Quebecor Media Inc. is adding heatset drying and more color towers to its Toronto and Montreal production plants.

The vendor is adding Megtec dual dryers to its existing MAN Roland Inc. ColorMAN presses in a project that will be completed next year.

In addition, QMI is installing an additional eight MAN Roland ColorMAN towers — five in Toronto and three in Montreal — to satisfy production demands.

QMI in 2005 said it would spend almost $200 million to construct print plants to produce newspapers including Le Journal de Montreal, the Toronto Sun, the London Free Press, directories and commercial products.

Each plant is anchored by a ColorMAN pressline configured as 10 towers with 15 reelstands and three jaw-type folders. The presses have the capacity to print up to 128 4-color pages in a 128-page edition or up to 96 4-color and 64 2-color pages in a 160-page edition.

The Megtec dryers, meantime, will be installed on two towers in Toronto and four in Montreal, and permit QMI to attract additional commercial printing.

MAN Roland will oversee the plant expansion projects, QMI said.

 

VR gets nod for NYDN roll handling system

The (New York) Daily News tapped vR Systems to supply it with an automated roll handling system to feed its new pressline.

The paper last month said it would buy a 15-tower Koenig & Bauer AG Commander CT press to replace its current press technology in its Jersey City, N.J., plant (see Newspapers & Technology, March 2008).

The vR system includes a full roll preparation line with an automated EcoPrep splice preparation system, said Ric Mayle, vice president of sales and marketing at IMC America, which distributes vR in North America.

The system, which can store hundreds of newsprint rolls, will be designed six rolls high and one roll wide and parallel the KBA pressline, Mayle said. It’s the third such system vR (formerly Metso/vonRoll) has installed in North America, but the first engineered six-high.

By sitting parallel with the press, the roll handling system will occupy a minimum amount of space, Mayle said, a key consideration at the Daily News’ Liberty View plant.

The Daily News will be the first U.S. paper to use the EcoPrep robots, which are in operation at several European newspapers.

Express KCS kicking off edit layout, spec ad services

Express KCS says it is ready to roll out editorial layout, copy-editing and spec ad services in addition to its ad production capabilities.

The San Jose, Calif.-based company, which has production operations in Gurgaon, India, already handles ad production for a number of papers, including the San Jose Mercury News and Miami Herald.

The new services will be unveiled at Nexpo next month.

“We’ve been offering (editorial layout and copy-editing) services to other clients for some time,” said Robert Berkeley, chief executive officer. “Now we are offering it to newspapers.”

Meantime, Express KCS picked up another U.S. newspaper client. The Star-Telegram in Fort Worth, Texas, is shifting the bulk of its ad production work to the company, beginning this summer.

Publishers pick MediaSpan

MediaNews Group paper The (Bridgeport) Connecticut Post purchased MediaSpan’s Jazbox content management system to anchor its newsroom, the vendor said. The announcement follows MNG’s recent announcement that all of its Bay Area newspapers would be deploying Jazbox (see Newspapers & Technology, December, 2007).

Meantime, Heartland Publications purchased MediaSpan’s circulation and advertising apps to cluster its 57 papers in two central databases.

Finally, GateHouse Media upgraded its MediaSpan circ, editorial and ad apps at Michigan properties the Sturgis Journal, The Evening News in Sault Ste. Marie and The Daily Telegram in Adrian, Mich.

MMMS sets new inserter

HERSHEY, Pa. — Muller Martini Mailroom Systems Inc. said it will roll out to the U.S. market its ProLiner inserting system. The announcement was made at last week’s America East convention.

The modular system, capable of processing up to 45,000 copies per hour, had its international debut in 2007 at the Newstech show in the United Kingdom.

It will be formally unveiled at next month’s Nexpo in Washington, D.C., according to Amrish Thaker, president and chief executive officer.

“Through our extensive knowledge of the newspaper production processes and the teamwork between our engineers we have developed a common strategic platform, which currently makes the ProLiner system solution available to the U.S. market,” he said in a statement.

The expandable ProLiner will complement MMMS’ existing AlphaLiner, NewsLiner and SLS inserting systems, which the vendor said it will continue to support.

In other AmEast announcements:

•Rock-Built Inline Finishing Systems Inc. introduced an automated trimmer system, the Uni-Trim 1650. It’s a four-knife, heavy-duty high-speed inline trimming system equipped with a touchscreen for easy operator control, the company said. The system stores settings for frequently run jobs and reduces makeready time.

•Polkadots Software unveiled Adflo, software engineered to simplify ad-preparation and inflighting processes. The app meshes with ad layout software to enable papers to RIP ads early in the production process, the firm said.

Eagle gets 2^nd UV system from Prime

Eagle Web Press in Salem, Ore., commissioned a UV curing system from Prime UV on a Quad-Stack press from Web Press Corp.

The printer, which in 2004 equipped a Goss International Corp. Community press with a Prime UV system, now has greater production flexibility, said Mike Connor, plant manager.

“We now can run two UV units between two folders with the ability to take two webs to either folder or one web to each, allowing us to run two different UV jobs at the same time,” he said.

Prime UV said it has now equipped more than 80 four-high towers worldwide with its UV curing systems.

INCQC, NAA color club papers unveiled for ’08-’10

The Newspaper Association of America announced the winners of its North American Color Quality Award, an honor presented to the top newspapers that participated in the International Newspaper Color Quality Club.

NAA divided the winners into two categories, as follows:

Over 100,000 Circulation

            •           The Globe and Mail, National Edition, Boucherville, Canada

            •           The Globe and Mail, National Edition, Vancouver, Canada

            •           The Globe and Mail, Metro Edition, Toronto

            •           La Presse, Montreal

            •           The Grand Rapids (Mich.) Press

            •           The Kansas City (Mo.) Star

            •           The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Less than 100,000 Circulation

            •           The Ann Arbor (Mich.) News.

            •           Chattanooga (Tenn.) Times Free Press

            •           The Patriot News, Harrisburg, Pa.

            •           Journal Star, Peoria, Ill.

            •           News Tribune, Jefferson City, Mo.

The NAA award winners will be honored at Nexpo.

The NAA, Ifra and the Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers’ Association, meantime, unveiled the 50 papers participating in the 2008-2010 INCQC. Of the 50, the Grand Rapids Press is the only U.S. newspaper to gain membership. For a complete list of vendors, visit http://www.naa.org/PressCenter/SearchPressReleases/2008/INTERNATIONAL-COLOR-QUALITY-CLUB-ANNOUNCES-50-NEW-MEMBERS.aspx

Inland sells 2 presses

Inland Newspaper Machinery Corp. sold two four-unit Goss International Corp. Urbanite presses to a Honduran newspaper. The presses were originally owned by Paxton Media in Paducah, Ky.

Additionally, Inland in early 2008 shipped a four-unit Harris V15C press to a customer in Buenos Aires, Argentina; and an eight-unit Urbanite to Peru.

Finally, Inland said it has added to its offerings an Urbanite press formerly owned by Paxton Media in Indiana; a seven-unit Urbanite in Baytown, Texas; and a 12-unit Urbanite in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad.

Chicago Trib site launches new features

Chicagotribune.com launched new features on its site to make it easier for visitors to find related stories and improve their search experience.

Most articles on the site will include hyperlinked keywords throughout the text that will take visitors to a topic gallery that features related stories, photos and historical archives.

Users can access topic galleries by clicking on hyperlinks or by finding a listing for more than 15,000 keywords at www.chicagotribune.com/topic. Content in the galleries is gathered from the Chicago Tribune as well as other Tribune Co. media properties, including the Los Angeles Times, Newsday in Long Island, N.Y., (Baltimore) Sun and Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel.

Meantime chicagotribune.com also introduced a beta version of its site designed specifically for the Apple iPhone.

Ohio firm targets newspapers with online apps

Canton, Ohio-based RMS Media Systems is rolling out apps aimed at helping newspapers improve their online operations. The firm is introducing SportsPage 2.0, software that enables newspapers to present  hyper-local sports content to readers; and Newsplotter 2.0, map publishing software. The company also offers outsourced development services, now being used by newspapers in Massachusetts and Wisconsin.

Obituary: Dallas E. Dolan

Dallas E. Dolan, a production manager and inventor who worked at the Journal-World in Lawrence, Kan., for more than six decades, passed away March 14. He was 80.

Mr. Dolan worked at the newspaper for 64 years, first as a pressman, then as a production manager and finally as a consultant. He invented the four-sided newspaper cart and a watering system for offset presses.

 He was a charter member of the Mid-America Mechanical Conference for more than 30 years, and was a member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles Aerie 309.

In Brief

Bliss Communications in Janesville, Wis., named Tony Smithson vice president of print operations.

Finishing systems vendor Rock-Built named Michael Russo director of sales and marketing.

Tribune Co. named Lee Abrams chief innovation officer.

Paul Lampasona joined Tera U.S. as head of the U.S. sales force.

Gannett Co. named Rob Walla manager and Lee Redheart supervisor of its regional toning center in Indianapolis.

Heather Sharp was promoted to director of marketing for Indigio.

FFEI named Zoe Gillard marketing communications manager.

David Lord, president of Pioneer Newspapers in Seattle, was elected vice president of PAGE Cooperative replacing Gary Shorts, who left the board. Also elected to finish Shorts’ term was Brandon Eyerly, publisher of the Press-Enterprise in Bloomsburg, Pa.

Caspio Inc. said E.W. Scripps agreed to roll out its Bridge online database software groupwide, including the (Denver) Rocky Mountain News and Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn.

www.caspio.com

 

AccuWeather.com said its mobile Web site chalked up a new monthly record with 32,760,743 page impressions in February, beating the previous record of 31,643,961 set in January 2008.

The company, meantime, recently released a new version of the mobile Web site, enhanced with severe weather warnings, AccuWeather 15-Day and Hour-by-Hour local forecasts, weather news and blogs.

www.accuweather.com

America Outsourcing Solutions said it will renovate and relocate to an office in Dallas, Pa. The expansion is expected to create at least 95 jobs.

AOS Principal Jan MacDonald said he chose the location in Luzerne County because of the “proactive support offered to technology companies.”

www.jkapubsys.com

 

WebVisible Inc. said it received $12 million in series B funding led by Silicon Valley’s Sutter Hill Ventures with participation from existing investor Redpoint Ventures. Sutter Hill Ventures Managing Director Jim White will join WebVisible’s board of directors.

www.webvisible.com

Journal Sentinel Inc. joined Yahoo Inc.’s newspaper consortium, bringing the total number of participants to 635 from 27 newspaper publishing companies.

Along with cross-selling its employment ads on Yahoo HotJobs, JSOnline.com will integrate Yahoo’s paid search technology on its Web site. Journal Sentinel’s news will also be incorporated within Yahoo’s local news modules.

www.yahoo.com

Axel Springer’s Ostsee-Zeitung in Rostock, Germany, will upgrade its ad production and output management to AdMan and printnet OM solutions from MAN Roland unit ppi Media, ppi said.

The upgrade to the publisher’s printnet workflow aims to maximize automation and standardization in production, and to consolidate its system with that of sister Axel Springer paper Lübecker Nachrichten in Lubeck, Germany.

www.ppimedia.de

QuadTech Inc. said it sold a Register Guidance System and Ribbon Control System to Maser Printing and Publishing in Dubai. It marks the first deployment of QTI’s technology in the Middle East, the firm said.

www.quadtechworld.com