Lee Enterprises Inc. is adding to the Kodak thermal computer-to-plate foundation  the publisher began rolling out earlier this year.

Lee in August purchased Trendsetter News CTP units for nine additional sites, bringing to 15 the total number slated to complete CTP installations by month’s end, according to Brian Kardell, vice president of production and chief information officer.

Among the 15 sites, Lee will install 31 Trendsetter News units, as well as workflow and screening software from Kodak. The units will range in output speeds from Kodak’s 50-plate-per-hour models to its 200-plate-per-hour systems, making Lee the only publisher to employ every model of the Trendsetter News.

Photo: Lee Enterprises
Jim Gaasterland, operations director; Brian Remmick, press operator and Chad Arnold, mailroom manager for Lee’s Billings (Mont.) Gazette with the daily’s new thermal CTP equipment.
 

“We’ve decided to add nine more sites to the others already in process,” Kardell told Newspapers & Technology. “We’ve had great luck with Kodak so far in the field — good quality and great service and support — and the bottom line is there’s a great ROI in it for us.”

The most recent sites included in the deal are the Citizen in Auburn, N.Y., the Southern Illinoisan in Carbondale, the Casper (Wyo.) Star-Tribune, the Rapid City (S.D.) Journal, the Times News in Twin Falls, Idaho, and Montana dailies the Billings Gazette, the Independent Record in Helena and the Missoulian in Missoula.

Prior to those nine sites, installs were already under way at the Pantagraph in Bloomington, Ill., the Sioux City (Iowa) Journal, the Quad-City Times in Davenport, Iowa, the Daily Herald in Provo, Utah, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Suburban Journals of Greater St. Louis, which prints regional weeklies.

All 15 sites are converting from film.

“Of course there are significant savings in film and chemistry but we’ve also improved the quality of our product,” Kardell said. “We’ve been impressed with the speed of the machines and more importantly, our operators like them.”

Lee publishes 56 dailies in 23 states, and hundreds of weeklies, bi-weeklies, classified and specialty pubs. Kardell didn’t comment on whether or when Lee’s remaining papers might convert to CTP.

Fla. daily, others tap Kodak

Meantime, The (Jacksonville) Florida Times-Union purchased two Trendsetter News 200s following implementation of Kodak units at sister Morris Communications’ properties and other newspaper printers around the country.

“We have been planning to go to CTP for years, and the reputation of the Kodak devices for speed and dependability impressed us,” said Mike Horne, quality assurance director at The Times-Union.

Other publishers to recently bolster their Kodak foundations include Western Web, which prints The Eureka (Calif.) Reporter, a free daily, and a variety of weekly and monthly publications; Sound Publishing Inc. in Everett, Wash., which prints Investor’s Business Daily, 15 weekly and twice-weekly newspapers, area shoppers and a variety of commercial jobs; Hood River News/Columbia Gorge Press in Hood River, Ore.; Bliss Communications Inc. of Janesville, Wis., which prints The Janesville Gazette; Publications Press Inc. of Montgomery, Ala., which prints a number of real estate magazines, as well as commercial coldset and heatset web publications; Scripps Texas Newspapers of Wichita Falls, Texas, which prints the Times Record News; Newspaper Agency Co. of Salt Lake City, which prints the Salt Lake City Tribune and Deseret Morning News; Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd. of Woodbridge, Ontario, Canada; Transcontinental’s Moose Jaw Times-Herald in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada; CanWest Mediaworks Publications in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, which prints the Regina Leader-Post; and York Region Printing, a division of Metroland Media Group in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada

Finally, The Orange County (Calif.) Register purchased three additional Kodak Versamark DS5120 Printing Systems to handle addressing for its TMC products.