toward a target of 50% automated pages by autumn, moving steadily toward a faster and more efficient production workflow. The experience highlights how targeted automation can reshape print production without removing editorial control.

Automation where it makes sense

For publishers with a significant share of repeatable page structures, layout automation can dramatically reduce production effort. At the same time, the degree of automation ultimately depends on editorial workflows and template design, allowing each publisher to balance efficiency with editorial control. In mi-connect’s case, the high share of standard pages made it possible to automate a large part of the workflow while still leaving flexibility for more complex layouts.