If you don’t believe in the value of rolling with the punches in the newspaper business, ask USA Today vice president of production Ken Kirkhart about the varied cast of vendors that participated in his $22 million computer-to-plate project.

USA Today’s CTP project, completed in 2000, installed 56 Barco NewsCrescent and 10 Agfa Polaris CTP platesetters in the United States and internationally.

“Almost every element of what we did changed ownership through the course of the project,” Kirkhart said. “We started with Intergraph as our computer supplier, and Dupont was our network software. One plate setter was manufactured by Gerber, and another was manufactured by Strobe for Agfa.”

All of them have changed ownership, or stopped making the items they had supplied USA Today, Kirkhart said.

“Now, let’s see. Intergraph is out of the computer business. Gerber sold to Barco, and Barco sold to Purup-Eskofot. Barco and Purup-Eskofot became Esko-Graphics and the company plans to quit making the CrescentNews CTP units that we are using. Also, the company that we started with on our software, Dupont, was bought by Agfa,” Kirkhart recalled.

Good news

Now the good news: “In each case, these (acquiring companies) all have been very good about meeting their obligations,” Kirkhart said. USA Today and Esko met in mid-March and the company said it would “stand firmly behind our contractual agreement,” he said. “I’m not terribly concerned.”

Not all newspaper production professionals have experienced this degree of vendor turmoil.

“We haven’t seen any sudden impact here at the Chicago Tribune,” said Production Director Rebecca Brubaker.

But most production directors have faced product turnover, and worse.

“It’s painfully obvious in lot of areas — plates, film, platesetters — consolidation has meant a challenge for both the publishing business and those supporting the publishing business, such as suppliers,” Kirkhart said.

Take The Sun of Lowell, Mass. The Sun was ready to buy a low-profile paper roll handling system from Arizona-based Motion Systems when its bank shuttered the company overnight.

“The whole plan went away at the last second,” said Director of Operations William Newbegin. “We were so close.”

Newbegin had one comfort: He hadn’t put down a deposit.

The Sun had even better luck when Oshkosh, Wis.-based AHS Inc., bought Motion Systems’ intellectual property, its products and designs. It was 30 days before AHS learned of Motion Systems’ plight, and it took another three weeks to acquire the assets. (To muddy matters, however, AHS did not acquire Motion Systems’ warranties and spare parts, which were assumed by Skarlupka Manufacturing of White Lake, Wis.) The new owner got in touch with Newbegin in short order.

“It worked out well because it was still well within our 10-month window, when we needed it,” he said.

Not that it was fun for the newspaper.

“It was emotional,” Newbegin said, “the disruption of our plans.”

The Sun’s roller coaster ride mirrors that of AHS.

“We closed the (Motion Systems) deal five months ago, and ever since then we’ve been traveling from end-user to end-user trying to let them know what has happened, primarily people who had outstanding quotes,” said Ron Fransen, AHS president and co-owner.

To further complicate matters, AHS recently changed its name to Machine Design Service.

Machine Design Service is not advertising, so how are people finding the former Motion Systems products?

“I don’t know, but they’re finding us,” Fransen said.

Most production directors do what they can to arm themselves against the chaos. Brubaker, whose experience has been relatively serene, takes strict precautions against the eventuality that a vendor will go out of business. In purchasing decisions, she said, “vendor availability and commitment to the newspaper industry are always under consideration.” Her staff uses other kinds of due diligence, too, by checking vendors’ Dun & Bradstreet ratings and consulting with user groups and engineers.

Self-reliance is a virtue, too, production directors agreed.

“We haven’t run into any problems” with vanishing vendors, said Tom Stamper, production director of operations for The Dallas Morning News. Then again, “We don’t need a lot of support. Where a warranty expires, we have our in-house maintenance support group that we rely on to keep the equipment running.”

Staying in close contact with peers makes a difference, The Lowell Sun’s Newbegin said.

“We tend to throw ideas back and forth.”

The important thing is to keep a firm grip on your priorities, according to Kirkhart.

“When you do business with various companies, viability is a long-term plus. And technology. If the technology you buy is good, it has a better chance of surviving than one that isn’t. You never know.”