CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The Wyoming Tribune-Eagle this month plans to go on-edition with its new MAN Roland Inc. Uniset 75 press.

Jim Thompson, production director for the Tribune-Eagle, said he expects the press will give the paper “additional capabilities to serve our community and our advertisers.” The family-owned newspaper also publishes the Laramie (Wyo.) Boomerang, which will be printed at the upgraded facility.

Thompson

The Tribune-Eagle spent $14 million to build a new press hall adjacent to its downtown headquarters and make space for an expanded postpress and distribution center.

In addition to the press, the Tribune-Eagle (daily, 15,782 Sunday, 16,682) purchased postpress equipment from Goss International Corp. and Ferag and an additional computer-to-plate line from the CTP Alliance to bolster its operations.

 

Going commercial

Forum Architects LLC designed the addition, which brings in natural light and features modern electrical and heating and lighting systems. The 16,000-square-foot press hall is in sharp contrast to where the Tribune-Eagle’s 37-year-old existing press now sits: a windowless area that doubles as the newspaper’s mailroom.

Photos: Newspapers & Technology
The Tribune-Eagle’s existing singlewide press shares space with the paper’s postpress operations and requires operators to manually load and unload newsprint rolls.



A worker puts the finishing touches on the Tribune-Eagle’s new mailroom, anchored with equipment by Ferag and Goss International Corp.
 

The Uniset 75, configured as three, four-high towers, a Pecom control system and a single 2:3:3 folder, will let the Tribune-Eagle print color on every page of a 36-page run. Equally important, the 21-inch cutoff machine will allow the newspaper to satisfy its ballooning volume of commercial work.

“I think there’s a definite demand and there is more than enough work,” Thompson said, citing the area’s booming energy economy.

With the new press, the Tribune-Eagle will have the most technologically advanced coldset printing plant within 100 miles. The paper already publishes a growing number of periodicals for area publishers and it also has a sheetfed press to produce materials for other customers that include the Wyoming state government.

The color and quarterfolding capacity of the press will enable the Tribune-Eagle to court additional customers, he said.

“On day one (with the new press) we already have some new accounts.”

For now, he said, the Tribune-Eagle will not be adding such commercial-oriented equipment as stitchers, trimmers, gluers or UV printing capabilities to its production infrastructure, but “all of this will be evaluated.”

“If there is enough demand, we can make those decisions, but with stitchers costing about $200,000, we’ll have to see if there’s a better place to spend that money,” Thompson said.

Upgraded mailroom

In addition to the press, the Tribune-Eagle upgraded its postpress operation, adding a rebuilt 2299 20:1 inserter and Omnicon control software from Goss and UTR gripper conveyor and SmartStack stackers from Ferag.

The Tribune-Eagle’s new addition, designed by Forum Architects LLC,
houses a MAN Roland Uniset 75 press, configured as three, four-high towers.

The equipment was installed in a 10,000-square-foot space that includes the paper’s dock and distribution area.

Thompson said designers cloaked the docks, which face Cheyenne’s main street, with materials and colors that mute the industrial role of the facility. The docks formerly were on the north end of the building, which made winter operations more challenging because of the lack of sunlight.

“We have automated the mailroom as much as possible,” Thompson said. Personnel reduction was not the main focus of upgrading the equipment, he said; instead, the automation enables the Tribune-Eagle to allow its current workforce to work smarter. It also helps the paper avoid having to try to find new workers in a marketplace where unemployment is below 2 percent.

The Ferag UTR conveyor will shuttle papers from the pressroom to the
new mailroom.



A test press run of the MAN Roland Uniset press in early May;
the Tribune-Eagle will go on-edition with the press this month.




A technician reviews the Pecom control system.

The Tribune-Eagle inserts every day but Monday; Sunday editions contain more than 20 inserted ads, Thompson said.

On the prepress side, the Tribune-Eagle purchased a second thermal CTP line from the CTP Alliance. The 80-plate-per-hour line consists of a Screen (USA) platesetter, Presteligence workflow software, Southern Lithoplate Inc. plates and a Nela plate bender and mirrors a line the paper installed 18 months ago.

Thompson said he hopes to install the second line this summer. Ultimately, both lines will be located in a room on the same level as the press. The current plateroom is on a different floor than the new press.

Redesign

Upon the inauguration of the press, the Tribune-Eagle will redesign the paper, reducing its web size from 50 inches to 48. Cutoff will shrink 1.75 inches.

The 12-inch page size will let the Tribune-Eagle print three pages across on the Uniset if needed, providing additional color and paging benefits.

“It’s clear that the newspaper industry is facing challenges,” Thompson said. “Ad dollars are off and circulation numbers are off among the country’s top metro papers. But the fact of the matter is that community papers are growing and we remain strong. Yes, there are changes, but the printed piece is not going away.”

Listen to our interview with Jim Thompson
on News&Tech radio.