ProImage solution chosen for centralise
production of all sites of Morris
In February this year, Morris
Communications decided to centralise its
production and consolidate its workflow
solutions in a centralised environment.
Driven on the desire to standardise across
the company, they opted to use ProImage’s
NewsWay workflow solution for all its
print sites. ProImage NewsWay controls
and manages production workflow from
a variety of front-end systems through
to output. The highly modular NewsWay
software solution is packaged as a core
product with multiple add-on modules that
allow for flexibility and customisation for
individual print site requirements.
Workflow centralisation
Over the past 10 years, Morris
Communications has been a regular user
of the NewsWay workflow solution. Two
production sites of the company – namely
Savannah in Georgia and Jacksonville
in Florida– already had existing local
NewsWay systems which will be integrated
into the forthcoming centralised system.
As part of the centralisation, ProImage
will replace all local systems at all
four production sites of the company
and centralise edition planning, RIPing,
imposition, ink presetting, ink optimisation,
and output management.
The Augusta Chronicle in Georgia will
function as the main HUB and will
house the Windows servers. In addition,
an undisclosed backup HUB location
will provide system redundancy and
disaster recovery. The Savannah Morning
News (Georgia edition) and The Florida
Times-Union in Jacksonville (Florida
edition) will receive upgrades, and
Lubbock Avalanche - Journal in Lubbock
(Texas edition) will be the fourth, newly
integrated site.
Added advantages
With the highly customisable modular
system, each property will have its own
custom workflow based on their individual
production requirements. Since NewsWay
is completely browser based, the properties
will log into the centralised server via a
standard web browser. A unique login and
password will allow each site to view only
their publications and different levels of
access are also given to each location to
provide different views into production and
to ensure user security.
All four properties will have a streamlined
NewsWay Receiver footprint for more
efficient and secure plate TIFF transmission,
which furthermore significantly reduces
network traffic. In addition, the internal
connections provide higher efficiency data
transfer rates that ensure accurate file
delivery and real time data status.
The HUB in Augusta will RIP, impose and
send the plate-ready TIFF to each property
individually, the plate will be replicated at
the respective site for multiple instances of
the plate based on production needs. The
local duplication will significantly decrease
network traffic, having to transmit each
plate image only once. Furthermore, each
of the four locations will have an integrated
RIP for disaster recover purposes and
can plan, RIP, impose and output
locally, if needed.
In order to reduce ink consumption on the
press, the OnColor ECO Ink Optimisation
software was added. ECO will automatically
analyse PDF files and determine the exact
amount of ink needed to produce a flawless
output using less ink.
Reason of centralisation
Centralising the production workflow brings
significant advantages to a production
group with multiple print sites and markets.
Besides the above-mentioned efficiency
and time savings, having the same system
across the board builds a unified skill set
of employees regardless of their physical
location. Each location is working with
the same software and version eliminating
the need for different skill levels and
creates a flexible, educated workforce
that has expert knowledge on NewsWay
and provides cross level support to other
locations when needed.
In addition, centralising production replaces
local software systems – often from various
suppliers, versions and footprints – and
eliminates the upgrading and maintenance
of local hardware and software. Besides
the administrative upkeep of different
versions and systems, support contract
costs will also be significantly reduced.
“We were discussing the centralisation
of our production workflow for a long
time and when the time came to finalise
it, we wanted to use our proven system
and supportive partner,” says Sean
Ruth, VP-production, Morris Publishing
Group. He adds that they always have
been satisfied with ProImage products,
which are designed to upgrade and
integrate the existing systems making a
huge plus point.
