Indian Express relies on SG Informatics India
- awards newspaper scanning, digitization and digital asset management project
Indian Express has awarded the scanning, digitization and digital asset management project to SG Informatics India Pvt Ltd. The project involves scanning and conversion of old newspaper pages since 1954, to digital form and implementation of FotoWare Digital Asset Management System. The pages are being scanned and made full text searchable in PDF format. Metadata is being entered on page level. The currently allocated volumes of old content will take at least two years to get converted in digital format. The digitized content will be hosted in FotoWare DAMS and will be available for easy search and retrieval.
Represented by SG Informatics in India, FotoWare a.s. is a software company based in Oslo, Norway, with subsidiary in Germany. Established in 1994 as a result of the growing demand to handle digital assets, the company has distributed digital asset management solutions throughout the world, with several million licenses sold. Satnaam G Singh, director, SG Informatics (I) Pvt Ltd conveyed that FotoWare has built one of the most efficient and productive solutions found on the market today for finding, processing and sharing files such as JPG, EPS, TIFF; PDF, Illustrator, MP3, Word and PowerPoint documents. The solutions are very cost efficient, and the return of investment is appreciated amongst the users.
Michael Amick becomes
executive chairman at APPM
W Michael Amick, Jr (Mike) was appointed as director of The Andhra Pradesh Paper Mills Limited (APPM) with effect from July 13, 2012 and also as executive chairman effective from the date of assuming charge. He is also serving as the president of International Paper India.
TKS enters Indian market effectively HT Media,
Mathrubhumi and Malayalam Manorama
become TKS customers
Marking effective beginning to offer their web presses in the Indian market, Japan-based company, TKS, has received orders from three newspaper establishments including: HT Media, Mathrubhumi and Malayalam Manorama. HT Media has ordered Color Top Series - 4 x 1- two lines of 5 towers each. Mathrubhumi ordered Color Top Series- 4 x 1- three lines of 3 towers each, out of which one line has already been installed, one line is being shipped and another one is in assembly. While at Malayalam Manorama, 4 x 2 – eight towers (used) are being installed.
Since its foundation in 1874, TKS has developed and completed the first rotary press for a domestic customer in 1906. For more than 100 years, TKS has kept leading the printing manufacturing industry of rotary press makers with continuous development for high speed technology, durability and longevity, along with peripheral equipment.TKS products, like the Color Top series, are supported not only by the long experience and reliance, but also by its precision control techniques and the latest technology in manufacturing. In addition to this accumulation of manufacturing know-how, TKS has been incorporating the latest production capabilities into the facilities that fulfill the quality and quantity requirements of their customer base. The company has been producing printing machines that answer to the needs of the times.
World famous photographer
Lennart Nilsson turns ninety
Lennart Nilsson turns ninety on the 24th of August and can look back on an unrivalled career as a photojournalist. Unique as an educator with a camera, he has been called ‘a renaissance man in the twentieth century’ and compared with the universal genius Leonardo da Vinci.
Overwhelming response to China Print 2013
Organizers plan to create additional show space
Marking overwhelming response since launch of promotion campaign for China Print 2013, the organizers have received a large number of responses and booth applications. The sales progress is much better than earlier China Print events. Although there are still twelve months away from the exhibition opening, the 106,000 square meters indoor show space has been fully occupied. With a good prospect to China’s printing market, most exhibitors have expanded their booth size: Heidelberg applied 3500 sqm, HP 3000 sqm, Bobst 1500 sqm, KBA 1100 sqm, Komori 1000 sqm, Muller Martini 1000 sqm, Canon 1000 sqm, Wilson 900 sqm, Kodak 800 sqm, Manroland Sheetfed 700 sqm, Dinga 600 sqm, Konica Minolta 500 sqm, Mitsubishi 300 sqm, etc. By the end of May, China Print 2013 has received 66,336 square meters of net booth space application. All eight halls of NCIEC could no longer fulfill this demand. The organizers are working on a solution to create additional show space by building temporary halls to meet exhibitors’ booth demands.
Change to create new impetus at Heidelberg
Dr Gerold Linzbach to take place of Bernhard Schreier as new CEO at the company
Bernhard Schreier, CEO of Heidelberg will be leaving the company at the end of 2012. He is handing over the company's chairmanship after almost 13 years. Over recent months, key steps have been taken to set the company's new strategic course and a start has been made on putting this into practice to return Heidelberg to sustained profitable growth. What's more, the industry trade show drupa has led to the highest quarterly incoming orders in four years for the first quarter of financial year 2012/2013. The Supervisory Board and Schreier himself feel now is the right time to make the change in order to create new impetus at the very top of the company. The Supervisory Board unanimously appointed Dr Gerold Linzbach (56) as Heidelberg CEO with effect from September 1, 2012. Schreier will ensure the transition goes smoothly and will accompany the handover process till the end of the year.
"I would like to thank Bernhard Schreier for his achievements as Heidelberg CEO. In a career spanning a total of 37 years, 13 of them as CEO, he has truly made his mark on the company and has succeeded in guiding it through two major global economic crises and structural upheaval in the printing industry. Particularly in very difficult recent times, he has helped transform Heidelberg from a traditional press manufacturer into a solution and service provider in the print media industry," said Robert J Koehler, chairman of the Supervisory Board of Heidelberg.
"Heidelberg is a global market leader and is renowned worldwide for its cutting-edge technology and customer proximity. In Dr Gerold Linzbach, we are delighted to have found a successor with international experience to press ahead with the company's strategic reorientation and ensure its return to profitability. Dr Linzbach has many years of management and capital market expertise, which will help pave the way for a successful future at Heidelberg," he added.
A-SK Services to represent ppi Media in India
In order to expand its sales activities in India with strong focus on national and regional newspapers and magazines, ppi Media has recently appointed A-SK Services as their representative in the country. In 2001 ppi Media signed its first contract in India with The Times of India, and since then many more customers such as Hindustan Times and Sakaal have followed. Today India is one of ppi Media’s fastest growing and most important markets. Around fifty percent of the country’s top 20 dailies are produced with ppi Media’s solutions. “During the last 11 years we have established very good relationships with many of the national newspapers in India, and we now seek to extend our business even further,” conveyed Gerhard Raab, senior vice president international sales at ppi Media.
With A-SK Services founder Sushil Kambampati, the German software vendor and specialist for integrated newspaper production has acquired a new partner encompassing India with extensive knowledge and experience of the media industry. For over a decade Sushil Kambampati has been immersed in the media industry, from music and video to print. “Globally, media companies have seen many changes in the last few years, and they need to continue to evolve to meet the challenges posed by new technology," said Sushil Kambampati, founder of A-SK Services. “Indian newspapers and magazines are starting to feel the effect of evolving technology, while they continue to face the pressure from competitors. ppi Media’s products can help publishers achieve efficiencies and increase their flexibility to meet changing market conditions. I am thrilled that A-SK Services will represent ppi Media’s top-of-the-class products in India.”
Mondi’s ColorLok campaign succeeds in Europe
In a successful promotional campaign, with two million ream stickers and half a million scratch-and-win lottery tickets, Mondi drew customer attention to the benefits of Mondi office papers with ColorLok Technology. The campaign came to a close with prizes distributed throughout Europe, including trips to Barcelona, Morocco, and Norway. Notably, after expanding its range of ColorLok papers, global paper and packaging producer Mondi launched a campaign in January 2012 to bring the benefits of ColorLok Technology to life. ColorLok Technology is based on a class of paper additives that visibly enhance the print quality of inkjet documents. A specific chemical interaction between additives and the pigment holds the pigment on the paper surface while the rest of the ink penetrates deep into the paper, resulting in the crisp, vivid print quality.
319th truck carrying relief material goes to village Kot Pannu (Kathua)
Donated by Darbar Bawa Lal Dayal Ji Dhianpur, the 319th truck carrying relief material was flagged off by Vijay Kumar Chopra, CMD and chief editor, Punjab Kesari Group for the migrants staying in terrorism affected border village Kot Pannu (Kathua), Hira Nagar Sector in J&K. Darbar Bawa Lal Dayal Ji Dhianpur has earlier donated 18 trucks of relief material. On the occassion of flagging off, the eminent persons were present included: Jagdish Ji, Aashu, Arun Kumar, Garib Dass and Lion JB Singh Chaudhary.
Richard Nichols becomes
new CEO at Goss International
Restructuring management, the board of Goss International Corporation has appointed Richard Nichols as CEO of the company, effective immediately, replacing Jochen Meissner. It is expected that the Goss management team, headed by Nichols, will undertake active and effective measures to stabilize and expand the Goss leadership position in the industry. Relying on Shanghai Electric’s support and Goss` own distinctive capabilities, Goss will optimize the allocation of resources to enhance innovation and responsiveness to customers and market demands, within a culture that fosters an inspiring and challenging working environment. This will propel the company to a new level of performance, to meet and exceed the strategic goals.
Maharashtra Times enters Nagpur
Maharashtra Times, Mumbai’s number one Marathi daily coming out from Mumbai, Pune, Nashik and Aurangabad now has launched a new edition (fifth one) from Nagpur. With the cover price of Rs 3, this 20-page newspaper is targeting young people covering local events, entertainment, lifestyle, technology and a special section on education.
WoodWing reinforces management team
With the appointment of Dennis van Nooij as vice president of product management and Joost Huizinga as vice president of engineering, WoodWing Software reinforces its management team to support continued rapid growth. In their new positions, they will continue to leverage their talents to keep driving product innovation while maintaining high levels of product quality and customer satisfaction.
“We successfully help our customers to increase the efficiency of their publishing workflows and enable them to tap new technologies as early as possible,” said Erik Schut, president of WoodWing Software, “As a result, we continue to enjoy strong growth, confirming our position as a leading provider of multi-channel publishing solutions. The organizational changes pave the way for an even brighter future of our company.” Recent additions to WoodWing’s steadily growing customer list in the areas of print, web and digital publishing include Hearst Magazines in the US, the newspapers Milenio Nacional and Project Indigo in Mexico and the Neue Luzerner Zeitung in Switzerland. WoodWing has also been able to significantly expand relationships with existing customers, including The Mainichi Newspapers in Japan, Meredith in the US and the Herald Sun in Australia.
Solid duo: new investment and pressupdate
The South China Morning Post expects nothing but the best. With this in mind, Brilliant Star Printing Services Ltd in Hong Kong, the company responsible for contract printing and a 100 percent subsidiary of the South China Morning Post, recently invested in a new GEOMAN press while concurrently implementing the pressupdate programme from manroland web systems for its existing printing systems.
In May 2012, the long-term customer signed the contract for a new GEOMAN press from manroland web systems. This investment, with a production start planned for July 2013, will allow the company to expand its capacities considerably and cater to customer requests with even greater flexibility. In addition, a GEOMAN from 1999 and REGIOMAN from 2005 will be geared up for the future. What do pressupdate services entail? The web width of both printing systems will be reduced from 1524 mm to 1370 mm, evidence of the continued trend towards smaller newspapers, also observable in Asia. Important tasks will be coordinated in the future for all three printing systems, i.e., the new GEOMAN and the existing presses. This involves upgrading remote maintenance for greater production reliability as well as production planning with a modernized PPM station. Moreover, the proven GEOMAN system will receive an overall upgrade of electronics and the machine control systems with PECOM components.
Press Council of India’s initiative
- institutes the National Awards for Excellence in Journalism
- calls for entries from the editors of newspapers/news agencies/freelancers by August 16, 2012
To encourage the media to pursue its duties following the dictum of ‘freedom with responsibility’, the Press Council of India, as the only statutory authority enjoying such mandate, has instituted National Awards to honour journalists/photographers excelling in print journalism in various fields on the occasion of National Press Day every year. For these awards, nominations have been invited by August 16, 2012 from the editors of newspapers/news agencies/freelancers in order to recognize outstanding contribution in print journalism of journalists/photographers of Indian nationality.
‘Raja Ram Mohan Roy National Award for Excellence in Journalism’ will be on top among the six categories of awards. Other categories are ‘Rural Journalism’; ‘Developmental Reporting’; ‘Stree Shakti’; and ‘Photo Journalism’, including (i) Single News Picture, and (ii) Photo Feature.
For more info, visit: http://presscouncil.nic.in
German printer automates
plate production with NELA
Automation is essential in order to increase productivity in the pre-press departments of large printers. NELA recently installed two in-line SF Benders with customized plate stacker/sorter at Onlineprinters GmbH, one of the largest internet printers in Germany. At this printer, around 3,000 offset plates in 3B-Format are imaged, bent and delivered to the right press each day. A challenge, which, in today’s modern printing environment, can be met only by investing in process automation.
WatchTime launches India edition
The first watch magazine for the Indian market WatchTime India has been launched recently by Ebner Publishing International, the parent company of WatchTime collaborating with Malayala Manorama, India’s leading publishing house founded in 1888 in Kerala. WatchTime India, an English-language magazine that incorporate both translated material from the original, American WatchTime and original material from the Indian editorial staff, will be supported by a media campaign that will include outdoor displays, focused on the cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai, as well as print and online ads, mobile marketing and social media communication all across India. WatchTime editor-in-chief, Joe Thompson, will oversee the editorial strategy of WatchTime India, working closely with editor Neha S Bajpai, and her team, based in Dehli.
Ebner Publishing CEO Gerrit Klein and WatchTime managing director Dominik Grau attended the launch events in Mumbai and Delhi to introduce WatchTime India. The events, hosted by Varghese Chandy, general manager of Malayala Manorama, and Riyad Mathew, senior assistant editor and director, drew a high-profile crowd of affluent Indian watch collectors, watch brand representatives, and well-known politicians and celebrities including Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra, and minister of Human Resources and IT, Kapil Sibal.
Gary Stokes joins Atex as new group CEO
Atex has appointed Gary Stokes new group CEO of the company to strengthen the ongoing leadership and development of the business and support its accelerated growth into the digital marketplace. Replacing Jim Rose, Gary Stokes will be joining the company with immediate effect. Jim Rose will be leaving Atex after a seven year career during which he served as a non executive director and for the last eighteen months, as group chief executive officer.
Chinese newspaper expands into
commercial printing with first Goss M-800
To support a plan to expand beyond its current newspaper production capabilities and seize new commercial printing opportunities, Beijing Daily will install a new heatset four-unit Goss M-800 press featuring a four-pages-around by four-pages across (4x4) cylinder configuration. The new press will go into production in late 2012 at a facility in Beijing where more than 300 employees print more than two million newspapers daily. Beijing Daily is part of the Beijing Daily Group, a media company that manages nine newspapers and three magazines.
“We now print coldset newspapers only at our facility, but demand for commercial products and heatset retail inserts is increasing in our region,” explains Jia Fudong, vice director for the Beijing Daily printing operations. He projects those commercial print volumes will continue to increase over the next five years and says the new press, the first M-800 model to be installed in China, will be called on to produce a wide range of products and formats. Print-quality expectations for those products are increasing along with page counts in the Beijing area, while run lengths are stable, Jia reports. “When we decided to expand into the commercial arena, we also decided on the clear leader in commercial web press technology,” says Jia.
A Goss PCC-2 pinless folder will allow the new M-800 press at Beijing Daily to produce heatset products at up to 80,000 copies per hour in straight production or 40,000 copies per hour in collect mode. Goss International will equip the new system with a Contiweb FD paster, Ecocool dryer and its Omnicon press control and digital workflow technology. Tim Mercy, vice president of sales for Goss International, says the ability to print magazine, tabloid and other formats in straight or collect mode makes the M-800 model a good fit for the varied requirements of Beijing Daily. “This is also an excellent option for commercial printers looking to diversify with a four-around press that complements existing two-around presses such as Goss M-600 and M-500 models,” he adds.
Kuala Lumpur to host
Asian Publishing Convention 2012
With focus on growth opportunities from content, the Asian Publishing Convention (APC) 2012 will be held in Kuala Lumpur during November 29- 30. This year’s APC is strictly for those who can make or influence a deal. There will be strategic updates for editors, publishers and media owners. In the ‘long-tail’ of the publishing ecosystem, content is now emerging as a goldmine opportunity. At this platform, one can learn how savvy publishers can network across borders to franchise, trade published content, enlarge choice of articles and reduce content creation costs. Digital platforms, systems and applications are available to archive content, search, buy and re-purpose into new value.
The APC platform of the last five years has established a fraternal network of magazines across ASEAN and Taiwan. The region encompasses magazine publishing in English, Chinese, Malay/Indonesian and Thai languages. It is rich in cross-language and cross-border potential waiting to be tapped and leveraged. The upcoming conference sessions (all plenary) will be a combination of providing insights as well as bringing the attendees up to speed on a variety of developments, with presentations on the topics such as basic elements of publications franchising, and fairer win-win magazine franchising.
ECRM NEWSmax CtP
commenced at PLA Daily, China
ECRM Incorporated announced that the company has completed the installation of two fully-automated NEWSmax CtP platesetters at the production facility of the People’s Liberation Army Daily Newspaper (PLA Daily) in China. The ECRM NEWSmax platesetter is reported to be the newspaper industry’s fastest production platesetter. With the announcement of the commissioning ceremony at the PLA Daily, implementation discussions are expected to accelerate in other Chinese newspaper markets.
MassCoMedia poised to take another initiative
Founded by Divesh Nath, managing editor & publishing director, Delhi Press, MassCoMedia, an institution totally dedicated to electronic, film and print media, is poised to commence a film making course in September this year and one of the leading directors of Bollywood is endorsing it. The course fee is Rs five lacs and will include a film which will be sent to the censor board.
Notably, MassCoMedia students have completed 300 odd films on various subjects since its inception. These films have surprisingly started getting recognition and awards, at various levels. The best being is the Dada Phalke award. Owing to new technology, speed and delivery of communication both in print and electronic media is the backbone of MassCoMedia. The institute created a technology and a scape in the students, which has made movie/film/ documentary making almost automatic.
All Star opts Atex web CMS
The US-based education marketing and business intelligence firm All Star has chosen Atex Web Content Management Solution as its new CMS. All Star Directories is a strategic marketing partner for educational institutions and a premier publisher of information and tools that enable informed career and educational decisions. The company is launching a series of initiatives to create more engaging, content-rich web experiences. It will be implementing new site designs, creating new interaction and exploration models and introducing new content formats and strategies. All Star is currently utilizing a homegrown system which will not meet its needs moving forward. The company is looking forward to a September go-live with Atex and is confident that the solution will help it achieve its vision for the future. Eventually the solution will be rolled out across all of its sites.
