Escalating newsprint prices are fueling a resurgence among newspaper publishers to take another whack at web widths.

Just last month, Dow Jones & Co. said it would trim the width of The Wall Street Journal from 60 inches to 48 inches in a $43 million capital improvement project to be completed in January 2007. Dow Jones will spend another $13 million in related training and additional costs, it said.

The project will retrofit 19 presses - a mix of Goss International Corp. and TKS (USA) machines - in 17 U.S. print sites, resulting in an annual savings of $18 million, the publisher said.

Dow Jones is only one of a growing number of publishers moving to 48 inches, a size that 10 years ago would have appeared to be almost laughable among production directors.

All of Gannett Co. Inc.’s newspapers will be at 48 inches within the next several years, said Austin Ryan, the publisher’s vice president of production.

Already there

“All of our single-width sites are already there (48 inches) and the double-wides will be there,” he said, adding that further size reductions could be considered.

The Wall Street Journal will slim down from 60 inches to 
48 inches in 2007.
Photo: The Wall Street Journal

Knight Ridder Inc., meantime, is also giving a 48-inch-wide web width renewed attention, said Larry Marbart, vice president of production and facilities. “We are giving it consideration,” he said. “The economics (associated with trimming web widths on presses) is a part of our investigation, but it is beginning to be a situation where a compelling case can be made (to trim widths).”

The first Knight Ridder properties to trim to 48 inches will be the afternoon News-Sentinel and morning Journal Gazette in Fort Wayne, Ind., which the company publishes as majority owner of a joint operating agreement.  

Knight Ridder is installing a TKS (USA) ColorTop 7000CDH press to print the papers and the publisher has opted for a 21-inch cutoff and 48-inch web, Marbart said.

As publishers move to 48-inch widths, they’ll join The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., which shifted to the narrower format in April 2004, in the process becoming the first U.S. daily to do so for everyday newspaper production (see Newspapers & Technology, June 2004).

Since then, The Bismarck (N.D.) Tribune shrank to an even narrower web, 46 inches, when it commissioned its new 3-by-2 press (see Newspapers & Technology, June 2005).

‘Well received’

“Since we went live (on the new format) April 18, the paper has been well received,” said Tribune Publisher Julie Bechtel. Advertisers and readers, she said, have no difficulty with the reduced size and, equally as important, the paper has been able to shave 5 percent off its annual newsprint bill.

Indeed, publishers are being spurred to examine thinner web widths as newsprint prices continue to rise. The average price of a metric ton of newsprint is now hovering around $650 per metric ton, a 49 percent jump since 2002 when prices averaged $435 per ton. And prices could jump even further as mills wrestle with spikes in raw materials costs and capacity constrictions.

That’s led publishers to consider the 48-inch format, in some cases only a few years after they already dropped from 54 inches to 50 inches during the web-width reduction boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s, said Steve Stone, general manager of press contractor Masthead International.

“We’re getting a lot of interest,” he said, adding that the firm has received more than a dozen inquiries from publishers interested in whittling their web widths within the past few months.

Easy to move

Stone said most newspapers, even those that recently dropped to 50 inches, could move to 48 inches without encountering too many technical obstacles. “But they are taking it right to the edge,” especially if folders have to be redesigned to accept the narrower widths.

Pressline Services Inc. Vice President/General Manager Jim Gore said his firm is attracting new business as well (see sidebar).

“We have some 50-inch stuff that we are working, but now we are seeing people come to us for 48 (inch projects),” he said. “Newsprint is driving the market, but the big question is can we get to 48 (and make it economical for newspapers).

“These are engineering challenges, but very doable. We haven’t seen a single piece of equipment we can’t get to 48 inches.”

Cutoff service

As for Pressline’s Retro21 cutoff modification service, Gore said the firm is negotiating with a number of papers interested in using Pressline to reduce their legacy presses’ cutoff to the prevailing 21-inch standard.

“We see some real interest and we believe we’ll see (some sales) in the near-term,” Gore said.

Other press modification suppliers, including Acutech LLC and Hall Contracting Services LLC, are also trawling for new accounts as the market heats up.

Finally, press lockup and plate vendor K&F International is seeing growing interest from newspapers that want to retrofit both their presses and plate equipment, according to Tim Scott, vice president of operations.

Saving money

“Saving money is the goal,” he said.

Typical of the contracts K&F has received is one from the New Haven (Conn.) Register, which purchased 140 wide gap press registration lockups to enable it to retrofit its existing Goss Metro press to 48 inches. K&F technicians are also going to convert the paper’s Vision bender and SAB-30 bender to accommodate the narrower web. K&F’s recently introduced ProVision Alliance bender, meantime, can handle webs as narrow as 46 inches if publishers elect to migrate to that size, Scott said.

“We’ve seen interest accelerate, especially after Nexpo,” Scott said.