Empire State Weeklies Inc. in Webster, N.Y., publisher of two weekly newspapers, and sister company to a commercial print operation, in June added to its ECRM workflow foundation, opting for the vendor’s new Mako News platesetter.

The install marked a transition to computer-to-plate for the publisher, which already employed an 18-inch ECRM imagesetter that’s been in operation for four years.

The benefits have been immediately apparent for the publisher.



Photo: ECRM
Lynn Tabak, art director, Nina MacDonald, prepress, and Tim Young, graphic designer for Empire State Weeklies, with the publisher’s new Mako News CTP platesetter from ECRM.
 

Huge difference

“We have experienced a huge difference in the time required to plate our 4-color jobs compared with conventional platemaking,” said Dave Young, president of Empire State Weeklies. “Also the fit on press makereadies is vastly improved,”

The Mako News joins Empire State’s existing workflow made up of Apple workstations and Kodak violet plates, and is connected via ECRM’s WorkMates software.

WorkMates is specifically designed for newspapers and printers migrating from film to a PDF-to-plate workflow, ECRM said, and the vendor touts the affordability of the app, as well as its ability to address the basic prepress need of scalability.

If a publisher wants to add stochastic screening or color critical ICC matched proofs, they need only add a plug-in module, according to ECRM. WorkMates also allows prepress managers to configure their digital prepress on an as-needed basis.

Empire State employs 20 people, including four dedicated to prepress, and prints a range of products, from newspapers and magazines to direct mailers and books.

Clients include other newspaper owners, schools and colleges, smaller printers and non-profit organizations. The publisher said it also plans to maintain its conventional imagesetter.