In a major commitment to the future of its printed product, the (New York) Daily News last month said it would purchase a triplewide, 120-couple press from Koenig & Bauer AG that will enable it to print full color on every page.

The paper (daily, 681,415; Sunday, 726,305) is buying a 15-tower, 6-by-2 Commander CT, configured as three sections. The 90,000-copy-an-hour machines, slated to go into production next year in an expanded facility at the Daily News’ Jersey City, N.J., production site, will give the paper full color on every page, giving the tab a key competitive advantage in the New York marketplace.

Photo: KBA
The Daily News’ press will be configured as three sections and give the tab the ability to print full color on every page.
 

“I believe in the future of the Daily News; that’s why I am making this significant investment,” Mort Zuckerman, the Daily News’ chairman and publisher, said in a statement.

“When the presses are fully operational, the print quality of the Daily News will be head and shoulders above the competition and equal to any newspaper in the world. This will solidify our leadership in the New York market, reinforce our position as the country’s leading tabloid and raise the bar on newspaper production in the United States.”

 

Several other U.S. papers, among them The Roanoke (Va.) Times, The Knoxville (Tenn.) News-Sentinel and The Honolulu Advertiser, have presses with robust color capabilities. But the Daily News’ circulation and paging — each Commander CT can produce 128 pages (straight) in full color — eclipses the other newspapers’ needs and color requirements.

Cloaked with automation

KBA is equipping each of the sections with five Pastomat reelstands, five towers, ribbon stitchers and one KF-7 jaw folder.

It’s cloaked with a variety of automated systems, including ones that manage blanket washing, color registration and cutoff control. The press will also feature KBA’s PlateTronic plate changers, RollerTronic roller locks and NipTronic cylinder bearings.

It will be controlled from six consoles incorporating job scheduling and press presetting software complete with a materials management application.

The press’ ultimate cutoff and web-width capabilities are still being determined, KBA said, as is the vendor that will supply the control software.

The new Commander CT lines will replace the Daily News’ current press foundation, which consists of nine Goss International Corp. Newsliners that were augmented in 2004 with color towers and digital inking systems from Printing Press Services International.

The press’ ability to put color throughout the paper was an important consideration, said Marc Kramer, the Daily News’ chief executive officer.

“We live in a world of vivid color and newspapers have to reflect that,” he said in a statement. “Our new KBA presses will allow us to work even more closely with our advertisers to meet their ever-changing demands.”

The Commander CT, introduced in 2006, is specifically built for operations that produce newspapers and semi-commercial work. The press stands at a compact 12 feet, 9 inches high for easy placement and features oil-free towers that split down the middle to allow operators easy access. An undershot film inking unit — with three form rollers  — can handle a wide variety of inks, from heatset and UV to hybrid and conventional.

Big commitment

Main-Post in Wurzburg, Germany, two years ago was the first newspaper to go into production with a Commander CT and it just recently ordered a second CT tower. Heraldo de Aragon in Spain, meantime, bought a Commander CT configured as four four-high towers for its suburban Saragossa press facility (see Newspapers & Technology, November 2007). That press will go on-edition this spring.

Gary Owen, KBA’s vice president of sales and communications, regional, said the Daily News sale represents “a big commitment and statement for print and for KBA.”

“The Daily News made the commitment to use new technology and they are ready to move forward. We’re very pleased.”

Industry consultant Alan Flaherty told Newspapers & Technology that the Daily News’ production requirements make this project unique.

“The key new parameter in the plan is the expectation to produce about 230,000 deadline copies per press. That’s about 50 percent more than any other per-press output of which I’m aware and 100 percent more than the typical count. They are accepting a longer print window in return for reduced capital and operating costs.”

The investment in the new press and facility, estimated at more than $100 million, follows the Daily News’ decision late last year to buy inserting equipment and related systems from Ferag and Goss.