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Dateline: Jan. 21, 2008
Bakersfield Californian
picks BMI to oversee printing, fleet ops
The Bakersfield Californian is outsourcing its
printing, tech services, fleet services and paper handling to
Brad Moseley Inc.
Reno, Nev.-based BMI already oversees packaging
and other postproduction operations at the paper under an
agreement signed in February 2004.
Richard Beene, president and chief executive
officer at The Californian, said 34 people are affected by the
decision. BMI will begin managing the paper’s press activities
in mid-March, hiring its own staff to run The Californian’s
presses and fleet.
BMI named Don Kay, former vice president of
operations at MediaNews Group Inc.’s Inland Empire newspapers in
Southern California, to head up BMI’s press operations,
overseeing The Californian.
Wayne Roberts, who served as postpress manager at
The Californian, was named plant manager.
Brad Moseley, president of BMI, said he expects
to take steps to improve The Californian’s operations and
exploit commercial opportunities as part of his strategy to cut
costs and boost revenues.
The paper doesn’t have any plans to replace or
upgrade any of its existing press capabilities, anchored around
a 23-year-old doublewide press from TKS (USA).
The Californian will, however, cut its web width
from 50 inches to 46 inches this spring in a bid to cut
newsprint consumption. Pressline Services Inc. will perform the
work.
Newspapers & Technology will have more
information about BMI’s plans in the February issue.
Democrat-Gazette, Pittsburgh T-R choose alfaQuest for CTP
The (Little
Rock) Arkansas Democrat-Gazette installed two FasTrak violet
computer-to-plate imagers and two TrakMate automatic plate
loaders from alfaQuest Technologies. The plate loaders remove
slipsheets and prestage plates for the 180-plate-per-hour
platesetters.
“We chose alfaQuest based on both price and
performance and we haven’t been disappointed,” said Lynn
Hamilton, vice president of operations.
The daily chose Fuji plates LP-NNV plates, Glunz
& Jensen’s Interplater 85 processor and an online punch bender
from Nela.
Meantime, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review purchased
five FasTrak 150 imagers configured with five TrakMate
autoloaders for installation at its Greenburg and Newsworks
facilities. The paper will also roll out alfaQuest’s
PrintExpress/PlateMate software to oversee production.
Installation will begin in April.
Gannett jumps into
outsourcing pool
Gannett Co. Inc. joined McClatchy Co., E.W.
Scripps, MediaNews Group and several other newspaper publishers
outsourcing ad production work to overseas firms.
The publisher tapped Los Angeles-based 2AdPro to
produce ads for the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle,
Press & Sun-Bulletin in Binghamton, N.Y., and several other
papers, said Austin Ryan, Gannett’s vice president of
production.
“We are not doing a wall-to-wall replacement like
some other newspapers,” he said. “But we do believe we can gain
some economies and we will be rolling this out at other
properties that make sense.”
Ryan said Gannett is also working with other
outsourcers in addition to 2AdPro, which is backed by Indian
software developer Ninestars Information Technology Ltd.
Meantime, The Miami Herald canceled a previously
announced plan to outsource some of its copyediting functions to
Mindworks, a firm with offices in New Delhi, India (see
Dateline, Jan. 7).
The paper will, however, outsource ad production
under an agreement with Express KCS.
Quebecor World files
for bankruptcy protection
Commercial printer Quebecor World Inc. this
morning said it is asking courts in Canada and the United States
for bankruptcy protection.
The Montreal-based company said its board of
directors authorized the firm to take the action as the best
alternative. It also said it secured commitments with Credit
Suisse and Morgan Stanley for $1 billion in financing, which
will allow the firm to meet its current operating needs. The
financing is subject to approval of courts in both the United
States and Canada.
Quebecor Inc., which owns 36 percent of Quebecor
World, said the filing wouldn’t affect its operations, according
to a Canadian Press story. Quebecor Inc. owns the Sun and Osprey
newspaper chains, a television network and cable television,
Internet and phone operations.
It spent more than $185 million over the past two
years to construct two new plants to print newspapers it owns in
Montreal and Toronto.
Jacques Mallette, president and chief executive
officer of QWI, blamed the filing on a “result of industry
pressures, particularly in Europe, combined with the inability
of the company to raise new capital in the current market
environment.”
QWI had been attempting to refinance its debt,
but lenders balked at a rescue plan that involved a $387 million
cash infusion by Quebecor Inc. and Tricap Partners Ltd.
Triblocal expands to
more Chicagoland communities
The Chicago Tribune’s Triblocal program expanded
its hyper-local community coverage to 13 southwest and western
Chicago suburban communities, bringing the total number of sites
to 21.
The new Triblocal sites cover Palos Heights,
Palos Park, Palos Hills, Lemont, Frankfort, Mokena, New Lenox,
Manhattan, Glen Ellyn, Warrenville, Wheaton, Winfield and West
Chicago.
"Since our initial launch, we have seen a
significant increase in community participation on the Web and
in print," said Kyle Leonard, Triblocal editor. "In expanding
Triblocal, we looked to add suburbs based on affinity between
communities derived from schools, shopping and other resources."
Triblocal said it will have 35 hyper-local Web
sites and eight companion newspapers with a circulation of
120,000 by the end of the year. Print editions are distributed
weekly with home-delivered and single copies of the Chicago
Tribune.
Chicagoland Publishing Co., a subsidiary of
Chicago Tribune Co., publishes Triblocal.
Screen plans to debut digital press at drupa
DUSSELDORF, Germany — Screen said it will debut a
newspaper-oriented digital imaging press at this year’s drupa.
The
Truepress Jet520 uses Epson’s multi-tone Piezo drop-on-demand
inkjet print heads and water-based pigment inks, resulting in a
high level of accuracy, quality and reliability on both standard
and uncoated stock, Screen said.
As
well as direct mail and transactional/transpromo printing, the
Truepress Jet520 is ideally suited for newspaper production,
Screen said, particularly the local production of foreign
publications for the business community and tourist market.
The press can print up to 210 feet per minute to
a width of 165 inches, which equates to 25,200 color pages per
hour.
The first operational site is planned to go live
before drupa and a complete newspaper production line will be
demonstrated at Screen’s booth at the show.
Look for more coverage of drupa 2008 in the
February issue of Newspapers & Technology.
Media partners selling
stake in SP Newsprint
The three newspaper publishers that own SP
Newsprint Co. agreed to sell their stakes to White Birch Paper
Co. for approximately $350 million. Media General Inc.,
McClatchy Co. and Cox Enterprises Inc. will use the after-tax
proceeds to reduce debt. The transaction is expected to be
completed this spring.
Sensor rolls out nip analysis system
Sensor Products Inc. rolled out Sigma-Nip, an
enhanced version of its electronic nip analysis system.
The new system, based on SPI’s E-Nip sensor-based
analysis technology, features upgraded diagnostic software and
more durable sensors, said Gus Alvarez, an SPI technical
consultant.
The Repository in Canton, Ohio, and Tucson
(Ariz.) Newspapers are among the first newspapers to install
Sigma-Nip.
Sigma-Nip is designed to eliminate the manual
steps now needed to check nip width, Alvarez said. Press crews
no longer have to use paper or embossed foils to measure nip
width, he said. Instead, the sensors capture data and transmit
readings to a PC, where operators can adjust the rollers
accordingly.
PCF picks up N.J. pact
Publishers
Circulation Fulfillment Inc. said The Press in Atlantic City,
N.J., selected it to distribute 5,000 copies of the paper to
subscribers in Ocean and Burlington counties.
“We are very pleased to be working with PCF in
our core market,” said Vito Cicero, The Press’ director of
circulation, in a statement.
“We are very confident in their ability to manage
down our delivery costs over the next year.”
Quipp sells systems
Venezuelan newspapers Diario Panorama and El
Tiempo each purchased a Twin-Trak belt conveyor from Quipp
Systems Inc. Meantime, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the
(Baltimore) Sun and AFL Web Printing are among printers
purchasing Series 500 stackers. Finally, Quipp said newspapers,
including the Times-Herald in Port Huron, Mich., and the Wausau
(Wis.) Daily Herald, are ordering web-reduction kits to retool
existing Quipp equipment.
NYT, Scripps, Gannett make
top 50 Web sites
Web sites operated by The New York Times, Gannett
Co. and E.W. Scripps ranked among the top 50 U.S. sites in
December, according to comScore Media Metrix.
New York Times Digital attracted more than 44
million unique visitors during the month, positioning the site
as the 11th most popular. Yahoo sites were the most
heavily trafficked, racking up more than 183 million unique
visitors, comScore said.
E.W. Scripps notched more than 20.2 million
unique visitors to its sites, ranking 36thth, while
Gannett, with 20.1 million unique visitors, came in 37th
place.
In Brief:
Shawn Duffy
joined WoodWing USA as vice president of business development.
Trend Offset
Printing named Wayne Peterson sales vice president of its Texas
division.
Kodak named Ann
Moscicki senior manager, public relations of its graphic
communications group.
EidosMedia named
Jo Ann Froelich president of its newly opened U.S. company,
EidosMedia Inc. The New York-based office joins offices in the
United Kingdom, Italy, France and Germany.
Metro International has reportedly put the
for-sale sign on its three U.S. dailies, according to a report
in The Boston Globe.
The three free papers — Metro Boston, Metro New
York and Metro Philadelphia — have cost Metro more than $10.6
million in losses in the past year, The Globe said.
Agfa said it
sold Arkitex workflow software to the (Baltimore) Sun, the
Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, the (Norfolk)
Virginian-Pilot, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Palm
Beach (Fla.) Post and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Fort
Lauderdale.
www.agfa.com
Goss International Corp. sold a Universal tower to Scottish
Provincial Press that will be added onto the publisher’s
existing Universal 70 pressline. SPP was the world’s first
publisher to buy a Universal 70 machine in 1998, Goss said. The
tower extension is the fourth upgrade in seven years.
www.gossinternational.com
OneVision announced enhancements to its Speedflow software
products.
Improvements made include those to Speedflow Check, which
automatically examines PDF, PostScript and EPS files for errors
and then generates a print-ready PDF; and Speedflow Edit, an app
that enables full PDF editing of text, images and vector
graphics from a user's desktop computer without the need to
return to the original file or software application.
Enhancements have also been made to the imposition functions of
Speedflow Impose and Speedflow AutoImpose in Speedflow Cockpit,
OneVision's prepress automation app. OneVision said.
www.onevision.com
Managing Editor
Inc. released SoftCare K4 Publishing System Version 5.9, which
includes support for Adobe Creative Suite 3’s ability to
incorporate InDesign documents as complete layouts within other
InDesign documents.
www.maned.com
Quark Inc. rolled out Quark Interactive Designer 1.02,
compatible with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. The app allows designers
using QuarkXPress to create Flash layouts for the Web without
having to learn code, Quark said.
Quark also launched Quark Labs, an online portal
featuring beta QuarkXPress 7 XTensions being groomed for
commercial release.
www.quark.com
Apago Inc.
released PDF Shrink 4.2, a Mac OS X utility for reducing the
size of PDF files. The update, designed to enable processing of
entire folders of PDF files, also features better compatibility
with Apple’s Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard and Adobe Acrobat 8. It’s
free to registered PDF Shrink 4 users.
www.apagoinc.com
E.W. Scripps
launched RedBlueAmerica, a social networking site focusing on
the 2008 elections. The site is designed to serve as a forum for
user-generated content and will also offer political news and
other election information. The site was developed by Boulder,
Colo.-based PingVision.
Olive Software began offering text-messaging
capabilities on BlackBerry, Apple iPhone and other handheld
devices through its partner, Informz.
Olive's new text messaging capabilities allow
users to receive notifications from publishers with a link to
their electronic edition. Users can view the full edition or a
text-only version, depending on their preference.
www.olivesoftware.com
Advanced Publishing Technology released
EZ$FantasyRacing, an app that lets newspapers create fantasy
racing leagues in their online editions. APT said the app
supports multiple cars, drivers and groups as well as
tie-breaker questions.
www.advpubtech.com
Pressmart Media
Ltd. said Metroland West Media Group in Ontario, Canada, will
roll out its ePaper digital edition software. Metroland
publishes more than 100 community newspapers, magazines and
specialty publications.
www.pressmart.net
The Cincinnati
Enquirer rolled out ClassPag from Software Consulting Services
LLC to oversee its classified operations.
www.newspapersystems.com
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