By Marcelo Duran
Associate Editor
If you build it, they will come.
That is the hope several companies are expressing as they attempt to extend community journalism into the wide world of sports.
Last month, CommunitySportsDesk, an offshoot of the Kenosha (Wis.) News, launched a hosted service that allows local youth and recreation sports leagues to post schedules, write game summaries, input stats and box scores and upload game and team pictures to a newspaper-branded Web site.
The hosted version is the most recent iteration of CommunitySportsDesk, which the News (Monday-Friday, 24,552; Saturday, 24,215; Sunday, 27,149) rolled out last summer as an experiment to see how it could handle user-generated content flowing from the area’s youth and recreation sports teams, according to Ken Dowdell, News publisher and vice president of United Communications Corp.
“Our in-house techs built that innovative model, based on discussions with league organizers and team officials,” he said.
Reaction was positive, so the News hired additional software developers to pepper CommunitySportsDesk with additional features, including the ability for UCC to host the app, Dowdell said.
“It can be the ‘something-different’ tool that equips a traditional media company to get where they need to go with youth and recreational sports,” he said about the software, adding that he felt confident the concept would work well in other “Kenoshas” around the country.
Automatic lede writing
In addition to rewriting code that enabled UCC to host the app, developers added features that allow the software to produce basic headlines and lead paragraphs automatically, based on the data input by team representatives.
“Rather than simply offering a channel for blogging, CommunitySportsDesk helps structure the collection, processing and flow of what can be massive amounts of data,” said Dowdell.
“We’ve engineered options that can serve Pee Wee players who just need their achievements recognized to high school and adult leagues that like to collect complete stats,” he said.
Dowdell said the company is prepared to support its users as they roll out the software.
“As a result of our real-life experiences, we’re prepared to help other publishers with a community-focused, full advertising-supported business model, not merely software,” said Dowdell.
Matthew Serpe, a CommunitySportsDesk business development specialist, said the service dovetails with the industry’s adoption of hyper-local coverage.
“In a newspaper, (youth and rec sports) is an area getting the least amount of coverage. We are offering this application for youth and rec to cover themselves.”
National effort
Dell Sports Inc., meantime, plans to roll out a national high-school sports service this fall, according to Terry Dell, president of the Charlotte, N.C., firm.
The service, Prep Sports Nation, allows participants to post and share pictures, upload video and blogs and share content among students, parents, athletes and local community members.
“How cool would it be to have pictures of you, uploaded on the Web site, by everyone in the audience?” Dell said. “It’s a game of a thousand angles and it’s easy for anyone who goes and watches the game to take pictures.”
Dell said participating newspapers can download all the materials they need from the PSN site. Fans are reminded that a newspaper could use their photos or stories before they can post to PSN, Dell said.
Prep Sports Nation began beta testing the app last August and Dell said he’s modified PSN to accommodate user requests.
Reverse publishing
“One suggestion was full reverse publishing on all user photos and profile material, which we had, but (the paper) wanted to take the entire profile and feature a particular a student,” he said.
Papers can feature multiple student profiles and can also run fan profiles from multiple schools, he said.
PSN is engineered to manage rosters, schedules, and individual and team stats. Users will also be able to search for particular teams or individuals on other PSN sites and Dell said he’s working on a delivery method to allow photos and other materials to be shared among newspapers.
The system includes a stamp or watermark that identifies where the photo originated and a transmission system that can route the photo to a newspaper that requests to publish it.
CommunitySportsDesk and PSN come as newspapers try to find ways to increase coverage of local sports even as their resources are trimmed. The Amarillo (Texas) Globe-News, for example, won a Digital Edge award for its prep sports site, Pigskin Review, which launched last year (see Newspapers & Technology, March 2008).
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Unleashing papers’ inner beast
By Marcelo Duran
Associate Editor
ORLANDO, Fla. — It’s not easy reinventing a newspaper when the newspaper itself is the one spreading the bad news.
But that’s just one of the obstacles Brian Tierney faces as he attempts to revitalize The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News.
“If there’s one thing I’ve noticed about newspapers, it’s that there isn’t an industry out there that doesn’t kick itself in the rear end more frequently and more dramatically than this business,” said Tierney, chief executive officer and publisher of Philadelphia Media Holdings.
Tierney, along with Michael Reed, president and chief executive officer of GateHouse Media Inc. and William Dean Singleton, vice chairman and chief executive officer of Media News Group, were the keynote speakers at this year’s NAA Marketing Conference.
Their message: Newspapers need to be aggressive innovators to fend off stiff competition in their quest to achieve local news dominance and ad dollars.
Tierney, the former advertising executive who implemented a number of new initiatives at the Philadelphia papers, said that newspapers are doing a disservice to themselves by focusing too much on the negative business and not enough on the positive.
Burying the lede
Case in point: When The Inquirer reported its first circulation gains in a number of years, the story was buried on page 3 of the business section.
“You will never see Brian Williams begin his broadcast by rending his garments and saying that a third of the people who used to watch me aren’t even watching me anymore,” Tierney said.
What newspapers are dealing with is more competition and it’s important to maintain their local audience.
“Let’s talk about the assets that we have,” said Tierney. “There are all kinds of challenges out there but I really see as an outsider the strengths of the industry and we need to understand them, focus on them and invest in those and get over it.”
A key part of Tierney’s strategy is to attract women aged 35 years and up.
To that end, Philadelphia Media Holdings launched several programs geared toward wooing that demographic, programs involving targeted advertising and promotions (see sidebar).
He also stressed papers should launch low-cost experiments and explore e-commerce initiatives.
But more importantly, he said, newspapers need to promote the value they provide their communities.
“We’re proud to put on the front of our Sunday paper (that the paper) contains $722, or $638, worth of coupons inside,” he said. “The journalists don’t exactly love that but I’ll take them anyway I can; If that’s what it take to get our consumers to come out with a little bit of kibble like a deer in the woods.”
Moving ahead
Singleton stated that while the United States is poised to enter a recession, now is the time for newspapers to move forward with the right strategies.
The key focus for newspapers is to protect and serve the core printed product and to expand the online business and develop new niche products, he said.
“Right now we are facing a secular and cyclical downturn and it’s important not to get the two mixed up,” said Singleton. “We’ve been going through secular change for several years. Our core has been smaller, advertisers have been shrinking while our online has been growing.”
Real estate and job listings may never come back to printed newspapers, but newspapers can still attract these revenues in their electronic editions, Singleton said.
He said he expects online revenues to contribute 20 percent of MNG’s sales by 2012 while sales from print advertising generate 65 percent. The remainder, he said, will come from niche and specialty products. According to a memo he issued in late 2007, Singleton said MNG currently gets 89 percent of its revenues from display advertising while online contributes about 7 percent.
Reed, meantime, said the industry has to continue to invest in and train its sales force.
“We have gotten increasingly complex compared to 20, 30, 40 years ago when we just put our daily newspaper on the street,” Reed said. “That’s not the case anymore. We have a plethora of niche products, weeklies, monthlies, special sections, and our daily and online products.”
Newspaper sales reps must know the product mixes, the community and the competition and be willing to change. Singleton stressed feet on the streets, while Reed said his company’s strengths lie in knowing the community and integrating the newspaper within that market.
As a result, GateHouse, which largely owns newspapers in small and mid-sized markets, has been able to avoid some of the classified revenues meltdown and cyclical downturn that’s affected its larger counterparts, Reed said.
As for feet on the street, “You can’t sell what we have to offer if you don’t have people to sell it,” Singleton said.
“We need to sell to the advertisers and more importantly, the customers we don’t have, and find out what problems we need to solve, what solutions we need to provide for them.”
Still, Tierney said, the severe cost pressures newspapers are now facing won’t end anytime soon. Trimming staff, he said, is a consequence of the current business environment.
“Quite frankly, there’s a sense of entitlement and lamentation about the past and the core of our employees (is) not stepping up to the game the way we need them to,” he said.
“We are changing that mindset. We have been able to redo our contracts with union leaders to get that and they’ve been helping getting people up and out who do not want to step up to the game.”
Yet even as newspapers are forced to resize their operations, publishers still must be open to new ideas and take chances when appropriate, Tierney said.
“The key is to experiment, to make a lot of small bets. Don’t bet the house on any one thing, but why not try something with a small investment but high potential down the road,” he said.
Associate Editor
ORLANDO, Fla. — It’s not easy reinventing a newspaper when the newspaper itself is the one spreading the bad news.
But that’s just one of the obstacles Brian Tierney faces as he attempts to revitalize The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News.
“If there’s one thing I’ve noticed about newspapers, it’s that there isn’t an industry out there that doesn’t kick itself in the rear end more frequently and more dramatically than this business,” said Tierney, chief executive officer and publisher of Philadelphia Media Holdings.
Tierney, along with Michael Reed, president and chief executive officer of GateHouse Media Inc. and William Dean Singleton, vice chairman and chief executive officer of Media News Group, were the keynote speakers at this year’s NAA Marketing Conference.
Their message: Newspapers need to be aggressive innovators to fend off stiff competition in their quest to achieve local news dominance and ad dollars.
Tierney, the former advertising executive who implemented a number of new initiatives at the Philadelphia papers, said that newspapers are doing a disservice to themselves by focusing too much on the negative business and not enough on the positive.
Burying the lede
Case in point: When The Inquirer reported its first circulation gains in a number of years, the story was buried on page 3 of the business section.
“You will never see Brian Williams begin his broadcast by rending his garments and saying that a third of the people who used to watch me aren’t even watching me anymore,” Tierney said.
What newspapers are dealing with is more competition and it’s important to maintain their local audience.
“Let’s talk about the assets that we have,” said Tierney. “There are all kinds of challenges out there but I really see as an outsider the strengths of the industry and we need to understand them, focus on them and invest in those and get over it.”
A key part of Tierney’s strategy is to attract women aged 35 years and up.
To that end, Philadelphia Media Holdings launched several programs geared toward wooing that demographic, programs involving targeted advertising and promotions (see sidebar).
He also stressed papers should launch low-cost experiments and explore e-commerce initiatives.
But more importantly, he said, newspapers need to promote the value they provide their communities.
“We’re proud to put on the front of our Sunday paper (that the paper) contains $722, or $638, worth of coupons inside,” he said. “The journalists don’t exactly love that but I’ll take them anyway I can; If that’s what it take to get our consumers to come out with a little bit of kibble like a deer in the woods.”
Moving ahead
Singleton stated that while the United States is poised to enter a recession, now is the time for newspapers to move forward with the right strategies.
The key focus for newspapers is to protect and serve the core printed product and to expand the online business and develop new niche products, he said.
“Right now we are facing a secular and cyclical downturn and it’s important not to get the two mixed up,” said Singleton. “We’ve been going through secular change for several years. Our core has been smaller, advertisers have been shrinking while our online has been growing.”
Real estate and job listings may never come back to printed newspapers, but newspapers can still attract these revenues in their electronic editions, Singleton said.
He said he expects online revenues to contribute 20 percent of MNG’s sales by 2012 while sales from print advertising generate 65 percent. The remainder, he said, will come from niche and specialty products. According to a memo he issued in late 2007, Singleton said MNG currently gets 89 percent of its revenues from display advertising while online contributes about 7 percent.
Reed, meantime, said the industry has to continue to invest in and train its sales force.
“We have gotten increasingly complex compared to 20, 30, 40 years ago when we just put our daily newspaper on the street,” Reed said. “That’s not the case anymore. We have a plethora of niche products, weeklies, monthlies, special sections, and our daily and online products.”
Newspaper sales reps must know the product mixes, the community and the competition and be willing to change. Singleton stressed feet on the streets, while Reed said his company’s strengths lie in knowing the community and integrating the newspaper within that market.
As a result, GateHouse, which largely owns newspapers in small and mid-sized markets, has been able to avoid some of the classified revenues meltdown and cyclical downturn that’s affected its larger counterparts, Reed said.
As for feet on the street, “You can’t sell what we have to offer if you don’t have people to sell it,” Singleton said.
“We need to sell to the advertisers and more importantly, the customers we don’t have, and find out what problems we need to solve, what solutions we need to provide for them.”
Still, Tierney said, the severe cost pressures newspapers are now facing won’t end anytime soon. Trimming staff, he said, is a consequence of the current business environment.
“Quite frankly, there’s a sense of entitlement and lamentation about the past and the core of our employees (is) not stepping up to the game the way we need them to,” he said.
“We are changing that mindset. We have been able to redo our contracts with union leaders to get that and they’ve been helping getting people up and out who do not want to step up to the game.”
Yet even as newspapers are forced to resize their operations, publishers still must be open to new ideas and take chances when appropriate, Tierney said.
“The key is to experiment, to make a lot of small bets. Don’t bet the house on any one thing, but why not try something with a small investment but high potential down the road,” he said.
Friday, February 1, 2008
Digital printing, automation to drive drupa '08
By Mary L. Van Meter
Publisher
DUSSELDORF, Germany — With more than 550 million newspapers printed worldwide each day, the power of the printed word remains strong, said officials at a weeklong event held last month to promote drupa 2008.
Newspapers are just one segment of the millions of tons of printed materials produced each year, said Albrecht Bolza-Schunemann, chairman of drupa 2008 and chief executive officer of Koenig & Bauer AG.
Bolza-Schunemann said contemporary newspapers have little to fear in comparison to Web sites, particularly since users still rate papers as friendlier and easier to read. “Consumers rate nothing as highly as newspapers in terms of credibility,” he said. Still, he said integrated workflow and process control will become more critical factors as publishers find ways to cut production costs. “Automation will be a key factor,” he said.
Albrecht Bolza-Schunemann, chairman of drupa 2008 and chief executive officer of Koenig & Bauer AG, touted the power of print at the January drupa preview. Photos: Newspapers & Technology
The global volume of printed materials, he said, is increasing at an annual clip of 3 percent to 5 percent. In more populous nations such as China and India, print growth is galloping along at double-digit rates, he said.
Bolza-Schunemann, along with drupa CEO Werner Matthias Dornscheidt, kicked off drupa Media Week. This year’s drupa, from May 29 through June 11, will showcase more than 1,800 exhibitors.
Among the key technologies drupa visitors can expect to see are those related to digital printing, along with an increased focus on automated and touchless workflow solutions, vendors said.
Companies such as Screen, Kodak, Ricoh, Fujifilm Corp. and Xerox Corp. said they’ll demonstrate hybrid applications based on the nexus of digital and offset technology.
These print-on-demand and Web-to-print approaches are geared to helping printers expand margins and attract new revenue streams.
Among drupa developments:
•Domino Printing Sciences said it would release two newspaper-oriented inkjet-based variable-print products, the K150 inkjet printer and version 4.5 of the vendor’s Bitjet printing system. Both enable high-speed inline inkjet printing and both can be integrated with web offset and flexo presslines.
•Screen previewed the TruePress Jet 520, a full-color variable printing system, as well as the PlateRite 2000+ thermal computer-to-plate system.
The TruePress can print different images and text on each page and features a roll-fed paper transport system, according to Tim Taylor, marketing director (see photo, page 24). Taylor said the system can be used with any uncoated newspaper stock and will be aimed at newspapers that want to produce print editions at remote sites.
“CTP represents 90 percent of Screen gross revenues and we are very committed to this market,” Taylor said. “But because Drupa only comes around every four years, we will devote a majority of our booth to print-on-demand to showcase that we are in the market.”
The 2000+, meantime, can produce 106 broadsheet or 49 panorama plates per hour and is Screen’s fastest machine. It’s available immediately.
•Ricoh showcased its Ricoh Pro C900 and C900s digital printer. Designed for high-volume print customers, it is integrated with a range of inline finishing devices that support perfect binding, ring binding and other capabilities.
•Presstek Inc. said it will display its chemistry-free platemaking systems, its line of 52DI and 34DI digital printers and its Momentum Pro workflow software.
The 52DI is a landscape digital offset press that can support FM screening without additional time or expense, Presstek said. The 34DI is a portrait format digital press.
•Fujifilm and Xerox said they would cross-promote each other’s digital printing capabilities as part of their reseller agreement. Among specific products to be displayed will be Fujifilm’s Brilla HD Pro-V chemistry-free digital plate and PressMax pressroom chemistry.
•Kodak said it will demonstrate its next-generation digital inkjet press, Kodak Stream Concept Press.
The high-speed press features print resolution that exceeds 600 dots per inch and relies on continuous inkjet technology. Kodak said Stream will be geared to commercial printers that produce monthly page volumes of 10 million or more.
“Stream Technology will bring some exciting changes to the industry and this technology demonstration will be an impressive display of its offset class capabilities,” said Ronen Cohen, vice president of marketing of Kodak’s inkjet printing solutions.
Additionally, Kodak will display Prinergy 5.0 workflow software and other CTP systems and associated software geared to commercial printers. —NT
Editor’s note: Newspapers & Technology is one of only seven U.S. publications to be selected as a drupa 2008 media partner and the only one whose primary focus is newspaper production.
Publisher
DUSSELDORF, Germany — With more than 550 million newspapers printed worldwide each day, the power of the printed word remains strong, said officials at a weeklong event held last month to promote drupa 2008.
Newspapers are just one segment of the millions of tons of printed materials produced each year, said Albrecht Bolza-Schunemann, chairman of drupa 2008 and chief executive officer of Koenig & Bauer AG.
Bolza-Schunemann said contemporary newspapers have little to fear in comparison to Web sites, particularly since users still rate papers as friendlier and easier to read. “Consumers rate nothing as highly as newspapers in terms of credibility,” he said. Still, he said integrated workflow and process control will become more critical factors as publishers find ways to cut production costs. “Automation will be a key factor,” he said.
Albrecht Bolza-Schunemann, chairman of drupa 2008 and chief executive officer of Koenig & Bauer AG, touted the power of print at the January drupa preview. Photos: Newspapers & TechnologyThe global volume of printed materials, he said, is increasing at an annual clip of 3 percent to 5 percent. In more populous nations such as China and India, print growth is galloping along at double-digit rates, he said.
Bolza-Schunemann, along with drupa CEO Werner Matthias Dornscheidt, kicked off drupa Media Week. This year’s drupa, from May 29 through June 11, will showcase more than 1,800 exhibitors.
Among the key technologies drupa visitors can expect to see are those related to digital printing, along with an increased focus on automated and touchless workflow solutions, vendors said.
Companies such as Screen, Kodak, Ricoh, Fujifilm Corp. and Xerox Corp. said they’ll demonstrate hybrid applications based on the nexus of digital and offset technology.
These print-on-demand and Web-to-print approaches are geared to helping printers expand margins and attract new revenue streams.
Among drupa developments:
•Domino Printing Sciences said it would release two newspaper-oriented inkjet-based variable-print products, the K150 inkjet printer and version 4.5 of the vendor’s Bitjet printing system. Both enable high-speed inline inkjet printing and both can be integrated with web offset and flexo presslines.
•Screen previewed the TruePress Jet 520, a full-color variable printing system, as well as the PlateRite 2000+ thermal computer-to-plate system.
The TruePress can print different images and text on each page and features a roll-fed paper transport system, according to Tim Taylor, marketing director (see photo, page 24). Taylor said the system can be used with any uncoated newspaper stock and will be aimed at newspapers that want to produce print editions at remote sites.
“CTP represents 90 percent of Screen gross revenues and we are very committed to this market,” Taylor said. “But because Drupa only comes around every four years, we will devote a majority of our booth to print-on-demand to showcase that we are in the market.”
The 2000+, meantime, can produce 106 broadsheet or 49 panorama plates per hour and is Screen’s fastest machine. It’s available immediately.
•Ricoh showcased its Ricoh Pro C900 and C900s digital printer. Designed for high-volume print customers, it is integrated with a range of inline finishing devices that support perfect binding, ring binding and other capabilities.
•Presstek Inc. said it will display its chemistry-free platemaking systems, its line of 52DI and 34DI digital printers and its Momentum Pro workflow software.
The 52DI is a landscape digital offset press that can support FM screening without additional time or expense, Presstek said. The 34DI is a portrait format digital press.
•Fujifilm and Xerox said they would cross-promote each other’s digital printing capabilities as part of their reseller agreement. Among specific products to be displayed will be Fujifilm’s Brilla HD Pro-V chemistry-free digital plate and PressMax pressroom chemistry.
•Kodak said it will demonstrate its next-generation digital inkjet press, Kodak Stream Concept Press.
The high-speed press features print resolution that exceeds 600 dots per inch and relies on continuous inkjet technology. Kodak said Stream will be geared to commercial printers that produce monthly page volumes of 10 million or more.
“Stream Technology will bring some exciting changes to the industry and this technology demonstration will be an impressive display of its offset class capabilities,” said Ronen Cohen, vice president of marketing of Kodak’s inkjet printing solutions.
Additionally, Kodak will display Prinergy 5.0 workflow software and other CTP systems and associated software geared to commercial printers. —NT
Editor’s note: Newspapers & Technology is one of only seven U.S. publications to be selected as a drupa 2008 media partner and the only one whose primary focus is newspaper production.
Digital print vendors make strides, but will newspapers answer call?
By Don Piontek
Special to Newspapers & Technology
Over the past five years, digital print technology has expanded its turf dramatically.
In commercial print, book printing, direct mail and transactional printing, digital production is now considered an everyday technology.
And there’s more to come. By 2012, it’s estimated that digital printing will be approaching parity with offset printing as a component of the graphics universe.
The exception to this rule? Newspaper printing.
Photo: Screen
The Screen TruePress Jet 520, to be introduced at drupa, is capable of running full 4-color at speeds of up to 209 feet per minute.
Still mostly a web offset world, newspaper production has been little impacted by the digital print revolution. But this may change in the next year or two, thanks to the introduction of high-speed digital systems that boast increased quality, color and inline finishing.
Many major high-speed digital print systems have been introduced over the past year and there are more to come.
Most (not all) offer, or will offer, continuous-web inkjet printers with web speeds of up to 650 feet per minute and printable widths of more than 20 inches. For the most part, these machines print at a resolution of 600-by-600 dots per inch, and cover the process color gamut well.
Newspapers take a serious look
No chance of anyone mistaking their output for offset, but digital output has gotten quite good and it’s getting better all the time.
These new printers will prompt the newspaper community to take a serious look at digital, and the advantages it brings to their business.
One area drawing interest is the insert, or FSI, business.
The FSI business at major metro dailies was once controlled by the big food and retail chains that gravure-printed millions of flyers for mass distribution over a metro’s entire geographical area. That’s long gone.
Today, microzoning in the newspaper-packaging department and better targeting now permit targeted messages to be delivered close to each store’s “ground zero” radius.
As a result, long insert runs are now broken up into many zoned segments. Still, the FSI production process is wholly an offset one, with an average of six weeks of lead time between artwork and actual inserting. And of most firms using FSI advertising, the majority are still national big box food, retail and electronics chains such as Best Buy, Target and Wal-Mart.
Valuable market untapped
This has left a valuable potential market untapped by the major metro dailies: The smaller mom-and-pop stores that would like to distribute close to their establishments’ radius. This is where digital could fill the gap. Picture a 500-foot-per-minute color inkjet press (or two) located in the packaging department, cranking out quality color, microzoned quantities of inserts on demand for smaller retailers.
Remember that such a press requires only a certified .PDF or PostScript file. No plates. Insert versions can run back-to-back with no downtime whatsoever for changeover. Insert orders could potentially be accepted up to a few days (or less) before the packaging operation began. A digital in-plant process would permit newspapers to offer insert distribution to this non-chain retail market with affordable production costs and selected distribution.
But let’s take this a bit further.
How about neighborhood-specific publications? A major metro area is not a homogenized geographic block. It’s composed of many neighborhoods, each with its own character.
Digital print could enable the creation of neighborhood-tailored publications that can be distributed quickly and cost efficiently. This technology could open up new markets for metro dailies. Papers as varied as the Chicago Tribune, The Denver Post and Knoxville (Tenn.) News-Sentinel all print hyper-local weeklies tailored to particular neighborhoods or suburbs. Why not print these on digital systems instead of web offset machines?
More than inserts
Today’s high-speed digital printers can crank out complete publications and not just inserts.
Kodak, for example, in 2006 partnered with Swiss manufacturer Hunkeler to develop an integrated newspaper printing and cutting-sheeting-folding system that can pump out up to 1,000 40-page newspapers per hour.
The Kodak Versamark system has created great interest in Europe, and a few metro dailies in the United States have given it very serious consideration.
Editor’s note: Kodak will introduce a higher speed digital printer at this year’s drupa. The system will use the vendor’s Stream continuous inkjet technology and feature a thermal, drop-on-demand design.
Meantime, The New York Times is using continuous web printers from another digital press vendor, Oce, to produce its European editions.
The printed papers are distributed to newsstands at major European airports and cities each day.
By using digital technology, The Times is able to close its European edition much later than it would have had it used conventional web offset printing. The final layout is downloaded from the United States and the printers begin spinning up within minutes.
On-demand possibilities
How about a scenario where these digital printers are based at major U.S. airports such as O’Hare International in Chicago or Hartsfield in Atlanta?
RFID technology located in various airport newsstands could automatically transmit reprint alerts to the system, which would then proceed to print more copies. No more long truck trips in heavy traffic in order to deliver copies from the plant. Not only that, such a system could print the great majority of newspapers sold at the newsstands, thus increasing the digital printer’s utilization and efficiency.
High-speed continuous web digital print systems have found homes in a wide variety of applications that were formerly offset only.
Book printers use these systems to produce small orders, with runs as low as one or two books, on demand.
One such print-on-demand publisher, LaVergne, Tenn.-based Lightning Source Inc., uses its digital foundation to fill 19,000 book orders daily at an average of 1.9 unique books per order.
Transactional and financial services printers, meantime, are using the color capabilities of these printers to incorporate promotional messages into customers’ statements.
Potential customers see the output quality and speed capability and find lots of applications that can migrate to digital from offset. Although these digital presses aren’t cheap — some integrated systems can cost more than $3 million — newspapers should have no problems finding profitable niches or new business opportunities where high-speed digital print could be part of the solution.
All it takes is imagination.
Editor’s note: British manufacturer IBIS Bindery Systems Ltd. offers a high-speed folding, stitching, gluing and trimming system called the Smart-binder, which the vendor said is suited for many in-line digital newspaper applications.
Don Piontek is the Minneapolis-based U.S. representative for digital finishing systems manufacturer IBIS Bindery Systems. He can be reached at 952.937.5100 or via e-mail at finishingres@qwest.net.
Special to Newspapers & Technology
Over the past five years, digital print technology has expanded its turf dramatically.
In commercial print, book printing, direct mail and transactional printing, digital production is now considered an everyday technology.
And there’s more to come. By 2012, it’s estimated that digital printing will be approaching parity with offset printing as a component of the graphics universe.
The exception to this rule? Newspaper printing.
Photo: Screen
The Screen TruePress Jet 520, to be introduced at drupa, is capable of running full 4-color at speeds of up to 209 feet per minute.
Still mostly a web offset world, newspaper production has been little impacted by the digital print revolution. But this may change in the next year or two, thanks to the introduction of high-speed digital systems that boast increased quality, color and inline finishing.
Many major high-speed digital print systems have been introduced over the past year and there are more to come.
Most (not all) offer, or will offer, continuous-web inkjet printers with web speeds of up to 650 feet per minute and printable widths of more than 20 inches. For the most part, these machines print at a resolution of 600-by-600 dots per inch, and cover the process color gamut well.
Newspapers take a serious look
No chance of anyone mistaking their output for offset, but digital output has gotten quite good and it’s getting better all the time.
These new printers will prompt the newspaper community to take a serious look at digital, and the advantages it brings to their business.
One area drawing interest is the insert, or FSI, business.
The FSI business at major metro dailies was once controlled by the big food and retail chains that gravure-printed millions of flyers for mass distribution over a metro’s entire geographical area. That’s long gone.
Today, microzoning in the newspaper-packaging department and better targeting now permit targeted messages to be delivered close to each store’s “ground zero” radius.
As a result, long insert runs are now broken up into many zoned segments. Still, the FSI production process is wholly an offset one, with an average of six weeks of lead time between artwork and actual inserting. And of most firms using FSI advertising, the majority are still national big box food, retail and electronics chains such as Best Buy, Target and Wal-Mart.
Valuable market untapped
This has left a valuable potential market untapped by the major metro dailies: The smaller mom-and-pop stores that would like to distribute close to their establishments’ radius. This is where digital could fill the gap. Picture a 500-foot-per-minute color inkjet press (or two) located in the packaging department, cranking out quality color, microzoned quantities of inserts on demand for smaller retailers.
Remember that such a press requires only a certified .PDF or PostScript file. No plates. Insert versions can run back-to-back with no downtime whatsoever for changeover. Insert orders could potentially be accepted up to a few days (or less) before the packaging operation began. A digital in-plant process would permit newspapers to offer insert distribution to this non-chain retail market with affordable production costs and selected distribution.
But let’s take this a bit further.
How about neighborhood-specific publications? A major metro area is not a homogenized geographic block. It’s composed of many neighborhoods, each with its own character.
Digital print could enable the creation of neighborhood-tailored publications that can be distributed quickly and cost efficiently. This technology could open up new markets for metro dailies. Papers as varied as the Chicago Tribune, The Denver Post and Knoxville (Tenn.) News-Sentinel all print hyper-local weeklies tailored to particular neighborhoods or suburbs. Why not print these on digital systems instead of web offset machines?
More than inserts
Today’s high-speed digital printers can crank out complete publications and not just inserts.
Kodak, for example, in 2006 partnered with Swiss manufacturer Hunkeler to develop an integrated newspaper printing and cutting-sheeting-folding system that can pump out up to 1,000 40-page newspapers per hour.
The Kodak Versamark system has created great interest in Europe, and a few metro dailies in the United States have given it very serious consideration.
Editor’s note: Kodak will introduce a higher speed digital printer at this year’s drupa. The system will use the vendor’s Stream continuous inkjet technology and feature a thermal, drop-on-demand design.
Meantime, The New York Times is using continuous web printers from another digital press vendor, Oce, to produce its European editions.
The printed papers are distributed to newsstands at major European airports and cities each day.
By using digital technology, The Times is able to close its European edition much later than it would have had it used conventional web offset printing. The final layout is downloaded from the United States and the printers begin spinning up within minutes.
On-demand possibilities
How about a scenario where these digital printers are based at major U.S. airports such as O’Hare International in Chicago or Hartsfield in Atlanta?
RFID technology located in various airport newsstands could automatically transmit reprint alerts to the system, which would then proceed to print more copies. No more long truck trips in heavy traffic in order to deliver copies from the plant. Not only that, such a system could print the great majority of newspapers sold at the newsstands, thus increasing the digital printer’s utilization and efficiency.
High-speed continuous web digital print systems have found homes in a wide variety of applications that were formerly offset only.
Book printers use these systems to produce small orders, with runs as low as one or two books, on demand.
One such print-on-demand publisher, LaVergne, Tenn.-based Lightning Source Inc., uses its digital foundation to fill 19,000 book orders daily at an average of 1.9 unique books per order.
Transactional and financial services printers, meantime, are using the color capabilities of these printers to incorporate promotional messages into customers’ statements.
Potential customers see the output quality and speed capability and find lots of applications that can migrate to digital from offset. Although these digital presses aren’t cheap — some integrated systems can cost more than $3 million — newspapers should have no problems finding profitable niches or new business opportunities where high-speed digital print could be part of the solution.
All it takes is imagination.
Editor’s note: British manufacturer IBIS Bindery Systems Ltd. offers a high-speed folding, stitching, gluing and trimming system called the Smart-binder, which the vendor said is suited for many in-line digital newspaper applications.
Don Piontek is the Minneapolis-based U.S. representative for digital finishing systems manufacturer IBIS Bindery Systems. He can be reached at 952.937.5100 or via e-mail at finishingres@qwest.net.
Monday, October 1, 2007
Graph Expo gives attendees better taste of digital future
By Mary L. Van Meter
Publisher
CHICAGO — Last month’s Graph Expo hinted at some intriguing technologies to come for newspapers, including so-called “lights-out” digital production and variable printing options for both press and mailrooms.
Among developments (in alphabetical order):
Agfa: Upgraded apps
Agfa introduced ApogeeX 4.0, an upgrade of its PDF- and JDF-enabled digital workflow software. Among new features is support for Adobe Systems Inc.’s PDF Print Engine, enhanced automation, a digital QuickStrip for page rendering and ink-savings capabilities. Additionally, Agfa rolled out a new version of its OptiInk ink optimization app that it contends can reduce ink costs by as much as 30 percent. Finally, Agfa showcased a high-throughput violet computer-to-plate engine for its Avalon LF XT+ platesetter. Look for Agfa to unveil a UV digital printer for newspapers at drupa 2008.
Cold Jet: Press cleaning service
Cold Jet demonstrated its system for cleaning pressrooms with dry ice blasting equipment. The system uses an air blasting technique to clean surfaces by embrittling the dirt particles to be removed.
Denex: Double-copy detection
Denex premiered its Pro double-copy-detection system. The device, outfitted with application software and mounted on the conveyor, is aimed at eliminating inserter jams caused by double copies in the gripper conveyor. It also detects single copies that can cause miscounts in bundles where there should be two copies per gripper.
Carl Carroll, Denex’ sales manager, displays the company’s laser copy sensor with Pro double-copy detection.
Dynaric: Cross-strapper
Dynaric displayed its latest automatic cross-strapping machine, the NP5000X. The equipment uses AC servo drive technology and can produce up to 20 cross-strapped bundles per minute. Touchscreen controls streamline management, Dynaric said.
Dynaric demonstrated its high-speed NP5000X cross-strapper at the show.
GMG: New color management
GMG trotted out new versions of its color management apps, GMG ColorProof, GMG ColorServer and GMG InkOptimizer. Version 4.5 of the apps feature new profile and driver updates as well as stronger image sharpening and broader inkjet printer support, among other capabilities. More than 100 U.S. newspapers use the supplier’s software for color management, including The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer.
GMI: Press monitoring app
Graphics Microsystems Inc. unveiled Spectral Press Expert, a closed-loop press performance and diagnostic app that provides trend analysis and event triggers that can alert operators in the event of press problems. GMI said it engineered the software with more than 180 levels of diagnostics. It uses colorimetric measurements to assess paper, ink and the colors produced for solids, traps and grays and then compares the press’ performance against known data in an effort to match standard targets. The browser-based SPX lets users monitor press performance remotely and easily send operational data to other users, GMI said.
Nela: Slip Sheeter
Nela introduced Slip Sheeter, a device that automatically places slipsheets between plates that have been punched and bent.
Plates are then transported via conveyor to a barcode reader to determine if the plate needs to be stacked or transported into the distribution unit. If a plate is marked as “store with slipsheets,” a flip arm transports the plate in the stacker. The slipsheets rest between each plate. The unit holds approximately 30 slipsheets (depending on thickness), Nela said.
Nipson: Spot color add-on
Nipson, which counts some European newspapers among its customers, introduced spot color add-on capabilities to its line of VaryPress digital presses. The SCS Spot Color System lets users add between one and four spot colors to their production, the company said. VaryPress digital presses can support production speeds of up to 500 feet per minute on a printable web of 18.5 inches (web width of 20.5 inches) with 600 dot-per-inch quality. The press can be equipped with the Hunkeler finishing system.
Rima-System: Stackers
Rima-System exhibited its RS 51 and RS 36 high-speed stackers as well as its horizontal log stackers. The RS 51 is a non-compensating vertical lift stacker while the RS 36 is an indexing compensating stacker. It’s aimed at shingled streams. Meantime, Rima said Belarusian newspaper printer BPH installed three RS 3217 stackers behind its MAN Roland Uniset press.
Dutch newspaper printer Janssen Pers purchased an RS 830 trimming line while Italian printer Sarnub installed a system consisting of an 830 trimmer in conjunction with a 36 high-speed stacker, the firm said.
Publisher
CHICAGO — Last month’s Graph Expo hinted at some intriguing technologies to come for newspapers, including so-called “lights-out” digital production and variable printing options for both press and mailrooms.
Among developments (in alphabetical order):
Agfa: Upgraded apps
Agfa introduced ApogeeX 4.0, an upgrade of its PDF- and JDF-enabled digital workflow software. Among new features is support for Adobe Systems Inc.’s PDF Print Engine, enhanced automation, a digital QuickStrip for page rendering and ink-savings capabilities. Additionally, Agfa rolled out a new version of its OptiInk ink optimization app that it contends can reduce ink costs by as much as 30 percent. Finally, Agfa showcased a high-throughput violet computer-to-plate engine for its Avalon LF XT+ platesetter. Look for Agfa to unveil a UV digital printer for newspapers at drupa 2008.
Cold Jet: Press cleaning service
Cold Jet demonstrated its system for cleaning pressrooms with dry ice blasting equipment. The system uses an air blasting technique to clean surfaces by embrittling the dirt particles to be removed.
Denex: Double-copy detection
Denex premiered its Pro double-copy-detection system. The device, outfitted with application software and mounted on the conveyor, is aimed at eliminating inserter jams caused by double copies in the gripper conveyor. It also detects single copies that can cause miscounts in bundles where there should be two copies per gripper.
Carl Carroll, Denex’ sales manager, displays the company’s laser copy sensor with Pro double-copy detection.
Dynaric: Cross-strapper
Dynaric displayed its latest automatic cross-strapping machine, the NP5000X. The equipment uses AC servo drive technology and can produce up to 20 cross-strapped bundles per minute. Touchscreen controls streamline management, Dynaric said.
Dynaric demonstrated its high-speed NP5000X cross-strapper at the show.
GMG: New color management
GMG trotted out new versions of its color management apps, GMG ColorProof, GMG ColorServer and GMG InkOptimizer. Version 4.5 of the apps feature new profile and driver updates as well as stronger image sharpening and broader inkjet printer support, among other capabilities. More than 100 U.S. newspapers use the supplier’s software for color management, including The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer.
GMI: Press monitoring app
Graphics Microsystems Inc. unveiled Spectral Press Expert, a closed-loop press performance and diagnostic app that provides trend analysis and event triggers that can alert operators in the event of press problems. GMI said it engineered the software with more than 180 levels of diagnostics. It uses colorimetric measurements to assess paper, ink and the colors produced for solids, traps and grays and then compares the press’ performance against known data in an effort to match standard targets. The browser-based SPX lets users monitor press performance remotely and easily send operational data to other users, GMI said.
Nela: Slip Sheeter
Nela introduced Slip Sheeter, a device that automatically places slipsheets between plates that have been punched and bent.
Plates are then transported via conveyor to a barcode reader to determine if the plate needs to be stacked or transported into the distribution unit. If a plate is marked as “store with slipsheets,” a flip arm transports the plate in the stacker. The slipsheets rest between each plate. The unit holds approximately 30 slipsheets (depending on thickness), Nela said.
Nipson: Spot color add-on
Nipson, which counts some European newspapers among its customers, introduced spot color add-on capabilities to its line of VaryPress digital presses. The SCS Spot Color System lets users add between one and four spot colors to their production, the company said. VaryPress digital presses can support production speeds of up to 500 feet per minute on a printable web of 18.5 inches (web width of 20.5 inches) with 600 dot-per-inch quality. The press can be equipped with the Hunkeler finishing system.
Rima-System: Stackers
Rima-System exhibited its RS 51 and RS 36 high-speed stackers as well as its horizontal log stackers. The RS 51 is a non-compensating vertical lift stacker while the RS 36 is an indexing compensating stacker. It’s aimed at shingled streams. Meantime, Rima said Belarusian newspaper printer BPH installed three RS 3217 stackers behind its MAN Roland Uniset press.
Dutch newspaper printer Janssen Pers purchased an RS 830 trimming line while Italian printer Sarnub installed a system consisting of an 830 trimmer in conjunction with a 36 high-speed stacker, the firm said.
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