The Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader in October went live with its browser-based NewsWay workflow from ProImage in a bid to integrate and automate its disparate systems, and to enhance internal operations, the publisher said.

There will be 35 users on the app for production of the Gannett daily and the numerous commercial jobs it produces.

“The benefit is having the monitoring capability,” said Prepress Manager Erik Jackson. “We can track the progress of work throughout the process — we were having trouble with disconnected systems before because when problems came up we were tracking system by system.”

Now, Jackson said, everything is centralized.

Expanding print publications combined with an ability to print up to 80-consecutive full-color broadsheet pages requires fast and accurate file processing, and Production and IT Director Tom Tate said that is something NewsWay provides consistently.

Photo: ProImage
Dan Chilton, Springfield News-Leader electronic ad services team leader, using NewsWay to check on production progress.
 

“Its ease of integration, high functionality and reliability, as well as the company’s excellent support reputation established browser-based ProImage NewsWay as clearly the best productivity-based solution for the Springfield News-Leader,” he said.

Workflow features

NewsWay provides production tracking, soft proofing, page and plate approvals, furniture and text burning, deadline monitoring and priority scheduling. In terms of enhancing inter-departmental communications, NewsWay offers annotation, conference, and automated event notification features.

The app’s ad stitching allows ad and editorial content to be submitted separately and positioned automatically using the News-Leader’s Managing Editor Inc. ALS edition planning software.

“This allows the operator to receive and review pages that have been processed through the entire workflow without manual ad placement or positioning” Jackson said.

NewsWay integrates the daily’s Quark QPS editorial pagination, Mindset Software LivePagination classified pagination, GMG Ink Optimizer, Agfa Producer OPI, OneVision Asura preflighting and PDF correction apps.

The News-Leader currently runs two DiamondSetter 610S2P computer-to-plate units.

Jackson said a CTP upgrade is under consideration and if that happens it would coincide with a possible web-width reduction, which could come as early as July.