ABB’s solutions maintain
their position in the market
Switzerland-based ABB’s Center of Excellence for Printing has maintained its order intake at the same level as in the previous year despite the difficult conditions in the printing industry. “It is a tribute to the entire team that we have not only stabilized the order intake at the same level as last year but also gained new customers,” commented Christian Villiger, global manager of ABB’s Printing Center of Excellence, adding, “The difficult conditions in the printing industry were a challenge for all suppliers, but the combination of our innovative solutions and the enormous know-how of our employees have led to this success.”
“We have seen significant growth in the retrofit business and also in workflow solutions for the newspaper production process. This growth has compensated for the contraction in the area of automation solutions for new printing presses. This leaves ABB’s printing business in a healthy condition and well prepared for the challenges that 2011 will throw
at us,” conveyed Villiger.
CyberMedia, IDC to end
long-standing relationship
One of the largest specialty media house in South Asia, Cyber Media India Ltd and the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets International Data Corporation (IDC) announced recently that they will end their long-standing business relationship. Effective February 28, 2011, the two companies will move forward on their individual paths after a long-lasting, mutually beneficial partnership. The partnership, which started in 1987, provided vital data, trend analysis, and direction to the information and communications technology (ICT) industry in India. After separation CyberMedia will explore diversification of its research activities into IT and other domains while IDC will expand its research business in India with a direct presence according to a press release.
Maximizing newsroom
efficiencies with Atex
Expanding reach in Asia Pacific region, Atex announces two new deals and one new go-live of the Polopoly web content management solution with major media companies. Kumpulan Karangkraf, Malaysia’s largest magazine publisher, signed a contract for an Atex Advertising and Polopoly web content management solution. The Atex Advertising solution will be used in the company’s daily newspaper and magazine group to help strengthen business initiatives designed around targeted advertising. Kumpulan Karangkraf also selected the Polopoly solution as part of its new media objective to enhance the value of content across multiple channels. Kumpulan Karangkraf has been using the Atex Content Management Solution since 2006 for its daily newspaper, Sinar Harian.
Shepparton News, the oldest newspaper operated by The McPherson Media Group in Australia, has signed a new contract for an Atex Polopoly web content management and digital asset management solution. They will use the integrated Atex solutions to maximize newsroom efficiency with functionality that allows the seamless creation of multi-channel content. The contract also includes an upgrade for Shepparton News’ existing Atex Advertising system. The upgrade will allow the publisher’s advertising department to better manage the booking, billing, and accounting of all classified, retail and Internet ads for the news website, www.sheppnews.com.au.
Nhan Dan (People’s Daily) newspaper, a Vietnamese daily newspaper has also launched its new website www.nhandan.org.vn using Atex Polopoly web content management solution. Nhan Dan chose Polopoly to provide a seamless print to web newsroom environment for its editorial department.
Meanwhile, ABC, one of Spain’s largest daily newspapers, has become live on the Atex content management solution. ABC is using the Atex CMS to manage 14 daily editions and various supplements. Atex implemented the solution in four months, where nearly 300 users, spread across Spain and the world, simultaneously switched to the new Atex CMS. The Atex CMS is now the key application for planning, creating, and distributing content.
Atul Maheswari passes away
Managing director of Amar Ujala Publications Ltd, Atul Maheswari passed away recently following brief illness. He was 55. He was admitted to hospital at Gurgaon for intestinal surgery few days before. Son of late Murari Lal Maheswari –the person who had started Amar Ujala in the year 1948 from Agra, Atul Maheswari had taken over as MD of the group in 2001. After completing his post graduation in political science in 1979, Maheswari was inducted into the newspaper business and taking the Hindi newspaper Amar Ujala to new heights. He had got early training in the industry under his father in Bareily and moved to Meerut in 1986 for establishing a new edition of the newspaper. He also expanded Amar Ujala to Chandigarh, J&K, Uttarakhand and Delhi besides starting half a dozen editions in Uttar Pradesh. Associated for many years with media industry, Maheswari was also the chairman of the INS regional committee for Uttar Pradesh, apart from being an active member of the IRS, MRUC and CII, and was a regular consultant to Govt of India.
‘The Daily’ launched for iPad
Beginning of a New Era?
News Corporation unveiled The Daily, the industry’s first national daily news publication created from the ground up for iPad. It is the first application made available on the App Store as a subscription - which will be billed directly to an iTunes account. And because this paperless paper requires no multi-million dollar presses or delivery trucks, it will be priced at just 99 cents a week (or $39.99 for an annual subscription).
The Daily’s unique mix of text, photography, audio, video, information graphics, touch interactivity and real-time data and social feeds will provide its editors with the ability to decide not only which stories are most important but also the best format to deliver these stories to their readers. Each day, it will publish up to 100 pages focused on six key areas: news, sports, gossip and celebrity, opinion, arts and life, and apps and games, apart from featuring Sudoku and crossword puzzles, localized weather reports, and a customizable sports package that captures news on the user’s favorite teams. Subscribers will also be able to leave comments on stories in either written or audio form - as well as bookmark them in-app to read later. As readers move through The Daily’s content, they will be helped by several highly intuitive navigation tools. And while the newspaper lives on the iPad, most of its articles can be easily shared via Facebook, Twitter and email. It will link out to the web, as well as bring the web into the app. The Daily is also changing the way advertising is offered and consumed within a news publication. Full-page ad units are completely interactive, customizable, and offer a rich mix of branding and direct response opportunities.
As per Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive officer of News Corporation, “New times demand new journalism. So we built The Daily completely from scratch - on the most innovative device to come about in my time - the iPad. The magic of great newspapers and great blogs lies in their serendipity and surprise, and the touch of a good editor. We’re going to bring that magic to The Daily to inform people, to make them think, to help them engage in the great issues of the day. And as we continue to improve and evolve, we are going to use the best in new technology to push the boundaries of reporting.”
Isn’t this will be great challenge to the print-edition? Readers are welcome to share their viewpoints.
New offering from Toyo Ink for newspapers
Amid growing interest in the environment, newspaper printers are increasingly demanding more environmentally friendly newspaper inks. In response, Japan-based Toyo Ink Mfg Co Ltd has developed the ‘Vantean Eco Lio’ high-density process ink for newspapers.
The yellow, magenta and cyan inks in the Vantean Eco Lio series are denser than conventional inks, helping reduce ink consumption by around twenty percent. With blackness improved and the dry-down phenomenon suppressed, the black ink is designed to allow the standard density to be set to a low level at the time of printing and to help reduce material consumption for the printing process. These inks have also been designed and invented on the assumption of thin-film printing. While maintaining the ease of use of conventional inks, Toyo Ink Mfg has successfully enhanced printability.
ECRM founder
Don Troxel passes away
Dr Donald E Troxel, 76, co-founder, director, and mentor of ECRM passed away on January 18, 2011. To develop the first commercially successful optical character recognition (OCR) machine for newspapers, Dr Troxel co-founded ECRM in 1969 along with fellow professors Samuel J Mason and William Schreiber (all PhDs from Massachusetts Institute of Technology), as well as Melvin Fennell from The Associated Press. He was instrumental in the development of many ECRM products, including the highly successful Autokon laser-based camera, scanners, film setters and plate setters.
Dr Troxel is survived by his wife Eileen, and his three children, Gregory and Andrea Troxel and Jocelyn Milton.
MGE to offer Dosatron systems in India
MGE Graphic Systems India announced their association with Dosatron to distribute and support their products in India. French company Dosatron produces a range of water driven proportional dosing pumps for use in many different industries throughout the world. “We are very happy to be able to offer Dosatron’s range of products to the Indian market along with our own equipment,” commented Satish Chandna, managing director of MGE.
Adjusting capacity and
strengthening competitiveness
Goss International has agreed with the works council at its facility in Montataire, France on a social plan that will reduce the work force by approximately 300 people. The plan, which will be enacted in 2011, will allow the company to adjust capacity according to market demand and improve the competitiveness of its European operations. “We regret the impact on our employees, but this is an essential, proactive step in our plan to rationalize and integrate Goss resources in Europe to deliver the highest level of value to our customers,” commented Jochen Meissner, president and CEO, Goss International, emphasizing that the company maintains a global network including substantial manufacturing sites in Europe, America and Asia.
Goss International facilities in Europe include development, manufacturing and support centers for key Goss products, including the Sunday 5000 press, the only 96-page web press model in production in the world, the unique M-600 Folia web-to-sheet perfecting press and the M-600, Sunday 4000, FPS, Universal and Uniliner presses as well as Goss splicers, pasters and heatset dryers.
Mobile image recognition
technology in Playboy magazine
Playboy magazine introduced Mobius’ mobile image recognition technology. Its features make it well suited for the Playboy Fragrance for Men by Coty ad campaign. This technology allows users to capture and retain an actual image of their favorite Playmates, as opposed to capturing a bar code or abstracted graphic as required by other mobile image recognition service providers. According to Aram Kovach, CEO of Mobius, “Mobius image recognition technology lets brands retain their focus on the subject matter, in this case Playboy’s 2010 Playmates, and the creative is not cluttered with a code that diverts attention from the ad content. Mobius servers also make sure that we return the best quality images that a user’s particular phone can handle.”
The sophisticated Mobius self learning mobile image recognition system determines the capabilities of the mobile device that has sent the image, and returns content that is best suited for that particular device. Mobius also provides a secure e-commerce platform in support of the ad campaign, which allows users to purchase any of Coty’s line of Playboy Fragrance for Men using only their cell phones.
Cairo printer goes for Goss
To maximize revenue opportunities in contract printing of books and tabloid-format newspaper products, Police Press of Cairo (Egypt) ordered a Goss Community SSC press. The decision to install its first web offset press is attributed to confidence in the Community SSC technology, its productivity and ongoing technical support. The press will be configured as two four-high towers, with two SSC folders enabling to handle up to eight webs each and featuring quarter-fold and double parallel capability. The configuration will allow Police Press to print two webs of 16 tabloid pages or one web of 32 tabloid pages in a single pass. The press has also been specified with two zero speed reelstands allowing straightforward and reliable splicing without stopping the press.
An independent printer founded eleven years ago, Police Press currently runs eight sheetfed presses on a daily basis and operates a digital production workflow, into which the new Community SSC press line will fit seamlessly. Among other products, the Goss Community SSC press will also print schoolbooks for national distribution to fulfill a contract with the Egyptian Ministry of Education.
Streamlining online publishing workflows
Atex announced the release of Polopoly 10 Web CMS, designed to streamline online publishing workflows. The newest version of the industry leading web content management solution, Polopoly 10 focuses on enhancing the user experience with flexible workflow models for cross-media publishing and a new Solr-based search engine. Major productivity developments make the system more responsive and efficient at publishing digital content. Enhancements include an updated graphical user interface, keyboard shortcuts, improved tab management, extended drag-and-drop support and on-page editing capabilities. “Polopoly 10 represents a major step in the evolution of the Web CMS that is meant to help editors control the growing complexities inherent in multimedia production workflows. It successfully manages cross-channel publishing and gives publishers the tools to find business success in today’s highly competitive online environment,” said Gustaf Sahlman, Atex Group director, products and technology.
Improving competitive edge
Nhan Dan Printing Company, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam has installed a Goss M-600 heatset web press to take its business to a new dimension. The new press provides a considerable boost in output capacity while differentiating Nhan Dan as a pacesetter in the Vietnamese print market.
With installation into the company’s new facility recently completed on schedule, the new four-unit system with JF-48 folder, Contiweb SH splicer and Goss Ecocool dryer is running successfully. The M-600 press provides the additional firepower Nhan Dan requires to accept new commissions for magazine printing and grow alongside its commercial customers. The decision to invest in a Goss M-600 press came with full realization of the scope of the press and the opportunities it could deliver, says Ung Tan The, director of Nhan Dan, Ho Chi Minh City.
While commercial printer Poligrafica Industriale of Naples, Italy is investing in a new Goss M-600 web offset press to improve its competitive edge in the marketplace. The move from exclusively sheetfed production will enable Poligrafica Industriale to offer customers faster turnaround and new products. Scheduled for delivery in March 2011, the four-unit Goss M-600 press has been specified with a Goss JF-55 folder and a Goss Ecocool dryer. The new 16-page press will complement the services of four 40-inch
sheetfed presses producing 3,00,000 sheets per day.
Meeting deadline!
Germany’s first 96-page web press – a Goss Sunday 5000 system – is getting ready to go into production on schedule in February at Stark Druck in Pforzheim. The press with a web width of 2,860 mm (112 inches) includes Goss DigiRail digital inking and Autoplate fully automatic plate changing technology. Goss International is equipping the system with a Contiweb FD paster, Ecocool dryer and PCF-3 pinless combination folder. The new 96-page Goss press will operate alongside two 48-page Goss Sunday 4000 short-grain presses installed in the year 2006 and 2008.
Indonesia Printer doubles output
installing web capacity from Goss
One of Indonesia’s largest commercial print providers based in Jakarta, PT Indonesia Printer has installed a Goss Community SSC press to provide additional production capacity for its growing business. Having a 546 mm cut-off, the single-tower four-colour Community SSC is only the second web press at PT Indonesia Printer, complementing heatset production from a Goss M-600 press installed earlier this year.
Apart from producing a full range of printed products, including annual reports, brochures, coffee-table books, greeting cards, general books and posters, PT Indonesia Printer also prints more than sixty high-quality magazines for the local market including Cosmopolitan, Elle, FHM, Bazaar, Indonesia Tatler and Prestige. The new Community SSC press was originally chosen for the production of books and to expand the company’s portfolio to include tabloid-format publications and supermarket flyers and inserts. Since installation, PT Indonesia Printer has been impressed at the quality available from the coldset system and the production opportunities this offers. “It is our greatest service to our customers to appreciate their needs and go beyond all their expectations. This is why we made the move into web printing and why we have followed that decision with the installation of the Community press. The new capabilities have attracted new customers both from the domestic and international markets,” comments Welly Bolung, founder and president of PT Indonesia Printer.
A new publication comes
from Pathfinder Publishing
Promoted by Maheshwar Peri, Pathfinder introduced its second publication under the title Competition 360. With a frequency of monthly basis this magazine is priced at Rs 50 and targeting job seekers in public and private sectors.
Hong Kong publisher to add
another double-width Goss Uniliner press
Following the addition of a four-high tower to an existing Uniliner press line, Sing Tao News Corporation has ordered a new five-tower Uniliner press. The investment will address the continuing growth in circulation of leading Hong Kong free newspaper, Headline Daily.
Scheduled for shipment at the end of April 2011, the new double-width, double-circumference (16-page) Goss Uniliner press for Sing Tao will print up to 80,000 papers per hour and will be configured with five splicers and one folder. The new press will complement production from a similar four-tower 4x2Uniliner press line and a five-tower 4x1 (double-width, single-circumference) Uniliner press line in printing key Hong Kong titles for Sing Tao News Corporation. These include flagship broadsheet Sing Tao Daily, one of the world’s most widely read Chinese daily newspapers, and the English free newspaper The Standard, as well as the Headline Daily.
