DUSSELDORF, Germany — One of the hottest trends emerging at last month’s Drupa 2008 was the explosion of short-run digital presses aimed at newspapers.

No fewer than a half-dozen vendors launched web-fed digital presses specifically engineered to serve newspapers’ print-on-demand needs.

The goal: to allow papers to meet the demand placed by business travelers and other consumers that want to pick up a newspaper at remote locations like airports and hotels. That segment, in conjunction with the increase of niche publications, short-run materials and other periodicals with less than 15,000 circulation, dovetails perfectly with the advent of these digital presses, observers say.

The web-fed presses showcased at drupa have throughputs, finishing systems and printing features that transcend the machines now aimed at transactional promotional printing.