COSTA MESA, Calif. — Masthead International said it is rolling out a press modification service that would let newspapers print six pages across on a doublewide press.

The service, dubbed Metro Saver, can be performed on 66-inch-wide Goss International Corp. Metro presses, according to Steve Stone, general manager.

The company estimates there are about 120 of these presses, which were built between 1970 and 1981, still in operation.

The 6-wide modification comes as more papers trim their webs to 44 inches, which permits the printing of six pages across on a 66-inch-wide press, Stone said.

The service includes modifications on the press’ RTPs, inkers, folders, rails, spraybars, lockups and blankets. Masthead has teamed up with technotrans for the spraybars, and Mountain States Inc. for the cylinders, which will be engineered with straight-across lockups.

More color

“A paper can get 50 percent more paging and 50 percent more color and do this running fewer webs,” Stone said.

The introduction of Metro Saver comes as Masthead begins to tackle a number of projects at newspapers that want to retool their press’ operations.

The News & Record in Greensboro, N.C., for example, tapped Masthead to rebuild its 13-unit Goss Metro Offset press. The project, to be completed this fall, covers replacing everything from the press’ units to cylinders, including ink drums, gears, bearings and the ink train, Stone said. Masthead is also re-engineering the folders to accommodate a 46-inch wide web while partner Brock Solutions will convert the paper’s 13 RTPs to digital operation.

“The press is 30 years old and it has a significant number of miles on it,” said Dennis Creamer, operations director. “This project will get the press back to like new. It has good color capacity already. We just want the press to last longer.”

The press rebuild project follows a changeover of the press’ drives from DC to AC, which Masthead and Brock completed last year. The project also included the conversion of the press to footprint shaftless (see Newspapers & Technology, November 2007).

Masthead is also more than doubling the size and color capacity of a press at a Southeastern paper that will give the daily enough firepower to double its commercial printing business.

The firm is adding four towers to the paper’s existing three-tower press and making other modifications to permit the boost in color. The project is expected to conclude this fall.

Masthead is also overseeing web-width reduction projects at papers including the News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash.; Press-Enterprise in Riverside, Calif., Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J., and Hamilton Spectator in Ontario, Canada.

Finally, Masthead, Brock and ABB worked on control upgrades at a number of newspapers, including the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal, the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Tucson’s Newspapers in Tucson, Ariz., meantime, used Masthead to convert 18 drives from DC to AC.