Colo. paper to build new plant

The Daily Sentinel in Grand Junction, Colo., will build a $35 million, 80,000-square-foot production plant to house production, administrative and editorial offices.

Bud Winslow, The Daily Sentinel’s operations director, said the daily hasn’t yet selected press, computer-to-plate or postproduction vendors, but will make those decisions within the next two months.

The paper is also evaluating which architectural firm it will hire to oversee the plant’s construction, Winslow said.

Winslow told Newspapers & Technology that The Daily Sentinel is leaning toward purchasing a singlewide, 21-inch cutoff press to replace its current doublewide machine, which was commissioned in 1984.

Winslow said the new facility would be operational in 2010.

Newspapers & Technology will have more information about The Daily Sentinel’s new facility in the February issue.

Goss testing cell phone-to-print ad technology

Goss International Corp. is putting the finishing touches on software aimed at making it easier for cell phone users to interact with print ads.

The offering, GossRSVP, is based on a two-dimensional barcode that appears in a company’s print advertisement. Consumers use their cell phones to either snap a picture of the code or text-message a request about the specific ad to Goss, which in turn sends back a promotional reward and other marketing information to the user.

Goss manages and processes all of the transactions from a server at its Durham, N.H., headquarters.

Foster’s Daily Democrat in Durham tested GossRSVP in its Dec. 20 and Dec. 23 editions, publishing print ads sporting the GossRSVP logo and associated barcode from five local firms.

"Print continues to deliver a very strong return on investment, and this interactive capability can enhance the value by documenting the reach and effectiveness," said Goss Vice President Toby Clarke, explaining the rationale behind the service.

"The GossRSVP program complements our ongoing innovations aimed at making print media more valuable and dynamic."

Clarke said Goss would continue testing GossRSVP with a limited number of advertisers and publishers in New Hampshire. It then hopes to expand the service to other parts of the country and to add more features to the offering.

Clarke said GossRSVP could also be used with other media in addition to print advertising, including billboards, packaging and electronic media.

GossRSVP comes as other vendors market services aimed at narrowing the gap between print and electronic content.

Finnish firm UpCode Ltd., for example, in 2006 displayed a mobile marketing technology that lets users automatically access Web content by pointing camera-equipped cell phones or PDAs at print ads containing a special code.

NeoMedia Technologies Inc., a Fort Myers, Fla., company, also has a direct-to-Web product that relies on mobile barcodes.

Texas daily picks Quipp for upgrade

The Waco (Texas) Tribune-Herald ordered inserting and other postpress equipment from Quipp Systems Inc. as the daily upgrades postproduction.

The newspaper purchased a 24:2 inserter with Quipp’s Newscom 6 insert management control software, according to Norm Huddleston, production director.

Additionally, the Tribune-Herald is getting eight hopper loaders, a Twin-Trak conveyor system, three Quipp stackers and three Viper wrappers with inkjet printing capabilities.

Newscom modules will also be used to oversee stackers, package labeling, circulation data and bundle labeling, Huddleston said.

The systems will be operational later this year.

The Tribune-Herald follows sister paper the Longview (Texas) News-Journal in upgrading its mailroom with equipment from Quipp. Both papers are owned by Cox Newspapers Inc.

Miami Herald outsourcing copy editing, ad work

The Miami Herald said it is outsourcing some of its copy editing and page layout design work to Mindworks, a prepress production firm based in New Delhi, India.

The newspaper said that as part of a test, Mindworks would be responsible for overseeing a weekly section of Broward County community news and other specialty advertising sections.

Meantime, The Herald will outsource some of its advertising production to San Jose, Calif.-based Express KCS, following the lead of other McClatchy Co. newspapers such as The Sacramento (Calif.) Bee, Modesto (Calif.) Bee and Fresno (Calif.) Bee.

Express KCS maintains a production facility in Gurgaon, India, and handles ad production for select McClatchy properties, the (Minneapolis) Star Tribune and a number of northern California dailies owned by MediaNews Group Inc., including the San Jose Mercury News.

Md. paper going to 3-wide printing

The Daily Times in Salisbury, Md., and other papers operated by Gannett Co. Inc.’s Delmarva Media Group will this month move production to a 50,000-square-foot plant anchored by a legacy singlewide press altered to print three pages across.

The publisher used a new press modification service offered by Pressline Services Inc. to alter a Goss International Corp. Urbanite press (see Newspapers & Technology, December 2007).

PSI’s three-wide ribbon deck comes complete with slitters, angle bars and compensator that let users transform their two-page-wide presses into three-wide machines.

Upon going on-edition on the press, The Daily Times, The Delaware Coast Press and other papers printed by Delmarva will shrink their page widths to 11 inches from their current 13.5-inch-wide formats.

According to a story posted by The Coast Press, the Urbanite will be able to produce 60 pages with 48 in full color, a dramatic boost from the eight pages of color the publisher’s current press can produce.

Gannett invested $6.4 million in the new plant, The Coast Press said.

KBA lands 7-press Indian order

The DB Group in Mumbai, India, ordered seven 4-by-1 Prisma doublewide presses from Koenig & Bauer AG to anchor future production needs.

DB will use the presses to produce the Sunday editions of Daily News & Analysis, a 410,000-subscriber English-language publication. Plans call for DB to increase the circulation of the paper to more than 600,000, thanks in part to a 140-page national edition that launched last October.

SLP notches year-end sales

Southern Lithoplate announced 11 year-end sales of its Viper 830 plates and associated computer-to-plate products through its CTP Alliance.

Associated Publishers Inc., a six-member newspaper cooperative based in Huntingdon, Tenn., converted to CTP with Screen's PlateRite News 2000LE thermal platesetter and Viper plates.

Three Gannett Co. Inc. dailies — the Great Falls (Mont.) Tribune, the Statesman Journal in Salem, Ore., and the Wausau (Wis.) Daily Herald — incorporated Viper 830 plates and PlateRite News platesetters as part of their integrated workflows.

Other sales included those to Community Newspaper Holdings’ Norman (Okla.) Transcript and Oneonta (N.Y.) Star, Boone Newspapers’ Albert Lea (Minn.) Tribune, the Durham (N.C.) Herald-Sun, E.W. Scripps Co.’s The Record Searchlight in Redding, Calif., the Dauphin Herald, a weekly community newspaper located in Dauphin, Manitoba, and Southwest Offset Printing Co. Inc. in Gardena, Calif., which prints daily, weekly and monthly publications.

Baldwin gets $4M order

Baldwin Technology Co. Inc. said it won a $4 million order from Sankei Newspaper Co. in Japan to equip its five presses with blanket cleaning and spray dampening equipment.

Sankei publishes the Sankei Shimbun, a 2 million-circ daily paper distributed in Tokyo and Osaka.

The equipment, expected to ship from April through September, will be fitted to five Mitsubishi presses at Sankei’s plants in Mihara and Oyodo, Baldwin said.

Inland extends print contest deadline

Inland Press Association extended the deadline of its 2008 Print Quality Competition through January, the association said.

The contest, sponsored by Kodak, is open to newspapers in the United States, Canada and Bermuda. Newspapers may submit both color and black-and-white photos.

Winners will be announced at IPA’s Key Executives Conference on Tuesday, Feb. 26.

For more information, and to submit photos, visit www.inlandpress.org/Main.asp?SectionID=47&SubSectionID=184&ArticleID=1371.

Once photos are entered, they must be downloaded from the following URL and submitted in ROP-published form to Inland’s offices at 701 Lee St., Suite 925, Des Plaines, IL 60016. Deadline is Feb. 1.

The URL: http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=ba45ff5dd8bfbb9d4012e8015643d9c8dd0a6daa747c9997

Questions can be directed to Elaine Lange, IPA’s contest coordinator, at 847.795.0380.

NYT adds Dallas print site

The New York Times said the commercial printing unit of The Dallas Morning News would begin printing the national edition of The Times, beginning next month.

DFW Printing will become The Times’ 24^th national print site.

"Our agreements with The Dallas Morning News will help us reach more readers in the Southwest with The Times' high-quality journalism," said Scott Heekin-Canedy, president and general manager of The New York Times. "Print site expansions like this one, and another to be announced later in the year, highlight The Times' commitment to building our brand nationwide and bringing our journalism to an increasing number of readers across the country."

Virginian-Pilot parent mulling sale

Landmark Communications Inc. is investigating the sale of its properties, including The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot and eight other newspapers.

The Virginian-Pilot last week said Landmark hired two investment banks to explore alternatives that include the sale of the firm’s businesses.

In addition to The Virginian-Pilot, Landmark publishes The Roanoke (Va.) Times, The News & Record in Greensboro, N.C., The Capital in Annapolis, Md., and more than 70 community and special interest publications. It also owns Dominion Enterprises, a group of print and online classified ad publications, as well as The Weather Channel and other broadcast properties.

One possible suitor for the Maryland properties: The (Baltimore) Sun Co., which is exploring a bid, according to The Sun.

UAE publisher to start up with Saxotech

Abu Dhabi Media Co. of the United Arab Emirates will go live with a startup national newspaper early this year and has chosen Saxotech Inc.’s editorial publishing app to power its new English-language print and digital media properties.

Abu Dhabi Media’s new print and digital properties, which have yet to be named, will use Saxotech’s integrated multichannel workflow and content management software to produce and share news and information.

"We are excited about having one system that can take us from the planning stage, through the production of the newspaper, publish us online, and archive our finished product," said Laura Koot, spokesperson for Abu Dhabi Media.

The publisher will launch both its new print and digital media properties late this quarter, Saxotech said.

Advocate shuts presses after 178 years

The Advocate in Stamford, Conn., Dec. 31 shut down its press and transferred production to the News-Times in Danbury, Conn.

The move occurred as MediaNews Group Inc. formally took control of the paper, along with the Greenwich Time. Hearst Corp. bought both papers for $62.4 million from Tribune Co. and handed management of the papers over to MediaNews Group.

The Time, which had been produced by The Advocate, is now being printed at the (Bridgeport) Connecticut Post, another MediaNews property.

The Advocate said 15 press operators and two supervisors lost their jobs as a result of the shutdown.

The paper’s editorial and administrative staffs are also expected to move to new facilities later this year.

Meantime, The Cincinnati Post and sister paper Kentucky Post printed their last editions Dec. 31, following the dissolution of the joint operating agreement with Gannett Co. Inc., which owns The Cincinnati Enquirer. E.W. Scripps, which owned the afternoon papers, said circulation of The Post had fallen to less than 30,000.

N.J. daily converts to weekly

Gannett Co Inc. converted the Ocean County (N.J.) Observer from daily to weekly publication, according to a story posted on the paper’s Web site.

The new weekly paper, called the Observer Reporter, will focus on the Toms River and Berkeley, N.J., area.

The paper said a combination of factors made it difficult for Gannett to support two daily papers — the Asbury Park Press and Observer — in the same market.

The Observer said the weekly paper would be mailed to 40,000 area homes.

In other Gannett news, the company transferred printing of the Chillicothe (Ohio) Gazette to The Advertiser in nearby Carroll. Both papers are operated by the publisher’s Newspaper Network of Central Ohio. The company is also expected to shift printing of its Eagle-Gazette in Lancaster to the Carroll print site sometime this year.

Finnish daily goes with Goss

I-print Oy, the print production division of the Ilkka-Yhtymä Group in Finland, purchased a Colorliner four-high tower from Goss International Corp.

The additional tower, to be added to the publisher’s existing Newsliner press, will give the machine a total capacity of 80 broadsheet or 160 tabloid pages, with the ability to run a 32-page and a 48-page product side by side.

Virginian-Pilot launches ad building portal

The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot in December went live with its online ad portal www.pilotezads.com, powered by Wave2 Media Solutions, according to James Allen, the daily’s business system analyst.

The portal is targeted at the service industry and other companies that might typically advertise in phone directories. The portal provides firms a template created by The Virginian-Pilot, which advertisers can use to build 4-, 6- or 8-inch black-and-white ads for publication in any of the daily’s tab or broadsheet editions.

"Through this portal, we’ve given these advertisers a leg up," Allen said. "Within 20 minutes of being on the site they can have an ad marketing themselves."

Advertisers can choose the publication and print run, Allen said.

Look for more details on The Virginian-Pilot’s launch of PilotEZAds in the February issue of Newspapers & Technology.

In Brief

Sun Chemical named Rudi Lenz chief executive officer and president. Lenz, who formerly served as Sun’s senior vice president and chief financial officer, succeeds David Hill, who announced his retirement last year.

The Dispatch Printing Co. named Michael J. Fiorile chief operating officer. Fiorile previously was president of DPC, which prints The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch.

Kodak named David Wigfield as managing director, United States and Canada, for the company’s Graphic Communications Group. It also named Kevin M. Joyce as chief marketing officer of the group.

US Ink Marketing Manager Todd Wheeler was elected to the advisory board of Cal Poly’s Graphic Communication department.

AdSend/Vio Inc. named Al Edwards president. Edwards previously served as president and director at Advanced Technical Solutions.

Advanced Publishing Technology rolled out an online contest application, EZ$Contests. The app lets newspapers broaden print-only contests and expand them to their online editions, APT said. The standalone product does not require any other APT products or systems, and APT hosts the app at its servers.

www.advpubtech.com

The Dayton (Ohio) News and Salt Lake City Tribune each ordered Prima Esprit auto-impositioning and Prima Colorware color management software from Harland Simon. The News will use the software to improve color management across its three Koenig & Bauer presses while the Tribune will use the apps in its TKS (USA) pressline. The apps were slated to be in production last month.

www.harlandsimon.com

Publishers Circulation Fulfillment, Inc. said it has been selected as Investor’s Business Daily’s National Partner of The Year for 2007. PCF manages more than 35 percent of IBD’s hand-delivered circulation in 16 states.

www.pcfcorp.com

The Times Publishing Co., publisher of the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times and Washington, D.C.-based Congressional Quarterly Inc., said it is exploring the sale of CQ Press, CQ’s book-publishing business.

The Guardian News and Media, publisher of the Guardian and Observer newspapers and the Guardian Unlimited Web site, selected Pluck Corp.’s SiteLife software to anchor its social marketing efforts across its Web sites.

www.pluck.com