The (Little Rock) Arkansas Democrat-Gazette late last year transitioned from its decades-old film workflow to computer-to-plate, going live with two FasTrak180 violet platesetters from alfaQuest Technologies Inc. and NewsXtreme workflow software from Presteligence Inc.

The installation capped off the publisher’s evaluation of CTP and workflow software vendors, which began last spring, said Production Director Neil Elliott.

Photo: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Nick Elliott, production director for the (Little Rock) Arkansas Democrat-Gazette looks at a press-ready plate from one of the publisher’s two alfaQuest FasTrak violet CTP units. The daily converted to CTP at the end of 2007.
 

“We ruled out thermal because we just didn’t like the heat aspect, the baking,” he said. “Once we decided on violet it came down to two vendors and we settled on alfaQuest based on customer service and price.”

On the workflow side, the Democrat-Gazette (daily, 178,186; Sunday, 271,815) liked the platform-independent nature of NewsXtreme. The publisher was also comfortable with Presteligence because the paper had been using the Guss output management system before Presteligence snapped up Guss’ developer, Graphic Enterprises Inc.

“Because NewsXtreme platform-independent, it all works off of naming conventions and PostScript,” said Clay Carson of the daily’s IT department. “Jobs go in based on our naming conventions and everything is automated — we don’t have to touch it.”

 

Browser-based

NewsXtreme is browser based so completed editorial pages are picked up by production staff at the Democrat-Gazette’s production facility, located just a few blocks away from the newsroom.

The Democrat-Gazette’s production operations are unique in that pressmen operate the two FasTrak 180 machines. That meant training press operators on the platesetters and NewsXtreme, which translated to a steep learning curve, according to Elliott.

“It took a little while to get them acclimated to a computer to start with, and then the software,” he said. “I made a manual for the press operators and it started out at five pages and ended up being about 25 pages — because when you’d say things like ‘close the window out,’ it didn’t mean a lot to some of them.”

After the operators became comfortable with the computers and software, using NewsXtreme and the FasTraks was simple, Elliott said.

“It’s a really easy process to teach somebody how to send plates now,” he said. “We have about 15 guys that send plates from the CTP units to the press.”

The Democrat-Gazette’s production facility prepress department serves as a final check station.

“Editorial puts all of their stories on the pages and prepress will flow in the ads,” he said.

Like most publishers, the Democrat-Gazette counts speed and quality among the biggest benefits CTP and the new software provide.

Two platesetters now do the work that just one filmsetter — now used by a sister publication — used to do, which includes the daily and a number of tabloid products. That capacity has allowed the paper to be produced roughly four times as fast as it did on film, according to Elliott.

The speed of NewsXtreme is something to which Chris Ritter of the paper’s IT department can attest. Ritter was recently able to put a job into NewsXtreme and send it to the production facility in just 17 minutes.

“I called them and told them I would have the job there in an hour and I was able to get it there in 17 minutes,” he said. “They were shocked.”

Although there have been a few kinks in the registration process, Elliott said the support has been great and that registration is perfect when everything is working properly.

The Democrat-Gazette images Fuji violet plates and uses a Nela Vision bender. The paper also implemented Presteligence’s Black Magic News Extra for hard proofing.