Herold Druck marks another
instauration with manroland
-orders Colorman, XXL autoprint
“Short runs and the
big Colorman, XXL newspaper press are not a contradiction. Fully-automated production
changeover ensures
a cost per copy
that is absolutely economical.”
At the end of 2010, the first Colorman, XXL of the autoprint series and the first six-page wide newspaper web press in the Alpine republic Austria will commence production at Herold Druck und Verlag AG in Vienna. Three years ago, this Vienna printing company caused something of a sensation as a pilot user of UV technology for newspaper printing, and now they have opted for groundbreaking technology once again.
Known for its enthusiasm for innovations, specializing in printing newspapers and supplements, Herold Druck has relied on printing technology and project management from manroland for seventeen years.
The reason why is the level of quality that this customer insists on. Is being the first with technological innovations one of Herold’s stated objectives? “If being the first means having a competitive edge, above all as far as economy in newspaper printing is concerned, that is worthwhile. More important however is aligning our company to be fit for the future and choose the right technology to that end. And this is what we have found with autoprint,” explains Leopold Kurz, member of the Herold Druck executive board. To what extent did the successful start-ups of autoprint presses in Germany influence the decision? “Of course, we observed this during our investment planning and visited the printers in Osnabrück and Chemnitz. What we saw there regarding workflows and print results made our decision an easy one.”
Herold prints the daily newspapers Die Presse, the Wiener Zeitung and the freesheet Heute. As a contract printer, Herold is doing well with commercial printing and is to offer an even wider product range in the future. “Herold Druck needed solutions for more flexible production of commercial jobs and especially for short runs,” reports Bernhard Bitzl, regional sales manager for Webfed Printing Systems at manroland, adding, “Short runs and the big Colorman, XXL newspaper press are not a contradiction. Fully-automated production changeover ensures a cost per copy that is absolutely economical.”
The Colorman, XXL with two printing towers and extensive autoprint equipment is to be installed in a modernized production hall at the new Vienna Central Railway Station complex. Once the press is installed, the APL (Automatic Plate Loading) system with its robotic arms will reduce plate changing times to a mimimum. The inline control systems QuickStart for pre-inking, InlineCutoff Control for automatic cut-off register control, InlineTension Control for web tension, and InlineTemperature Control for ink and dampening solution will ensure consistent quality and thus faster production with much less start-up waste. The press will be prepared for APL logistics, the plate logistics system, to be retrofitted.
Publish Asia Conference & Expo 2010
Rethink, rebuild and reach out!
For its 10th anniversary, Publish Asia Conference & Expo scheduled to be held during May 12 – 13, 2010 in Bangkok, Thailand is aiming to create the most exciting learning and meeting platform for the Asian newspaper industry. The event will explore innovations in the printing plant, the newsroom and the sales department showcasing original ventures for creating new revenue streams, through CEO Conference, Newsroom Summit, Printing Summit and a one-day in-depth specific topic pre conference learning workshops on May11.
The winners of the much awaited Asia Media Awards 2010 in categories including Best in design award, Best in special coverage award, Best in infographics award and Best in photojournalism award will be presented during the Asia Media Awards Gala Dinner on 12 May. All award winners will be granted the exclusive usage of a special icon illustrative of their achievement and representating – for each category – the gold, silver and bronze awards. They will be entitled to display this distinctive WAN-IFRA recognition of excellence in their publication as well as in all their corporate communications or marketing materials.
manroland to purchase WIFAG
The German company manroland AG is negotiating the possible purchase of WIFAG AG, the Bern specialist for high-quality newspaper printing solutions. The corresponding letter of intent has been signed and negotiations are to be finalized soon.
By integrating the press and service business, manroland AG rounds its product and service portfolio and sustainably strengthens its position in newspaper printing, and regional presence. “Our industry is marked by an ongoing and necessary consolidation. The current situation allows us to actively grasp the opportunities in the market to strengthen our business,” commented Gerd Finkbeiner, CEO of manroland.
For customers and business partners, WIFAG stands for quality, sustainability, and innovation. WIFAG’s outstanding reputation is of great importance for the joined business development. The existing brand, continuity of the company philosophy, and customer relations would be preserved in case of a merger. WIFAG AG already had announced the reduction of 300 jobs and the search for a strategic business partner. With the sale to manroland, the company responds to the increasing consolidation pressure in the industry.
Sing Tao extends existing Schur mailroom
To meet the increasing production demand, Sing Tao, one of the leading publishers in Hong Kong, is extending their printing and mailroom capacity. The existing Schur mailroom at their facility consists of four gripper lines and five stack packaging lines. One existing gripper conveyor TGG 3160 line will now be extended and two high capacity stack/packaging lines each including a stacker A 600 will be added. The new equipment will be operational in summer this year.
Sing Tao prints among other titles Sing Tao Daily and the free paper Headline Daily, the largest circulated newspaper in Hong Kong, increasing both in terms of pagination and circulation.
Dainik Bhaskar plans to enter
J&K, Bihar and Jharkhand
One of the largest Hindi newspapers in the country, Dainik Bhaskar is planning to enter into three states in the northern part of the country including J&K, Bihar and Jharkhand in the next two years. Starting with market ‘A’ and gradually covering the potential cities and replicating the process when moving in to market ‘B’ to launch in the new markets one by one.
“The process will be done over a period of twelve to fourteen months. The decision to enter J&K, Bihar and Jharkhand is the outcome of the strategy by observing firstly, the political stability for the last five years in these states; secondly, the states have witnessed industrial growth and the law and order situation has improved significantly. And of the overall population of nine crore and three crore in Bihar and Jharkhand, respectively, the literacy percentage is around 50-59 percent in these states,” expressed Girish Agarwal, director, DB Corp Ltd in an interview published in their English daily DNA.
The Dainik Bhaskar group publishes seven newspapers, 48 newspaper editions, and 128 sub-editions in three languages – Hindi, Gujarati and English – in eleven states including Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Utter Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Delhi and the union territory Chandigarh.
ContiTech inaugurates
service centre in Singapore
Expanding their involvement in the Asian printing industry, ContiTech recently inaugurated a service center for printing blankets in Singapore, where PHOENIX XTRA blankets and CONTI-AIR printing blankets will be cut to size and equipped with rails. It will ensure that customers get their assembled printing blankets faster. As a trade center for Southeast Asia, the site will supply primarily existing sales partners and graphics dealers as well as final customers in the Pacific Rim region, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines.
“Southeast Asia is regarded as one of the most important growth markets for the printing industry. That is why ContiTech Elastomer Coatings decided to open this new cutting and railing center,” commented Dr Thomas Perkovic, head of the printing blanket segment at ContiTech.
Force majeure!
After the massive earthquake on February 27, 2010, all production at the Norske Skog Bio Bio mill in Concepción, Chile has stopped, and based on the preliminary reports on damage to the mill, it will take some time to restart production. Despite being committed to work hard to minimize negative consequences for customers and suppliers, the Norske Skog group has issued a notice of force majeure based on the severity of the situation.
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Pressmart announces support for Apple iPad
As soon as consumers lay their hands on Apple’s game-changing ‘iPad’, they are going to be hungry for content. And, the news industry is itching to fulfill this hunger while it waits for its own ‘iPod’ moment that changed the music industry forever. Hyderabad-based Pressmart, one of the leading print-to-online content publishing service providers, announced its support for the Apple iPad. Publishers will now be able to use Pressmart’s Software-as-a-Service platform to convert and distribute their print publications in an iPad ready format and custom branded apps. It opens up publishers to the massive content appetite that iPad will offer.
“With the iPad’s larger screen, the mobile consumption of news and general content through websites and apps is expected to surge heavily. iPad is made primarily for content consumption and publishers do not want to loose out on this opportunity. Those who do not have a rich, community-driven website or a mobile app can now use Pressmart to create one, and as a hosted, on-demand offering,” commented Sanjiv Gupta, founder and CEO of Pressmart.
Publishers from over fifty countries use Pressmart service to deliver content to their subscribers in same-as-print online editions, Web2.0 interactive community-ready websites, custom-branded mobile apps and e-readers. Pressmart already supports all major e-reader devices like Kindle, Sony and Nook.
Transcontinental opts NELA plate
automation system for three print facilities
Being the plate automation partner for Transcontinental Printing and their Globe and Mail project, NELA will supply vision punch/bending, plate handling and plate sortation automation for all three print locations, Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto. The systems will be fully integrated into the prepress work flow and KBA Commander CT press, and each system will automatically process plates for the newspaper and commercial plate production.
The Toronto location will receive two NELA – two-stage vision/trim/punch benders. These optical punch benders will first vision shear the plates and then punch and bend according to press specifications. The plates will then be stacked according to production schedule in either one of the eight plate stackers or in one of the sixteen removable plate carts. The plate carts can then be detached from the system and rolled to press for easy unloading of plates. The printing location in Calgary will receive two NELA – single stage vision/trim/punch benders and a plate conveying system to connect the two large format CtPs with the two benders for a fully automatic plate handling system. The system also includes two inline plate shears, eight plate stackers and fourteen removable plate carts of various sizes. While in Vancouver, the plates for the KBA Commander CT will be punched and bent by two NELA – single stage vision/trim/punch benders. The plate conveying lines that connect the CtP & processors with the two NELA benders are controlled by barcode and the NELA page tracking software.
All three systems use 2D-barcode for plate sortation and plate tracking. Plates are sorted according to customer specifications.
Transcontinental’s press application requires a very precise accuracy on the bent printing plate. The NELA vision system meets this high degree of precision and consistency due to the optical registration of the plate. Conventional ‘three point’ register benders are not able to meet these rigid dimensional requirements on a consistent basis due to plate irregularities. “We are very proud to be the vendor of choice for Transcontinental for this press project,” says Jürgen Gruber, director of sales at NELA. “It showcases our capabilities that go beyond just punching and bending plates. This project is a state-of-the-art plate handling and automation system similar to those that we have installed in many major printing facilities around the world.”
Adobe InDesign celebrates
a decade of publishing innovation
As publishing evolves, Adobe continues to lead the industry, revolutionising how creative professionals design and produce publications. Launched in late 1999 and created as a successor to Adobe Pagemaker software, Adobe InDesign transformed the publishing industry with its unrivalled technology and features.
Entering its second decade, InDesign is poised to change the publishing industry again, allowing designers and production professionals to deliver page layouts beyond traditional print to online media and mobile devices, including eBook readers, smart phones and a new generation of tablet devices due later this year. Adobe has changed the course of desktop publishing with InDesign, giving creative professionals the freedom to create what once seemed impossible and to extend delivery of engaging documents to more than one channel.
To celebrate its tenth anniversary, Adobe has released a commemorative book titled “Page by Page: 10 Years of Designing with Adobe InDesign” that highlights the product’s evolution and features designers who have helped make InDesign a success.
Paid News!
Along with widespread debate within media, political parties come forward against the ‘paid news’ which generally offered as a package by media persons. They called election commission office to take these malpractices seriously and opt for appropriate actions.
In a recently held seminar on ‘paid news’ organized by the Indian Women’s Press Corps, the Editors Guild of India, the Press Association and the Broadcast Editors Association, Prakash Karat, general secretary, CPI (M) came up with the suggestion to amend the Representation of the People Act so that the election commission can take action against these malpractices. And Sushma Swaraj, leader of opposition at Lok Sabha said that the matter would be pushed to be considered in Lok Sabha.
A delegation from the Editors Guild of India, led by guild president Rajdeep Sardesai, had submitted a memorandum to the commission expressing the guild’s grave concern over the ‘paid news’ phenomenon just after the recent general election in Maharashtra. It was said that this dangerous trend threatened the foundations of journalism by eroding public faith in the credibility and impartiality of news reporting. It also vitiated the poll process and prevented a fair election, since richer candidates who could pay for their publicity had a clear advantage.
TOI group acquires stake
in Nimbus Communication
Nimbus Communications Ltd signed an agreement with India’s largest newspaper The Times of India group under which the newspaper will acquire a small ownership stake in the Nimbus and its associate company, Neo Sports. Already having a multi-event deal with Asian Tour Golf, and Neo Cricket, Nimbus will utilise the Times group’s various media vehicles to advertise and market these events. The Times of India group vehicles catering to premium Indian audiences, also offer a platform for events like the US PGA Tour Golf, Bundesliga and Seria A football and other such premium properties that are broadcast by Neo Sports.
“For us, this is a unique investment in the media sector with that we can contribute strongly to Nimbus and Neo Sports growth through our leadership position and strong reach across media platforms in multiple markets,” commented Ravi Dhariwal, CEO, Times group.
Increasing efficiency on
search engine optimisation for news websites
The WAN-IFRA training programme on ‘search engine optimisation for news websites’ organised in Mumbai from March 04-05 provided the participants practical and in-depth information on how to get their website into search engine result pages, and included in Google News, apart from building the perfect page layout for optimal story indexation.
Led by David Radicke, the two day training was attended by participants from newspapers from India and Sri Lanka. Radicke is an SEO expert for news websites and his clients include publishers like Forbes Russia, Axel Springer AG of Germany, and Nachrichten of Austria and VDZ (German association for newspaper and magazines). Radicke is also a top contributor at the US-Google News Help Forum.
According to Radicke, ‘content is the king’ and all news websites should ensure that it’s not hidden. Technology helps a lot to deliver the valuable content to the consumer. Today, ‘search engines’ are the digital newspaper stands and, according to Radicke, there is potential for optimisation on every news website.
Ranking, keywords, good search engines, traffic patterns, links, search engine crawlers, and writing for search engines were important topics discussed in detail.
A big year for innovations at manroland
With 251 published patent applications in 2009, manroland is number one in the printing industry once again (after 2006 and 2007) and thus the industry’s most successful innovator. This is renewed confirmation that manroland has a finger on the pulse of time and identifies customer needs before others do.
The impressive 251 new patent applications from the press manufacturer were published by the German Patent and Trade Mark Office in 2009. This put manroland in 21st place among the fifty most active patent applicants in Germany.
The technology of the autoprint series is an outstanding example of manroland’s innovative power. These modules along the way to fully-automated print production are covered by numerous and comprehensive applications for intellectual property rights. Besides increasing the degree of automation through mechatronical solutions, developments last year focused on a dramatic boost in efficiency by the use of microsystem technology for intelligent components or innovative functional materials. Through radically new security features, manroland provides highly effective protection against forgeries. Furthermore, new applications with integrated inkjet technologies were developed that work up to the maximum production speed of webfed printing systems.
INM offloads 7.8 percent
holding in Jagran Prakashan
UK based media house Independent News & Media (INM) has sold 23.5 million ordinary shares in Jagran Prakashan Limited (JPL) recently. The sale represents approximately 7.8 percent of the issued share capital of JPL and reduces INM’s holding in JPL to 5.7 percent (previously 13.5 percent).
The release from INM declares that the proceeds from this share sale are approximately €42 million to pay down their bank debt. Having originally invested €28.5 million to acquire its stake in 2005, following this share sale, INM’s holding in JPL remains worth €33 million at the current market price.
The Company continues to hold its remaining (5.7 percent) shares in JPL who has a leading market position in the fast-growing Indian newspaper market, publishing Dainik Jagran, India’s one of the largest read Hindi daily newspapers with a total readership of 54.58 million readers (source: IRS 2009 R2).
GMG introduces NewsProof 76 for newspapers
Germany-based GMG, a developer and supplier of high-end colour management and proofing solutions, recently announced the launch of NewsProof 76, a 76 gsm coated inkjet proof media replacing NewsPaper 57 and NewsPaper 80. Having the white point of typical newspapers and a matte coating, for the production of high quality contract proofs, the new media corresponds to standard newsprint so the user can get the visual impression of a newspaper. With the introduction of NewsProof 76, repro and prepress houses as well as ad agencies and printing companies involved in newspaper production, get quality media which significantly exceeds other papers.
The characteristics of the new GMG NewsProof 76 include: the weight of 76 gsm similar to many current newspaper media; the white point of the paper defined in such a way that typical newsprints can be simulated by a proof; the corresponding tolerances are tighter compared to those of other current newspaper proofing media.
Ferag increases commitment in Brazil
WRH Marketing AG, an associate company of Ferag AG, is on track with its global programme. It has been represented in Brazil by its own branch office since the autumn of 2009.
Experiencing dynamic growth, Brazil’s economy is now one of the ten largest economics in the world. In the wake of the upswing, there has been a rise both in demands from the marketplace and the complexity of the projects. In this connection, WRH Marketing do Brasil with its headquarters in São Paulo is creating the necessary customer proximity and facilitating highest possible level of customer care. Associating Massimo Indingaro as CEO, the company has been able to attract an expert in the Brazilian printing industry. He and his team can respond optimally to customer expectations while developing individual solutions for newspaper and commercial printing houses. WRH Marketing do Brasil also covers the entire Latin-American market.
The rapid economic growth has been marking rise in the cost of salaries in Brazil, and which is why the Brazilian newspaper industry is focusing on automation. This is precisely where Ferag comes in, with its open technology giving the Latin-American printing industry the chance to realize the potential for streamlining and boost its competitiveness. With this, WRH Marketing maintains an integrated approach and, working alongside its customers, always strives to create added value. With the EasySert inserting solution, Ferag is underlining its ability to cover a very broad spectrum of services. However, the product portfolio is not restricted to postpress solutions, and covers the prepress and press sectors as well. Step-by-step, WRH Marketing do Brasil will also be establishing the ValuePlus maintenance and services concept on the Latin-American market.
Decentralisation, a perfect formula for success
Continuing to decentralize production, Kasturi & Sons Ltd has recently equipped
their printing centre in Coimbatore with mailroom technology from Ferag.
The publishing flagship of Kasturi & Sons is The Hindu, a daily newspaper. With a circulation of 1.45 million copies, this is the third-largest English-language newspaper in India. The Hindu is now produced at thirteen locations on a total of fifteen presses. As the circulation grew, the publisher pushed on with the decentralisation programme.
The latest production centre located in Coimbatore began operating in January 2010. “We want to strengthen our position in the market place and are expanding both the circulation and the advertising options. State-of-the-art production and a high level of automation are basic prerequisites here,” stresses K Balaji, director of Kasturi & Sons.
When it comes to production automation, the mailroom has an extremely important role to play. Very useful experience has already been gained in this area: for example, working together with Ferag, the Bangalore facility has taken automation in the mailroom to a new level. In Coimbatore, products are taken off the newspaper press by two UTR Universal conveyors, which feed the daily newspapers in 2:1 mode to one MultiStack stacker each. The line control system, Ferag’s LineMaster handles programmed bundling and topsheet printing. The individual bundles are then foil-wrapped for evacuation and stabilized in the SmartStrap strapping machine. In this configuration, the bundles are sure to reach their destinations in good and original shape.
BEIL strengthens its position, acquiring Berth
BEIL Registersysteme - offering the broadest range of products for printing plate punches and benders for sheet and roll offset printers, security and legend printing - has retroactively taken over Berth Maschinenbau, a leading manufacturer of printing plate processing machines for job and newspaper printing. With this acquisition, BEIL will become an all-round printing plate punch and bender supplier for all print segments.
The current managing partner of Berth Maschinenbau, Christoph Thielmann, will take the lead over BEIL Group’s complete design engineering in Abensberg. In addition to managing the continued development of printing plate processing machines, Christoph Thielmann’s principal focus will be on the development of an innovative printing plate handling and transport system. In this particular field, BEIL has been Koenig & Bauer’s official technology partner since the end of last year. An additional task for the new engineering director and his team will be customer-specific special solutions. “With this take-over, BEIL is in the position to offer all the automated printing plate processing levels from a single source. We are delighted that the key employees of Berth, and therefore also their expert know-how, will stay with the company,” commented Günter Beil and Stefan Kreitczick, managing directors of BEIL Registersysteme.
Both Germany-based companies have worked together closely over many years. Since the beginning of 2008, BEIL was responsible for the worldwide sales for Berth products. Also from a technical point of view, the companies joined forces on a number of development projects. Despite the challenging market, last year BEIL Group succeeded in selling several fully automated printing plate processing installations on both national and international markets, and for this year, a number of projects are already in the pipeline. In line with its global sales and marketing activities, BEIL will be present at the IPEX in Birmingham (hall 6, stand D559).
The Times and The Sunday Times
adopt online subscription models
Following the footprint of online subscription models of The Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal, News International, the parent company of The Times and The Sunday Times, also confirmed recently that they will start charging for their websites from June this year.
For the subscription the readers will be offered a day’s use for £1, or £2 for a week’s subscription. Readers who have a seven-day subscription to the print editions will not be charged extra for access to the websites. International pricing has been set at $2/€1.5 a day or $4/€3 for a week. The two titles will launch new websites in early May, separating their digital presence for the first time and replacing the existing site. There will be a free trial period and payment will allow access to both thetimes.co.uk and thesundaytimes.co.uk
Old newspapers bring money
to West Bengal Government
The initiative to sell out old newspapers from various departments is one of the measures taken by the Government of West Bengal recouping money to combat the fiscal deficit of the state. With directions to cut the reimbursement, the government offices are recovering the cost of old newspapers which any way is sold to kabariwalas.
The 42nd IAA World Congress
The 42nd IAA World Congress (International Advertising Association’s World Congress) - the two yearly who’s who of the international marketing and communications world gathering is poised to take place during May 12-14, 2010 at the State Palace Congress Center, Moscow under the patronage of city of Moscow government and the Russian Federation. Virtually after experiencing the pressure of economic uncertainty coupled with dynamic and unprecedented change in the industry of every global market, the IAA has designed it to bring the best minds in the industry to help and navigate the change taking place in the industry.
Under the theme ‘Change: Consequences’, the congress will take on a journey of remarkable global insights, news and knowledge. With its mix of thirty international speakers from seventy countries, content and case-histories and rapidly changing landscape of communicating with their customers, the key session themes will include: consumer marketing challenges; the digital influence on consumer behaviour; how do key advertisers see the new world; the rise of challenger brands; the reaction of challenged categories; key trends in media and consequences for TV, print and OOH - in developed vs. emerging markets; new advertising models and their implications; improving creative effectiveness.
Confirmed speakers also include big wings of corporate world like: Rich Riley - senior vice president, Yahoo!; Michael Mendenhall - senior vice president and chief marketing officer, Hewlett-Packard; Marc Pritchard - global brand building and marketing officer, Procter & Gamble; and Darren Huston - corporate vice president, Consumer and Online Business, Microsoft.
The Asahi Shimbun opts
Mitsubishi DIAMONDSPIRIT
Japan’s second largest newspaper, with a daily circulation of more than eight million copies, The Asahi Shimbun recently ordered three Mitsubishi DIAMONDSPIRIT offset presses. These high-speed 4 x 1 presses rated at 80,000 cph are slated to replace existing 18-year-old equipment at their Funabashi plant handling production requirements for the eastern part of greater Tokyo metropolitan. Each press will be configured with two 4/4 tower printing units, three 2/1 tower printing units, one 2:2 double rotary folder and five reelstands.
This marks the fourth order of DIAMONDSPIRIT presses received in Japan since 2008, following orders previously placed by Nikkan Sports Printing, Shin-Nihonkai Shimbun and Sendai High Speed Offset.
In Japan, the 4 x 2 newspaper press has long been the industry standard, with more than four hundred such presses in operation today. However, the press is rapidly gaining in popularity, primarily due to cost savings realised by halving plate consumption without compromising pagination or Japan’s standardized size (406.5mm x 546mm cutoff) format. Also contributing to the growing acceptance of this press is the fact that Japanese newspaper productions do not involve collect runs. Moreover, configurations available for the Mitsubishi DIAMONDSPIRIT 4 x 1 press enable it to meet demands for more colour while boosting production efficiency and reliability. For these reasons and after thoroughly evaluating the reduced paper waste achieved by Mitsubishi’s precise dual web tension control and the high-reliability results of presses in operation at Nikkan Sports Printing and Shin-Nihonkai Shimbun, The Asahi Shimbun opted for Mitsubishi DIAMONDSPIRIT presses.
When forecasting the future of Japan’s newspaper industry, ‘competition and cooperation’ are the keywords, evidenced in the recently announced partnership formed by The Asahi Shimbun, Nihon Keizai Shimbun and The Yomiuri Shimbun. This venture, known as 'ANY', goes beyond joint internet business to encompass the sharing of newspaper printing and distribution channels, while competing in news and editorial selections. The newly upgraded Funabashi Plant will be one of the first printing centers where The Asahi Shimbun’s presses are used to produce its rival – The Yomiuri Shimbun.
Currently, a total of eight DIAMONDSPIRIT presses (three in Japan and five in India) are already in commercial operation and six more are awaiting assembly at Mitsubishi’s factory.
More claims of patent infringement
QuadTech, the worldwide leader and innovator of press control technology, recently asked the US district court in Philadelphia to expand its patent infringement action against QI Press Controls (QIPC) to assert infringement against two additional QIPC products: its Intelligent Register System (IRS) and Intelligent Density System (IDS).
The US action was started by QuadTech in June 2009, alleging that QIPC’s mRC register control system infringes on US Patent 5,412,577. Now, QuadTech moved to amend its complaint to assert that QIPC’s Intelligent Register System and Intelligent Density System also infringe the same QuadTech patent. The founders and owners of QIPC are former QuadTech employees. “Through the process of our ongoing litigation against QI Press Controls, it became clear to us that they are infringing on QuadTech’s technology with not only their mRC system, but their IRS and IDS products as well,” stated Karl Fritchen, president, QuadTech, adding, “We invest a lot of time, money and other resources in developing and enhancing our best-in-class technologies and will continue to protect our intellectual property to the highest extent possible.” QuadTech recently succeeded in preventing QI Press Controls from infringing a related patent in Germany. There, the Court has prevented QI Press Controls from marketing or otherwise selling its mRC system (also known as markless Register Control) in Germany. QI Press controls had accepted this judgment by the German court.
EasySert online for the first time
At Canadian newspaper house London Free Press, online connection of two EasySert inserting lines has been realised for the first time. The two inserting lines, each with twenty hoppers, will be used by the company to handle the increasing volume of supplements and tap into new market segments.
Founded in 1847, the London Free Press now belongs to the Sun Media Corporation. In addition to the daily newspaper with an average circulation of 115,000 copies, thirty weekly newspapers and advertising freesheets are also produced in the printing centre on London’s York Street. The positive experience made with Ferag mailroom technology within the Sun Media Corporation was also pivotal to the decision to install two EasySert inserting lines in London for the 20-in-1 inserting process. The two inserting lines are integrated into two existing UTR conveyor systems.
The London Free Press offers its customers zone sizes from fifty copies upwards. To operate the EasySert inserting lines under these conditions without an appreciable fall-off in performance required further optimisation of the LineMaster line control by Ferag technicians.
ING conference 2010 to be held
in Chicago during Graph Expo
For providing ideal complement to debut of news print pavilion at Graph Expo, the International Newspaper Group (ING) has announced its 2010 conference to be held in Chicago. In conjunction with Graph Expo 2010, ING’s conference is slated to kick off on October 2, 2010, the day before the opening of Graph Expo.
ING, a non-profit organization composed of newspaper production managers, executives and industry suppliers, will hold a day-and-a-half long conference to exchange information on the latest business challenges and technology impacting the newspaper production process. It cited Graph Expo’s addition of the brand-new News Print Pavilion, as well as its education and networking focus, as a valuable accompaniment to its conference. ING’s decision to hold its annual conference in conjunction with Graph Expo is part of a strategic relationship between ING and the Graphic Arts Show Company. “That a leading industry group such as ING has decided to hold its annual conference in conjunction with Graph Expo is a testament to the commitment that Graph Expo has demonstrated toward the newspaper production industry,” said Ralph Nappi, president of the Graphic Arts Show Company (GASC), adding, “The ING conference is a perfect complement to the debut of the News Print pavilion at Graph Expo. This relationship will help us build a particularly strong programme and robust show floor for the many newspaper industry professionals who regularly attend Graph Expo.”
Recognized as the commercial printing, publishing, mailing and transactional exposition for the Americas, the event themed as ‘The next generation of print’ has been designed to offer a customized show-going experience for a diverse spectrum of attendees from eleven key market segments.
ppi Media presents new developments
In the quest for new products and ways of increasing automation and reducing costs in newspaper production, visitors flocked to ppi Media’s stand at America East from March 15-17, 2010 in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
For new advertising opportunities, ppi Media, a subsidiary of manroland AG, has developed AdX a multimedia ad solution for reserving ad space. Initially developed for print ads, it now also covers the reservation of online and mobile ad space. For many years, the company has implemented interfaces to ad order entry systems in its print solutions and enhanced them in conjunction with their respective partners. In contrast to many other software products for cross-media ad reservation, AdX can be easily integrated in existing production processes, and also offers an interface to the ad server.
At America East, ppi Media presented a number of new products and services, including the development of customized smartphone apps for publishers’ B2C business and standard apps for ppi software such as AdX. “The Digital Asset Management System DC-X, now part of a wider product range offered by ppi Media US, attracted considerable interest at the trade fair,” stated Markus Feldenkirchen, CEO of ppi Media US Inc. Another new service comprises a two-stage performance analysis for optimizing the IT infrastructure in publishing houses. Based on the evaluation of comprehensive software and hardware analysis, ppi Media draws up a recommendation that will help publishing companies to plan their future hardware requirements and increased performance.
First 96-page press Goss Sunday in
Germany to be installed at Stark Druck
A longstanding innovator in high-pagination web offset technology, Stark Druck will be the first printing company in Germany to embrace the 96-page format when it installs a new Goss Sunday 5000 press system later this year at its facility in Pforzheim.
Equipped with a Contiweb FD paster, Ecocool dryer and the Web Center automated control and workflow system, the four-unit gapless blanket press at Stark Druck will feature a 2860 mm (112 inch) web width, Goss Autoplate automatic plate changing and DigiRail digital inking technologies and a PCF-3 pinless gripper folder. The order includes an option to add a second similarly equipped 96-page Sunday press.
“Several suppliers and printers already offer 80-page platforms, so we chose the 96-page format to differentiate ourselves and to offer our customers unique advantages,” commented Tino Heer, sales director at Stark Druck, adding that the ability to increase per-impression productivity while maintaining product versatility, high print quality and job-change agility creates significant efficiency and cost benefits. “Observing and actually testing the performance of the Sunday 5000 press ourselves convinced us that this was the right choice, as did our experience with our recently installed Sunday presses,” he explained further, “Print quality advantages of the DigiRail digital inker, and a shorter cut-off, made possible by the gapless blankets, were also important factors.” Before finalizing the new order, Stark Druck tested one of its own magazine jobs utilizing the full web width on the first Sunday 5000 press, which was installed in Italy last year.
Goss International installed short-grain, 48-page Sunday 4000 presses at Stark Druck in 2006 and 2008 to create a versatile duplexed system. Heer noted that the Goss SG 3 folder on that system produces 96-page stitched signatures, giving the company confidence in the gripper folder technology for the new press. Stark Druck used the Sunday 4000 presses to produce a travel catalogue that earned the company top honours in that category.
“The latest investment by an innovative industry leader like Stark Druck further validates the Sunday 5000 technology and the differentiating business opportunities it can create,” explained Bert Schoonderbeek, senior vice president Commercial for Goss International, “We are proud of the success we achieved together with Stark Druck with the Sunday 4000 presses and we are grateful for this chance to collaborate on another innovative high-pagination press project.”
Goss International introduced the 96-page Sunday 5000 model in 2007. The first press has been in production in Italy since last July. The second press will go into production this spring in Spain.
