Newspaper Hybrids

They are the crossovers: commercial printers running newspapers for hire, and newspapers running ad inserts, collateral and dailies and weeklies for hire, both to the tune of billions of dollars. For commercial printers, newspaper production offers a chance to diversify. And this business proposition lets newspaper publishers avoid a much needed—but very hefty—investment in the plant of tomorrow: welcome news as publishers watch the Internet chomp into their margins.

For newspapers entering commercial work, such contract printing provides critical income and maximum utilization of pressroom equipment. Those that have succeeded in commercial work are newspapers that have been willing to make the investment in expensive modern equipment suitable for both commercial and newspaper printing. They have achieved an entrepreneurial mindset and endured learning curves on new technologies, job scheduling and customer service. With Websites carrying the burden of breaking news, daily papers rarely need “stop the presses” for big stories these days. So commercial capacity opens like clockwork. Some newspapers are moving in the other direction, including big metro dailies—scrapping presses and outsourcing production altogether.

Meanwhile, modern coldset webs continue to benefit from the migration of technologies proven on heatset presses. Critical new coldset press features frequently cited by users include: higher speeds and output; three-form-roller inkers for print quality; automated closed-loop color and register control; quarter folders; and, increasingly, UV curing that fits compactly within existing lines—no extended real estate or EPA permits required for gas-fired dryers. Other important advances include CTP and productive inline stitching and trimming equipment. Both newspapers and commercial printers are also producing profitable mixed-format products combining glossy UV or heatset covers with coldset color pages.

The biggest of the commercial printers pursuing this new paradigm in newspaper production is Canada's Transcontinental, Inc. which in May 2006 won a $1 billion, 15-year contract to print the San Francisco Chronicle at a new Bay Area plant. The company reports that is on schedule with “the team in place, the site chosen and the equipment ordered.” Although the location has not been officially disclosed, the city of Fremont, CA, acknowledges that a Transcontinental site is currently under environmental review there. Transcontinental will spend a reported $200 million on the Fremont plant, slated to open in 2009. Ferag and Goss materials handling systems will include three UTR conveyors, five DiscPool buffering systems, five MultiSertDrum inserting drums with RollStream, 40 JetFeeder, two 30:2 Magnapack inserting systems, 10 MultiStack stackers and 20 SmartStrap strapping machines, among other items.

“Our unique newspaper production model has led major dailies to entrust their printing to us and concentrate their resources on their core business,” notes Luc Desjardins, CEO of Transcontinental. The custom-built plant will hold three, high-output 6×2 MAN Roland Colorman XXL presses, scheduled to be installed next year and go on edition in 2009.

The new equipment will feature MAN Roland's Pecom press control and systems for automatic reel loading, web lead-in and tension control, color register, closed-loop ink density, turbo dampening, automated cut-off control and power plate loading. Heatset capability could be added to the presses, if needed. In 2005 Transcontinental became the first Canadian printer to run the The New York Times and it also prints 75 daily and weekly Canadian papers.

Commercial cold and heatset web firm Creel Printing, with plants in Las Vegas and in Costa Mesa, CA, has successfully expanded from catalog work into the contract printing of regional and demographic newspapers as well.

“Circulation of metro newspapers whose national and global content is largely published online has been declining,” says Allan Creel, Jr., president. “Meanwhile, circulation has been increasing for the kind of newspapers we print with neighborhood, school and special interest news. As things have become tough for newspapers, it does not make as much sense for them to own their presses,” says Creel, noting newspapers are unable to keep their presses filled. “It is easier to have a sales-oriented commercial printing company produce the newspapers. That has been a good opportunity for printers like us.”

Creel uses two, 8-unit, dual-web, heatset Goss Sunday 2000s plus three sheetfed presses, including two 6-color Komori Lithrone 640s. Coldset webs include a Goss Mercury 8-unit and the latest acquisition, a 32-unit Goss Magnum. The coldset Magnum 4 press comprises eight, four-high towers, Omnicon controls and two N-40 folders with quarter-fold capabilities. It includes closed-loop color control, automatic inking and register control, web guidance systems, and can print finer line screens. It also has advanced auxiliary equipment.

“A press like the Goss Magnum far surpasses the type of quality that in the past was expected from a newsprint press,” says Creel. “We can hold registration and achieve up to a 175-line screen. It has been a big advantage for us.” Creel uses its coldset presses for school publications, directories and 4-color auto guides. Heatset web work includes publications, catalogs and direct mail. The company also runs trade show dailies that combine coldset newsprint with heatset glossy covers.

Southwest Offset Printing, Gardena, CA, prints daily, weekly and monthly publications using both coldset and heatset presses. Coldset newspaper printing includes local editions of The New York Times, The London Financial Times and Tokyo's Asahi Shimbun.

“Outsourcing can save newspapers the cost of retrofitting to smaller web sizes and updating their technology,” says Ryan McDonald, Southwest Offset director of manufacturing. “Why not outsource to a printer like us who has already spent that money on capital equipment and who can print a multitude of papers?” The firm expanded into the heatset market in 1997 as a way of diversifying its business, attracting more customers and bringing glossy cover work in-house.

Today Southwest Offset Printing operates three coldset presses—a 48-unit Goss Mercury with QuadTech register and color controls, and two DGMs, one a 48-unit DGM 430 with three folders, from Dauphin Graphic Machines.

Three heatset lines include two M-110s and a 5-unit, single-web Goss M-600. An 8-unit, dual-web M-600 will be running by next month. It includes Auto Plate, QuadTech register and color controls, and is ideally suited on common runs of 10,000 to 100,000 copies. SOP considers its expertise in scheduling and prepress as competitive advantages.

“We view scheduling as a timeshare slot and fill our press time-shares with dailies, weeklies and monthlies, so we know we are full at all times,” says McDonald. A great prepress department is also key in supporting all the work of a mixed newspaper and commercial system.

“We regularly produce auto magazines that comprise seven signatures of heatset and three of coldset work,” says McDonald. “Real estate and community publications often include heatset covers on coldset content, and some tabloid lifestyle publications also include heatset advertising sections that allow a higher ad rate.”

Louisiana State Printing, Eunice, LA, sister company to Louisiana State Newspapers, prints two daily newspapers and 28 other publications. Like other commercial printers in the newspaper market, Louisiana State Printing recognized the need for technological advances to gain a competitive edge and win more advertisers.

The company has boosted efficiency and productivity and reduced waste since installing a QuadTech Register Guidance System and QuadTech Register Motorization System on its 14-unit DGM 430 press. Both systems were integrated through the QuadTech ICON platform.

“The market is driving us to towards better color consistency and keeping our waste to a minimum,” says GM Blake Messner. “We are seeing faster start-ups and reduced makeready times. We've had positive results already and are certain we can cut our waste by up to 50% in the next few months.”

Comprint Printing division of Post-Newsweek Media's Community Newspaper Group, went on edition in January with a new Mitsubishi DiamondStar press line—the first in the U.S.—at a new facility in Laurel, MD. Comprint is using the six-tower, two-folder arrangement with quarter fold and stitch-in-line capability to consolidate the printing of a number of community newspapers and print other publications including The Afro and Legal Times. The press, which can print 96 pages with full color capability on every page, features open-key ink fountains with continuous inker rollers for maximum coldest print quality.

Many newspapers are actively pursuing the printing of outside newspaper titles, commercial, insert and publication work.

The Freelance-Star, Fredericksburg, VA, recently ordered heatset capability for the Goss Flexible Printing System (FPS) web press it had previously ordered for newspaper and commercial printing. The low-slung press—first of its kind in North America—is scheduled for installation in mid-2008.

“Adding a dryer makes a very versatile press even more versatile and will allow us to deliver higher print quality and more product options to our readers, advertisers and contract print partners,” says John Jenkins, operations director. The new FPS press will allow The Free-Lance-Star to produce full color, 48-page broadsheet products (running straight), 96-page broadsheet products (collect) and semi-commercial products with ribbon widths up to 36´´ for 16-page commercial products. An FPS press with heatset tower press can produce heatset and coldset products simultaneously for hybrid products.

The Rockford, IL Register Star's commercial affiliate, RiverView Printing, replaced a 1960's letterpress with a KBA Colora newspaper/semi-commercial, variable-web-width press last year. The automated shaftless-drive press opened up new commercial markets.

“Our idea was to capture additional revenues from commercial printing, and we were looking at press configurations with the greatest flexibility,” says Kris Smith, production director for the Rockford Register Star. “We had anticipated about $350,000 annually in commercial revenue by 2010, but by the end of this year—our first full year with the new equipment—we expect to produce close to $3 million.”

The new press is used to print the daily newspaper, an affiliated daily, monthlies and a number of weekly publications including alternative newspapers such as local and national editions of The Onion.

The new coldset Colora press supplements RiverView's 8-color Didde MVP web press. The Colora comprises five 4/4 towers with commercial design ink trains, six reel stands, a double 2:3:3 jaw folder, inline stitchers, quarter folders, gluers and trimmers. Variable-web-width allows printing on webs from 24´´ to 36´´ in width.

“Without variable-web-width capability we could not do the alternative newspapers that require non-standard web sizes,” says Smith, who notes the alternative newspaper publishers feel the 10.5×13.5´´ deep tab from a 27´´ web width encourages rack sales. “Our new capability to print full color on every page also is a selling point because it helps our customers sell color wherever their advertisers want it,” Smith says. The double-out folder on the Colora, enabled by shaftless drive, allows two different products to be run at the same time to different deliveries, or a single product can be run on both sides, doubling output. Prepress was upgraded with two Kodak thermal CTP lines.

Pomerado Publishing, Poway, CA, publishes its own three community newspapers and serves 50-60 commercial customers each month in the competitive San Diego market. Commercial jobs include weekly newspapers, monthlies, high school publications and special publications from broadsheets to book sizes.

Pomerado operates a Web Press Corp. Quad-Stack 4/4 tower recently equipped with a UV system from Cogent Technologies, a Goss Community Universal 3-color unit, a six-unit Goss Community and a Goss SC folder with quarter fold capability. The company also has a full bindery with stitching and trimming machines including a newer Muller Martini Bravo with four pockets and cover feeder.

David Calvert, owner and publisher, notes that the company got into commercial work largely to better its press equipment and to obtain an additional income stream.

“We have our own press line, so we keep it filled,” says Calvert. “But we stick to shorter runs, 50,000 to 60,000 copies, that do not tie up the press and jeopardize our own newspaper deadlines.”

Adding UV curing capability to the WPC Quad Stack resulted from the need to gain an advantage in the local commercial market with a smaller investment than going heatset. Pomerado can now print a monthly magazine on glossy offset book stock and coupon books and will pursue similar 8- and 16-page tabloid work.

Pomerado has also recently converted to CTP, a Kodak Trendsetter system, which has improved the quality of color registration and speeded workflow, making it much easier and faster to get jobs on press.

For the Jefferson City, MO, News Tribune, the incentive to do more commercial work was economic—the need for a new press. The cost dictated that additional revenue would have to be generated from commercial work.

The speed of the 75,000 cph, 32-printing-couple, MAN Roland UNISET 75 with 2:3:3 folder installed in 2006 made significantly more press time available in which to do commercial work.“The ability of the new UNISET 75 to print full color on every page was huge for us,” says GM Mike Vivion. “We now do 4-color on almost every page of our own newspapers, the weeklies we print and commercial products such as auto sales publications.”

Taking on outside commercial work can impact schedules at times—especially when good customers are late delivering jobs. “We want to get our newspaper out first, but when you make a commitment to print something for a customer, you want to get that out on time too,” says Vivion. “It is very fast paced, but we are used to deadlines and that helps us.”

With more commercial jobs, the News Tribune found that post-press capabilities needed upgrading, and recently acquired a new Muller Martini stitcher and trimmer to meet demand for booklet work.

ONLINE: www.gossinternational.com manroland.com manugraphdgmusa.com mlpusa.com kba-usa.com www.stollemachinery.com/didde.html quadtechworld.com gmicolor.com and graphics.kodak.com