One of the largest dailies in the United States, the San Francisco Chronicle, is produced not with cutting-edge printing technology but with a mix of film and aging flexo presses. In December, the newspaper installed NewsWay modular workflow software from Agfa unit ProImage America in a bid to better manage end-to-end workflow on equipment at its three remote production sites in Union City, Richmond and at its Army Street location on the outskirts of San Francisco.

“[Aging equipment] hasn’t prevented us from installing new technology,” said Pat Izzo, the Chronicle’s director of production operations.

Pat Izzo, the San Francisco Chronicle’s director of production operations, also oversaw a NewsWay installation during his time at Detroit Newspapers.
Photo: San Francisco Chronicle

NewsWay will replace an old version of Intellinet at the Chronicle (Monday-Tuesday, 364,003; Wednesday-Saturday, 419,358; Sunday, 467,216), which Izzo said the newspaper planned to continue running alongside NewsWay through the end of January.

“We’re running it side by side to make sure all the bugs are worked out with the system and we’re looking at going solo (with NewsWay) Feb. 1,” he said.

Increased efficiency

Izzo, who also oversaw a NewsWay deployment while director of prepress operations at Detroit Newspapers, reports more efficiency in production since installing the workflow app.

“NewsWay makes what we have more efficient and productive, and its reporting capabilities keep us better informed,” he said.

 

Case in point: NewsWay’s ability to track pages through all the various workflow steps. Previously, Izzo said the Chronicle had no definitive way of viewing pages on demand and the newspaper was unable to monitor workflow on its Agfa 3850 filmsetters. The older equipment and software make it difficult for the Chronicle to ensure it is printing what it’s receiving, Izzo said. To that end, the publisher installed touchscreen monitors beside each NewsWay workstation PC so operators can track plates by touching the screen next to the image on the plate.

“Because of the raised image on the plate, reading barcode is difficult for tracking plates in the press area,” Izzo said. “This will send information back to the operator allowing us to quickly communicate.”

In addition to tracking page flow, the software will record the amount of time it takes to complete certain functions such as editorial release, page transmission, film and plate output, and plate-to-press times, allowing the Chronicle to streamline production.

“Our technicians are ecstatic; we can now do things, such as remote proofing, that previously were not possible,” Izzo said.

Early alerts

Monitoring the Chronicle’s transmission devices has in some cases alerted the publisher of problems in the workflow even before they arise. For example, alerts are given in instances where film is low or where someone has failed to properly close one of the door panels on a filmsetter.

“NewsWay will send error messages back to the operator at the main plant so they can monitor those things,” Izzo said.

NewsWay’s standard browser and PC hardware manage imposition, job planning, network workflow management, output management, resource scheduling and production tracking, according to ProImage, and perform load balancing on output devices to maximize throughput.

“For the San Francisco Chronicle we will create soft proofs and output to both NewsColor hard copy proofers as well as to Agfa 3850 filmsetters,” said Rick Shafranek, vice president of sales, ProImage America.

Prior to NewsWay, the Chronicle did not have the ability to fully utilize its NewsColor proofing app by proofing editorial pages without advertising.

“Now it’s a very hard manual process,” Izzo said. “NewsWay will do that automatically for us.”

Challenge not impossible

In terms of updating the publisher’s workflow, Izzo said many vendors viewed the old presses as an insurmountable hurdle.

“But I looked at it and it wasn’t,” he said. “We saw an opportunity to move forward in areas where old technology was not available without a huge capital investment in the press area, and we did what I call implementing a little bit of CTP technology without the CTP.”

Shafranek said the Chronicle’s NewsWay workflow will support a future conversion to computer-to-plate.

Although Izzo said the Chronicle has talked with MacDermid Printing Solutions about the possibility of converting to CTP, he admits that is not something that’s in the publisher’s immediate plans.

“Making that big of a commitment with our current presses right now wouldn’t make sense,” he said. “We need more color capacity.”

MacDermid Printing Solutions in September announced plans to offer CTP systems for flexographic presses. The company said the machines will be based on parts and technology it purchased from PerkinElmer (see related story, page 18).

Other newspapers set to install NewsWay this month include the Daily Times-Call in Longmont, Colo., the Press & Sun-Bulletin in Binghamton, N.Y., the Orange County (Calif.) Register and the Brownsville (Texas) Herald. The Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer installed NewsWay in January.