Offering advantages aligned with modern production demands, 1-by-4 newspaper presses are rapidly expanding their share of a double-width market dominated exclusively by 2-by-4 presses until just two years ago.

Heidelberg began installing the first newspaper press with a one-page-around by four-pages-across plate cylinder configuration, its gapless Mainstream, in Denmark in July 2000. The latest Mainstream order is from the Transcontinental Group in Montreal (see related story, page 8). The company claims that 20 percent of double-width presses ordered worldwide since then have featured the one-around configuration. These orders are divided between the Mainstream and the MAN Roland RegioMAN.

“The opportunity to cut costs by reducing plate consumption is the primary factor driving this immediate acceptance,” according to John Richards, director of newspaper product management for Heidelberg. The one-page- around format eliminates the need to make and mount duplicate sets of plates, an inherent requirement when running a 2-by-4 press in straight production.

Richards says technology allowing 1-by-4 presses to match the productivity of 2-by-4 presses and the appeal of straight printing for added speed and versatility are also supporting the fast market penetration.

“Many newspapers that maintain collect capabilities they seldom use now have a viable, proven alternative to the added cost and inefficiency of double-plating for straight production,” he explained.

The Roanoke (Va.) Times fits that profile. The Times (daily, 100,249; Sunday, 115,848) will bring a Mainstream with six four-high towers on edition in 2003.

“We run straight almost 100 percent of the time, so eliminating the need to double-plate our current press will reduce plate requirements by 50 percent,” according to Chip Harris, production director and the man overseeing the press installation project for The Times. “From a dollar point of view, we see this as an immediate return on our investment.” Forfeiting the option to occasionally run an edition in collect mode was not even a concern, according to Harris.

Across the Atlantic, where installation of two Mainstream presses is well underway in Manchester, England, Jacques de Wit tells a similar story. The managing director at Trafford Park Printers Ltd., said long run lengths and tight production windows for national newspapers like The Daily Telegraph dictate that current 2-by-4 presses always run in straight mode.

“With the Heidelberg press, of course, there is only one plate per page, so we will save plates and save in plating up the presses,” DeWitt predicted.

DeWitt

Harris also said that advantages of reduced plate consumption ripple beyond the actual cost of the plates and the time needed to make and mount them. This is especially true for papers like The Times, which are moving toward a 100 percent computer-to-plate workflow.

“Cutting plate requirements will reduce our future investments in prepress equipment, and these are investments we expect we will have to make several times over the life of the press,” he stated.

An order for twin, 28-couple Heidelberg Mainstreams from the second largest printer of free newspapers in France indicates that the 1-by-4 format is even attracting attention outside of the double-width market. The IPS Group, a fully owned subsidiary of Spir Communication, scrapped an original plan to purchase new single-width presses and confirmed its intentions to install the 1-by-4 Mainstreams at its Rotosud and Rotopicardie sites beginning this spring.

Papers requiring double-width productivity are eager to cut plate requirements in half with a one-page-around press, but the French publisher chose the Mainstreams over 1-by-2 presses to cut printing unit, tower and web requirements by the same margin. The decision confirms that evolving production demands are making publishers in both the single- and double-width markets more receptive to a press designed exclusively for straight, double-width printing. As these publishers turn to faster productivity, expanded layout versatility and more targeting to make their printed products more competitive with other media, straight production often becomes more appealing.

In straight production, the 1-by-4 Heidelberg Mainstream press matches the output of a 2-by-4 press, while requiring 50 percent fewer plates.
Photo courtesy of Heidelberg

Straight production can deliver twice as many papers in a given period of time, making the news more timely. The flexibility to vary page counts from section to section, and to do it in two-page rather than four-page increments, benefits editors, advertisers, readers and the bottom line. Papers running a press in straight mode can, for example, accommodate more ads at a premium price in the first section without balancing them with ad space in other sections. The opportunity to add last-minute content in two-page increments is also a big plus given newspaper deadlines.

Even some newspapers that frequently run their 2-by-4 presses in collect mode are not automatically ruling out the 1-by-4 option, according to Richards. Many are considering alternatives such as more advance runs and expanded postpress capabilities in order to take advantage of the compelling benefits of straight printing with a one-around format.

Heidelberg has sold 16 1-by-4 Mainstream presses, including a total of 541 printing couples and 106 pasters, over the past two years. The high number does not surprise Richards.

“Newspapers and press manufacturers have always recognized the potential advantages, but technical barriers made the format impractical,” he explained. “Now we have the technology to overcome those barriers and to match the output of two-around double-width presses.”

In the case of Heidelberg, that technology involves gapless Sunday press blankets. The tubular blankets are designed to eliminate vibrations and print defects that would otherwise occur when blanket gaps meet. As a result, one-page-around by four-pages-across plate cylinders on the Mainstream can be coupled with 1-by-4 blanket cylinders to deliver high print quality at up to 80,000 copies per hour.

Richards acknowledged that 1-by-4 presses are not ideal for every publishing situation. He predicts that they will eventually gain about one-third of the double-width market worldwide, but cautions that there is no universal formula to determine who should consider the format. Instead, each paper must factor its own specific production requirements into the equation.

“About 45 percent of the newspapers running 2-by-4 presses absolutely require collect capabilities for high page counts matched with relatively short runs or for other combinations of factors,” according to Richards. “For the rest, and for some papers using single-width presses, the 1-by-4 format is an option that merits serious consideration.”