Newsworld to produce British dailies in N.Y. with digital press

By Tara McMeekin
Editor

British newspapers the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday will be digitally printed in New York starting this month through a four-year contract between Newsworld Corp. Ltd. and Associated Newspapers Ltd.

The papers will be produced seven days a week using a Screen Truepress Jet520 line (two engines) and an inline Hunkeler finishing system through Newsworld’s “distribute then print” service, which it launched last year.

“In the last two years we’ve pulled together a series of interconnected things — software, a printing machine from Screen and the Hunkeler machine is the finishing arm of what we do,” said David Renouf, chief executive at Newsworld. “When we pull that all together it becomes a compelling package for publishers around the world.”

The Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday will initially launch with UK versions, but the publisher said plans are to eventually tailor editions to New Yorkers, complete with local content and advertising. Fifty percent of the 96-page editions will be in full color.

Local copy, local ads on tap

“They want to turn it into a specific New York edition,” Renouf said. “The software that we have at the front end of this allows us to drop in local ads and local copy very easily.”

That software, he said, also allows for normal imposition and provides reporting numbers publishers can use for their audit circulation.

“Previous attempts to establish the principle of printing newspapers locally have been compromised by speed, color or quality,” said Newsworld Chairman John Ashfield. “We can provide the quality, look and feel of the original brand product, coupled with significant time savings, which allow the papers to be on sale on the same day.”