All About Newspapers

Top 10 News Stories of
Indian Newspaper Industry in 2016

When we look back, what 2016 had witnessed in the country’s newspaper industry was a handful of landmark news stories worth recalling. Starting from the historic installations of high-end web presses in some of the country’s leading newspaper production houses upto the launches of new technologies and onset of new trends, the year brought a positive vibe and energy in the industry. ALL ABOUT NEWSPAPERS recollects Top 10 news stories that hit the headlines in 2016.

CROMOMAN 4-1 at Namasthe
Telangana starts production

In the year 2015, manroland India had made a breakthrough by clinching order for a CROMOMAN 4-1 newspaper press from Namasthe Telangana and the press started operation on October 11, 2016. A 4-tower 4-1 press capable of versatile printing possibilities, such as 32 pages, two times 16 pages, 24 pages plus 8 pages and various possibilities of two books in parallel production at the production speed of 75,000 cph, CROMOMAN 4-1 is especially designed considering the Indian market conditions. The press features with an additional quarter fold for magazine printing.

Damodar Rao, chairman & MD, Namasthe Telangana, said the adoption of the new CROMOMAN 4-1 would make them able to handle various other print jobs in addition to their daily newspaper. “Soon we are launching an English daily; I believe this manroland press will deliver best quality. Damodar pushed the ‘start’ button of the press. CROMOMAN 4-1 is featured with several automation systems such as an automatic web up device or the manroland web systems Inline Control Systems for colour register control with manual camera movement and cut-off control.
2016 marked as Silver Jubilee
Year for PRESSLINE India

A marvel being excelled for PRESSLINE India as the company had completed its 25 years of successful manufacturing of web offset presses in 2016. The company’s versatile presses are indigenously engineered to meet broader market requirements now surging at both domestic and international levels, extensively covering the newspaper as well as the book printing segments. The 25th Year Anniversary celebrations were organised in Faridabad, in presence of a host of prominent industry personalities. “The passion to create a niche position in the world of printing has been the guiding chronicle of PRESSLINE India,” said Satish Bajwa, chairman and MD, PRESSLINE India Private Ltd.

PRESSLINE India boasts of producing a portfolio of highly versatile presses, which are manufactured by a highly qualified and motivated team of engineers/technicians. The company has been supplying its presses to some of the leading regional newspapers based in different parts of the country, such as Amar Ujala, Pioneer, Dainik Bhaskar, The New Indian Express, Samayukta Karnataka, among others. Beyond domestic market, PRESSLINE India is present in the overseas markets with more than 675 installations of its presses all around.
KRAUSE to install 20 CtP lines
in 10 printing sites of Mathrubhumi

Among the historic deals sealed at drupa 2016 was the one between KRAUSE and Mathrubhumi. The leading Malayalam daily ordered 20 KRASUE CtP lines, which will be installed in the newspaper’s 10 different printing plants by 2017 end. The newly ordered KRAUSE platesetters have to replace the existing and old CtP devices equipped at the printing plants, located in Trivendrum, Cochin, Kannur, Thrissur, Palakkad, Kollam, Kottakkal, Alapuzha, Kottayam and Calicut. The line of 20 platesetters that the newspaper has ordered consists of KRAUSE LS Performance and KRAUSE BlueFin with Jet Net workflow.

KRAUSE LS Performance is a compact system, ideal for middle market segment. On other side, KRAUSE BlueFin with Jet Net workflow solution is also a compact, high-end plate processor for polymer printing plates. Jet Net Workflow available alongside KRAUSE BlueFin is the standard software solution for the management of digital production data in the industrial prepress. So far, in the history of KRAUSE, the deal signed with Mathrubhumi for the 20 CtP lines is considered to be the biggest ever sale the German company has made anywhere in the world.
Repeat order of 13 Manugraph Smartline towers
from Malayala Manorama

Manugraph has signed a repeat order for 13 Manugraph Smartline towers from Malayala Manorama, leading Malayalam daily with circulation of 2.1 million copies. Signing of the order between the two parties was took place in presence of Sanjay Shah, VP & MD, Manugraph and Mammen Mathew, chief editor & MD Malayala Manorama. The new Manugraph Smartline 4 x 1 double width towers will be installed in the newspaper’s multiple production plants in Kerala. Manugraph Smartline is only 4x1 double width press manufactured in India.

Sanjay mentioned that Malayala Manorama currently has five Smartline towers in their printing plants, and addition of 13 new towers is a momentous occasion for both parties. “Ever since their adoption of five Smartline machines four years back the newspaper is having exceedingly good production capacity and is running effectively. It is always a proud moment for us, when long-standing customers like Malayala Manorama has shown their trust in our products. We look forward to many more Indian newspapers following in the footsteps of Malayala Manorama and investing in Smartline,” he remarked.
Mailroom at The Indian Express enhanced
with NEWSTECH counter stackers

The post-press setup of The Indian Express in Navi Mumbai would no longer be the same as the newspaper has recently ordered two new NTTS 300 programmable counter-stackers from NEWSTECH for their mailroom system. The groundbreaking update in its mailroom setup has sped up the newspaper’s overall operation from press to loading dock. The two NEWSTECH NTTS 300 programmable counter stackers for mailroom system have been installed in the newspaper’s new 6 Towers, 2 Folders Hi-Line presses equipped at their production plant located at Mahape in Navi Mumbai.

The Indian Express chose the post-press systems over the others available in the market because of their previous experience with IDAB Wamac Systems, a renowned Swedish manufacturer of mailroom systems and a technical collaborator of NEWSTECH. NTTS 300 is designed to handle different product dimensions, formats and in-feed directions, such as open edge leading, up to a press speed of 60,000 copies per hour. The unique take-up conveyor of the stacker can handle newspaper copies gently without smearing or wrinkling. Most of all, NTTS 300 is the basic unit in the newsroom system as it can be further expanded with different modules, like plastic wrapper, under wrapper, strapper and conveyors for transport of bundles.
First QIPC–EAE combi-package in
India at Anandabazar Patrika (ABP)

ABP Group is the first in India to have placed a combined QIPC–EAE order. The efficiency and effectiveness of a ‘combi-package’ made for a persuasive argument with the media group. But the order was successfully met at ABP in Kolkata—Q.I. Press Controls supplied the mRC-3D for colour registration and EAE carried out a complete retrofit on GOSS Universal 70 installed at the newspaper’s printing plant in the city. Over the years, ABP has won many awards for quality printing, such as SNAP (Specifications for Newsprint Advertising Production) certificate and has been a member of International Newspaper Colour Quality Club (INCQC) at various periods. In 2015, ABP was the first non-American organisation to receive two top awards for printing excellence, both from SNAP and World Association of Newspapers (WAN) in 2014.

It was at the World Publishing Expo 2014 in Amsterdam that QIPC – EAE first entered into serious talks with ABP. The organization was looking for an efficient and effective way to improve processing speeds in its printing plants, which included minimization of waste. With its mRC-3D for colour register that meets all the requirements set by ABP, Q.I. Press Controls was able to offer the ideal solution. It was also apparent to EAE that the press itself was in need of an upgrade. For ABP, this combination of solutions would not only mean optimisation of its printing processes, but also provide the guarantee of a high-quality product.
Malayala Manorama goes for two more DIAMONDSPIRIT-SA presses

With strong faith in Mitsubishi’s technology, Malayala Manorama has signed for a new contract with the Japanese web offset press manufacturer for two new DIAMONDSPIRIT-SA presses. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Printing & Packaging Machinery Ltd (MHI-P&PM) will deliver the presses to the leading Malayalam newspaper’s Kottayam facility, following the earlier successful installations and taking into production of such five other presses. Malayala Manorama, the largest selling Malayalam daily with circulation of 2.4 million copies, ordered five DIAMONDSPIRIT-SA presses from Mitsubishi in 2013 to enhance its production efficiencies. The first press was taken into production as early as November 2014, and the fifth one since June 2016.

Through this long-term relationship with Mitsubishi, Malayala Manorama has been satisfied with the performance of DIAMONDSPIRIT-SA presses as well as the project management done for them by the Mitsubishi team. Mammen Mathew, chief editor & MD of Malayala Manorama Company Limited, said they did order five Mitsubishi DIAMONDSPIRIT-SA presses in 2013; and all five are performing extremely well in terms of print quality, reduced wastage and productivity. He also mentioned about Mitsubishi’s all time excellent after-sale support as they had no hesitation in placing their order for two more presses at a very competitive price.
The Times of India to upgrade CROMOMAN 4-1
presses at Kolkata and Airoli plants

One of the most successful and leading newspapers of India, The Times of India has been printing with CROMOMAN 4-1 presses from manroland web systems since 2011. To further enhance the production volume and print quality, the newspaper has invested to upgrade their manroland presses. At its production plants at Kolkata and Airoli in Navi Mumbai, The Times of India has been running CROMOMAN 4-1 presses, which the newspaper has yet to upgrade. Now with the upgrades of CROMOMAN 4-1 presses, overall production capacities of the two plants for the broadsheet daily newspaper will be expanded simultaneously.

At the newspaper’s Kolkata plant, the CROMOMAN 4-1 will be upgraded with two towers and two reel splicers. On the other side, the manroland press in Airoli will soon print on one tower, with an additional reel splicer. Even designed for higher performance, and even more success, a unique prowess of CROMOMAN 4-1 is its production speeds of up to 75,000 cph. CROMOMAN 4-1 is featured with minimum changeover times, which eventually makes the press capable to prepare for next production quickly. Automation options in the web offset system reduce paper waste, make-ready time and personnel costs. Some of the significant functions of the press include fast automatic webbing-up (50 m/min) as well as inline control systems and full integration of additional components into the PECOM control system. In May 2017, the newly manufactured web offset printing towers will be dispatched from the headquarters of manroland web systems in Augsburg and will be delivered to India.
Dabang Dunia relies only on
PRAKASH presses

Leading Hindi daily Dabang Dunia boasts of many regional editions, but relies only on one brand of press. This Indore-headquartered regional newspaper trusts only PRAKASH presses to churn its colourful pages produced from three different locations. Started by Kishore Vadhwani around five years back from Indore, Bhopal, Jabalpur, Raipur and Mumbai, the newspaper gets on upgrading its production facilities and there is a reason behind a series of installations of PRAKASH web offset presses in their production setups. Prakash Web Offset Pvt Ltd has a stronghold position in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh where facilities of several regional newspapers are sizeably equipped with PRAKASH machines. Dabang Dunia is among the league, but in a unique trait, as all presses in the newspaper’s three regional facilities for Indore, Bhopal and Raipur editions are of PRAKASH.

Regional editions of Dabang Duniya are produced in 18-20 colour pages daily. It has been said that the newspaper’s appeasing print quality is output of PRAKASH web offset presses in all production facilities. In addition to the recent adoption of a brand new PRAKASH web offset press, Dabang Dunia’s Indore and Raipur facilities have already been equipped with two lines of PRAKASH presses each. “There have been reasons why we solely go only for PRAKASH presses when it comes to adopting new machines or upgrading our portfolio. We believe in the quality performance of the PRAKASH web machines as well as on-time after sale service,” remarks Nitin Shrivastav, GM-production, Dabang Dunia Group, Indore.
Monotech opens gateway to
short-run newspaper printing

Adoption of digital printing capabilities means pursuing an additional source of revenue in the newspaper market. Understanding this requirement, Monotech Systems has introduced JETSCI Web Press WP600, an inkjet system designed for short-run jobs in newspaper and book printing. The press is designed to produce outputs in offset quality, reducing inventory cost to a drastically low level, at quick setup and fast turnaround time. To name some outputs that JETSCI Web Press WP600 can deliver may count print-on-demand, short-run books and newspapers, transactional printing, direct mailing and security.

JETSCI Web Press WP600 operates at much higher speed to churn outputs in 600x600 dpi, keeping operator intervention to a minimum, thus enhancing productivity, shortening turnaround time, yielding lower operating costs and, ultimately, giving better ROI than traditional offset or toner based digital printing. Monotech Systems is a pioneer in digital printing solutions; and JETSCI Web Press WP600 is the latest digital inkjet printing press from company, suitably designed especially for short-run productions.