Press Operations of the Future: PIA/GATF Offset & Beyond 2007 - Part 2
May 11, 2007

A second U.S. printing plant comprising 130,000 square feet will be starting up in Allentown, PA, later in 2007. Other new plants are slotted for Germany, Australia and Brazil in the near future.

Bob Danzig, former CEO of Hearst Newspapers, offered a keynote address on his views of “Transformational leadership.” Individuals wanting to be leaders share these self-taught attributes: (1) mindset to seek the possible, (2) never let the negative disrupt vision for what is possible, (3) look within themselves for motivation, (4) bring their passion to what they do, (5) live a life of abundant curiosity, (6) always open to new ideas, (7) listen, understand & encourage, (8) always do more than is required, and (9) be forward thinking.

Tom Davidson of The Tribune Company spoke on the “Digital Transformations Affecting Newspapers.” The most trafficked news source is now Google. The former economics of mass media relied upon scarcity. For example, in the early days of the Internet low bandwidth created this scarcity. Broadband capability destroyed this scarcity concept.

Al-Jezera, the Iraqi state-run newspaper, cut out Comcast and others as an electronic outlet source and is now available on Youtube. Recently, The Tribune serviced 5 million viewers via video stream who were seeking the latest information on the early May Virginia Tech tragedy. While online revenues are growing at 20-30% a year for newspapers, with profits even higher, the overall impact of the Internet is that “the equity values of most newspapers have fallen 40-60% in the last 30 months,” remarked Davidson. Print will not disappear, and alternative media competition will intensify. “Print and related services must prove they add value,” concluded Davidson.

Participating on a panel discussing the new business model for print, George Wolden, Manufacturing Vice President of Hawthorne California’s Lithographix (lithographix.com), described his firm’s transition to large format billboard printing via KBA’s new 81” press. Among the surprises, which they learned quickly, was that a high-resolution billboard wastes money since many are 150 feet or more from the road. A 25-line screen provides very adequate resolution. Prepress expertise is essential as everything in “outdoor graphics” must be scaled back for proofing prior to actual print production. A single plate could easily contain a gigabyte of image data. Manufacturing material handling has unique characteristics as well. For example, product cannot be stacked very high. Cutting mistakes can really be costly on a 30 press sheet run. Another interesting fact shared was that the employees used by the posting companies that actually mount these “building wraps” all have mountain climbing experience.

Paul Kuchta, Heidelberg Bindery Specialist, gave the Industrial Engineer’s perspective of the makeready savings for the latest high-tech finishing equipment. The JDF/JMF-enabled presets offer automated and semi-automated advances resulting in these makeready savings:

Folder: 9 steps account for 100% of makeready time.
The top 3 steps account for 72% of makeready.
New equipment realizes a full 40% savings in makeready.
Stitcher: 7 steps account for 100% of makeready time.
The top 3 steps account for 79% of makeready.
New equipment realizes a full 50% savings in make ready on a first
time job. Repeat jobs can book 90% makeready savings!
Cutter: 6 steps account for 100% of makeready time.
The top 3 steps account for 88% of makeready.
New equipment realizes a full 55% savings in makeready. The
CompuCut™ software installed in electronic prepress can show the
Bindery Supervisor the proposed cutting plan as soon as plate
imposition is concluded.

Jack Hobby, Marketing Manager for B&L Machine and Design (blmachinedesign.com) out of Plymouth, Massachusetts, led a panel discussion on the refurbishment of legacy web presses and particularly the 2 X 4 press configuration. “Eight hundred presses are running in North America with about 30-40 new presses being delivered yearly,” commented Hobby.

Research & Auditing Manager for Publishers Printing Company of Shepardsville, Kentucky, Joe Sohm, described how their first web press purchased in 1968 is still running today having been rebuilt more than once. They have bought 12 other webs new and another 11 used requiring partial or complete rebuilds. They do most all work in house with cylinder rebuild being outsourced.

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