The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot tapped Goss International Corp. to rebuild its five 6-unit Metroliner presses and convert 30 pasters to Goss’ digital paster systems. The unit and folder rebuild will be completed in 2009 while the RTP upgrade will conclude next year.

The paper decided to rebuild its decades-old presses rather than replace them, said Al Byrd, press operations manager.

“The press was nearly 30 years old and was worn out. After a thorough discussion about whether to rebuild or replace the press, we decided that rebuilding was the best decision for us.”

Goss is already through retrofitting eight of the 30 units, Byrd said. Two units at a time are taken down to accommodate the work.

In addition to the rebuild, The Virginian-Pilot is also adding lockups from Glunz & Jensen K&F Inc. and a new spraybar dampening system from technotrans. It’s also evaluating a web-width reduction from 50 inches to 48 inches with flexibility to reduce further to 46 inches, Byrd said.