The New York Times last month signed a letter of intent with Goss International Corp. to install a Colorliner 85 press to augment its College Point, N.Y., metro edition print facility.

The agreement also calls for Goss to reduce the web width of the five existing Goss presses at the College Point plant as the paper moves to trim its page to 48 inches.

The double-wide 4-by-2 Colorliner press, to be configured as 96 couples and 12 towers, will be equipped with a double delivery 2:5:5 jaw folder, according to Tom Lombardo, The Times’ vice president of production. The 85,000-copy-per-hour press will be engineered with a 22-inch cutoff and increase The Times’ color capacity.

The machine is scheduled to go on-edition in April 2008 and will join five other Colorliner presses already installed at the plant.

‘Shared vision’

“After a 120-day process that included an RFP developed with Dario Designs, interviews with press suppliers and site visits in the United States and Europe, we have selected the Colorliner 85 from Goss as the new press for our College Point plant consolidation project,” Lombardo told Newspapers & Technology.

“Goss International offers a strong combination of technology, resources and expertise. That, coupled with the merits of the Goss Colorliner, led to our decision.”

The sale is a coup for Goss, which last sold a double-wide press to a U.S. newspaper in 2002, when the Butler (Pa.) Eagle bought a Uniliner to anchor its production.

Since then, Goss saw American newspapers turn elsewhere for their double-wide presses, although Goss did score some tower addition business over the past several years.

Included in that business was a 2004 deal with The Times in which Goss upgraded the College Point presses with additional color couples and digital inkers.

“We are excited about extending our relationship with The New York Times,” said Bob Brown, Goss’ chief executive officer. “This project reflects a shared vision of how new technology, ideas and enhancements can continuously improve the impact and value of printed newspapers.”

The Times is bolstering College Point as part of a $150 million project that includes the closure of the Edison, N.J., plant and its 250 production jobs. The shutdown of the Edison facility, in combination with reducing the width of the paper, is expected to save The Times more than $40 million annually.

Decreasing expense

“By consolidating our production in one facility, we will eliminate significant operating and capital costs associated with maintaining our Edison plant,” said Scott Heekin-Canedy, president and general manager of The Times. “In addition, reducing page width substantially decreases newsprint expense.”

The Times is among the last major metros to make the transition to a narrower web, a step that seemed all but certain once arch-competitor Dow Jones & Co. last year said it would trim the web width of The Wall Street Journal from 60 inches to 48 inches.

The Times said it hopes to sublease the Edison plant, which was opened in 1992. It houses six 10-unit Goss International Colorliner presses.