The Denver Newspaper Agency began prerun and special publication production on the first of its five new MAN Roland GeoMAN presses.

One of the first periodicals produced on the machine, the alternative Denver newsweekly Westword, appeared in November as a 10-inch-by-13-inch tabloid, trimmed considerably as a result of the GeoMAN’s 21-inch cutoff and 48-inch web width.

An editor’s note in the weekly said a downsized version of the (Denver) Rocky Mountain News would make its debut this month, an assertion a DNA spokesman denied.

On edition this fall

Instead, the agency, which also prints The Denver Post, said it expects to have all its presses on-edition this fall, as previously announced.

DNA agreed to purchase five presses from MAN Roland in late 2005 as part of a $100 million upgrade of its production facilties. The agency will close an existing Denver Post print site upon commissioning the new presses.