ORLANDO, Fla. — Despite the challenging economic times facing newspapers and publishers, newspapers and newspaper printers last month took out their checkbooks to buy new press technologies to anchor their future production requirements.

The Naples (Fla.) Daily News, for example, said it would install a WIFAG evolution 371 press for a new 180,000-square-foot production facility it’s constructing outside of Naples.

The press, expected to go on-edition in 2009, will be configured as two lines, with six four-high towers, six reelstands and two jaw folders with balloon formers, said Tom Sewall, the Daily News’ director of operations.

“We’re very excited,” he said. “The efficiencies of the equipment will pay important dividends.”

Photo: Newspapers & Technology
Thomas J. Sewall, director of operations, Naples (Fla.) Daily News, center, is surrounded, left to right, by WIFAG’s Goetz Stein, executive member of the board; Renato Lang, sales engineer, Noel C. McEvoy, sales director, and Thomas S. Stuart, vice president of sales.




Photo: TKS
Left to right, Mike Shafer, national sales manager, and Greg Harabin, president and chief executive officer, TKS (USA); Richard Hawes, director of operations, Jan Brookes, operations packaging manager, and Robert W. Eickhoff, senior vice president of operations, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution; and K. Sato, general manager of overseas sales, TKS, marking sale of six TKS towers to the Georgia newspaper.
 

The press, engineered with a 21-inch cutoff, will sport a variable web width and a slate of image-based, closed-loop controls governing cutoff and registration. It can be upgraded to computer-to-press and other digital printing capabilities once the technologies are available.

“Digital production is going to happen and we want to be ready when it does,” Sewall said.

The newspaper will be able to more than double its current color capacity with the press, which will also be used to print a host of more than two dozen other niche publications the Daily News prints.

This is the second 371 model WIFAG has sold in the United States since it introduced the press in 2004. New Jersey Media Group went on-edition with its 371 press last summer (see Newspapers & Technology, September 2006).

Dario Designs Inc. is overseeing design and engineering of the Daily News’ 180,000 square-foot facility, which will replace its current downtown site.

Transcon makes move

Meantime, Transcontinental Inc. picked MAN Roland to supply it with three ColorMAN XXL 6-by-2 presses for the production facility it’s building in northern California to produce the San Francisco Chronicle.

Each press will be configured with three towers, one folder and four reelstands and capable of producing 48 broadsheet pages, 24 in full color. All can be fitted to accommodate heatset drying, if needed, MAN said.

Transcon also tapped MAN to provide it with Pecom controls and printnet workflow to oversee production. The presses will also be equipped with automatic reel loading, automatic web lead-in, web tension control, cutoff control, color register and ink-density controls, all from MAN Roland.

Pierre Manseau, Transcon’s director of infrastructure and production technology for North American development and U.S. operations, said the presses will be on-edition in 2009, as originally anticipated when the printer late last year announced its 15-year contract to print the Chronicle.

“It’s not just a way to print newspapers,” Manseau said of the technology Transcon is purchasing. “It’s a way to help us redefine how to print newspapers,” citing in particular software and other applications that will let the firm oversee production data throughout the printing process.

Transcon is still finalizing details on the location of the building as well as the cutoff and web width of the XXL presses. The publisher is also negotiating with postpress vendors and other suppliers to equip the building.

AJC picks towers

In another Nexpo development, TKS signed an agreement with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution to supply it with six ColorTop 7000 H-style towers to support the paper’s color upgrade project.

The towers, to be meshed with The Journal-Constitution’s four existing TKS presses at its suburban Atlanta plant, will be equipped with press control upgrades by ABB and go on-edition in November 2008, TKS said.

The upgrade “will help give us more sectioning and permit us to go to straight production,” said Stan Pantell, The Journal-Constitution’s vice president of operations (see Newspapers & Technology, April 2007).

When the project is completed, the paper will be able to print up to 32 pages of color, almost doubling its current capacity.

“We are pleased that The Journal-Constitution has chosen to continue working with TKS in its press enhancement project,” said Greg Harabin, president and chief executive officer of TKS (USA) Inc. “This order shows the continuing confidence of our customers in TKS.”

ABB is installing new control systems for all existing units and integration of TKS controls in the towers. ABB is also supplying two MPS press control consoles for each press, together with MPS Inform analysis and press management software. It’s also designing a computer-to-plate interface to the paper’s existing Agfa Arkitex software.

Next, Goss International Corp. said it sold a Magnum 4 press to newspaper printer Michigan Web Press. The singlewidth press is configured as six four-high towers with a single folder. It also sold a Magnum to newspaper and commercial printer Creel Printing in Las Vegas. That press will sport eight four-high towers and two N-40 folders.

Pa. paper going Berliner

Finally, Koenig & Bauer AG capped the four-day show with its announcement that it is selling a Colora doublewide Berliner press to the Reading (Pa.) Eagle for a new downtown production and distribution facility.

The machine, to be on-edition in 2009, will be configured as four eight-couple towers totaling 32 printing couples. It will be equipped with a double KF3 folder (2:3:3/2:3:3) with variable web-width capability.

KBA is engineering the Colora with five formers, including a variable web width former, for newspaper and semi-commercial production.

Additional semi-commercial features on the press include a plow former, two-part section stitcher and quarterfolder. EAE is providing operator controls and its production planning and presetting software. KBA’s Simultaneous Independent Production System software will let the Eagle produce various products,  independently.

“We believe print products, including daily newspapers, will be part of people’s lives for a long time,” said Larry Orkus, associate publisher of the Reading Eagle Co. “To be a successful part of that vision, we must take significant, considered actions to expand our position among the ever-increasing electronic information delivery systems that challenge our franchise. We believe we must take every opportunity to become more efficient and diverse as a printer for commercial applications as well as for our daily newspaper.”

The Eagle is the second North American paper to embrace the Berliner format.