The Idaho Press-Tribune in Nampa, Idaho, and Bear River Publishing in Preston, Idaho, each installed PlateRite News 2000 thermal computer-to-plate imagers from Screen USA, the company said.

“Thermal plates have come such a long way, at some point conventional newspaper offset plates will be harder to get,” said Joe Hansen, production and information technology director for the Press-Tribune. The Press-Tribune installed a single unit in a matter of days, Hansen said, without any glitches or downtime.

Installation

Bear River Publishing installed a single unit to replace an existing (basysPrint) UV-Setter and a backup filmsetter.

Bear River produces three dailies and one weekly newspaper, including the Idaho State Journal in Pocatello, the Standard Journal in Rexburg and the Herald Journal in Logan.

General Manager Pat Nealy said outputting high-quality plates for its UV press tower was a key factor in choosing the PlateRite News. The publisher runs a hybrid printing operation, using a four-tower UV unit, a 16-unit coldset web press and UV inks and curing.

High resolution

“The PlateRite News allows us to print at higher resolutions,” Nealy said. “We have increased from standard 85-line screens to 110-line screens in our coldset line and 133-line screens for our UV tower.”

Meantime, Screen said the Watertown (Wis.) Daily and the Salina (Kan.) Journal each tapped Screen for a PlateRite News 2000 and the vendor’s Trueflow Rite PDF-based workflow app. Both dailies image Southern Lithoplate’s Viper 830 plates.