All About Newspapers

India excels at
INMA World Congress in New York

Representing the world’s best newspaper marketing campaigns from the previous year, winners in INMA Awards 2010 competition were recently announced at the eightieth annual INMA World Congress in New York, where India shined again as for the first time, the top two winners in the competition came from the same Indian company: Bennett, Coleman & Company Ltd, including The Economic Times and The Times of India, who were first and second place recipients of the ‘Best of Show’ award respectively. While other winners from India in different categories include: Dainik Bhaskar, Dainik Jagran, Hindustan Times and Mid Day Infomedia Ltd.

Jagran Prakashan Limited (JPL) - a leading media house of India publishing Dainik Jagran, India’s largest read daily with a total readership of 54.2 million readers (IRS 2010 Q1) - is all set to acquire print business of Mid-Day Multimedia Limited, comprising Mid-Day (published from Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and Delhi), Sunday Mid-Day, Gujrati Mid-Day and the Inquilab -the largest read Urdu newspaper in the country and all publications related internet properties.

One of the world’s leading investment and advisory firms, New York based The Blackstone Group recently announced to invest Rs 225 crore in Jagran Media Network Private Limited (JMNPL) which would hold majority share of Jagran Prakashan Limited (JPL), India’s leading media and communications group with their flagship brand, Dainik Jagran, being the most widely read newspaper in the world with a total readership of 54.6 million. JMNPL also filed for necessary approvals for the investment with the Foreign Investment Provision Board (FIPB).

One of India’s foremost media companies, and home to three leading newspapers including Hindustan Times (English daily), Hindustan (Hindi daily, through a subsidiary) and Mint (English business daily), HT Media Limited has registered significant growth during the financial year 2009-10, with continuing impact of various cost optimisation measures, lower cost of newsprint and increasing return on new avenues, despite economic meltdown affecting the industry adversely. The company’s operational and financial performance during this period highlighted that they succeeded in maintaining their track record of strong readership growth while increasing revenues remarkably. Ajeet Singh, asst editor, AAN briefs.

“When we took ROI, production reliability and uniform print quality all into account, we found that the highly automated, state-of-the-art 4 x 1 double width press was the perfect match for medium sized printing plants like our Coimbatore facility,” commented Kasturi Balaji, managing director of Kasturi & Sons Ltd.

Vision registration system upgrade

While looking for ways to improve their colour registration, many newspapers consider Vision registration upgrade kits from Glunz & Jensen versus taking on the budget justification of new punch/benders. Recently, Turkuvaz Matabaacilik Yayincilik of Istanbul, Turkey ordered four Vision Registration upgrade kits to extend the life of four of their fifteen year old Vision in-line punch bender model 1’s (VIPB-1’s). The Star Publications of Petaling, Jaya Malaysia purchased three digital Vision registration kits for their Universal punch benders (UPB) to extend their lives and improve their colour registration.

“So far around 150 CtP systems from Krause are operational in India, and we target to add 40-50 more number during this year. To ensure better after sales service, we are also initiating ‘night service support’ available at a phone call or through internet, with pilot setup in New Delhi,” divulges Deepak Nargis, newly appointed managing director, Krause Biagosch India Pvt Ltd.

Hill Station's newspapers

Newspapers have always had a place of pride in the hill station. It is a tradition we owe to John MacKinnon, who started off the race with the publication of The Hills in 1842, but soon it died out, only to be resurrected in 1865 and perish once again. The Mussoorie Exchange Advertiser was exactly what the name suggests, just a broadsheet advertising of all sorts of establishments and their wares. A look at those advertisements reveal a lot about what was really happening in the early days of life in Mussoorie. Of course, a student of history will notice that for the first time, the old ‘Masuri’ was transforming into the modern ‘Mussoorie’.

For realizing the astounding quality of the products, the finishing solutions play vital role. Ferag Verfahrenstechnik GmbH (located in Leipzig, Germany), a centre of excellence owned by Swiss-based Ferag AG, is effectively contributing to the industry by developing and building innovative solutions for postpress processing magazines and newspapers. Using creatively, these solutions are characterized by high efficiency and high added value for the customer.

Ensuring quality and accuracy

The trend in newspaper printing for better control over colour is being fueled by a need to diversify. Semi-commercial products, hybrid heatset/coldset newspapers and publications geared to attract advertisers - such as lifestyle supplements - are now commonplace. To help newspaper printers penetrate into high-quality colour advertising markets, opening new revenue streams while reducing manpower costs and waste with added capabilities, QuadTech has responded with the colour control system with AccuCam.

Sparking new wave of optimism, Ipex 2010 (May 18-25) in the city of Birmingham, UK concluded reasonably well, with strong international turnout and business deals. With over 1,000 exhibiting companies from forty countries, the show provided a spectacular showcase of the best in printing equipment, workflow and consumables, while witnessing remarkable developments in the newspaper industry. Digital newspaper solutions such as from HP, Kodak, Oce and Xerox were the star attractions amid cutting-edge options within newspaper production segments presented by major players from newspaper industry including Baldwin, Bottcher, Ferag, Glunz & Jensen, Goss International, KBA, KK Printing Machines (India), Kodak, manroland, Mitsubishi, Muller Martini, NBG, The Printers House, Tolerans etc. At the event’s mid-point, the announcement of fully acquisition of Goss International by Shanghai Electric Group Corporation marked another indelible sign upon the industry. Professor Frank Romano, international analyst and Ipex ‘Champion in Print’ summed up the mood of exhibitors and visitors, saying, “Ipex 2010 has demonstrated that the printing industry is back in business”.

Now that the iPad hysteria has settled down, it’s been replaced by a new onslaught of questions concerning Adobe’s latest rendition of Creative Suite, CS5. “Should I upgrade?” has been the query of choice in my email over the past few weeks and now we lay aside our anxiety and take a look at the application of most interest to newspapers, InDesign CS5. Let’s not waste time.

New release from WoodWing

Renowned for its innovative cross-media publishing solutions, WoodWing Software announced the release of Content Station 7.1. To support an efficient cross-media publishing process, this new release includes support for the Digital Magazine Tools for iPad, allows third-party developers to create plug-ins for Content Station, and contains many other new features and improvements. It offers publishers the tools required to effectively serve their readers and advertisers, reduce costs, improve efficiency, and publish to tablet devices like the iPad.

World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) has called off the World Newspaper Congress and postponed the World Editors Forum, planned for Beirut from June 07-10 this year. “It is with immense disappointment that we are forced to call off our events in Beirut, but it was simply impossible to go ahead without the commitment of our Lebanese colleagues, who were responsible for security and other significant infrastructural and service expenses,” said Gavin O’Reilly, president of WAN-IFRA, adding, “We deeply regret that we cannot bring these events to Lebanon, particularly as this will cause immense inconvenience for our members, which is not feasible without a local partner.”

With increasing proximity of the eco-friendly movements, green strategies are quickly becoming important parts of publishers’ plans. A new report, published by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) examining the environmental implications of ‘green’ strategies for newspaper companies, says that change doesn’t have to be overwhelming, and shows how many publishers start small and grow. The first steps - such as increasing recycling and cutting wasted electricity - can grow to encompass how resources are managed in the newsroom, the printing plant and beyond.

Launched in Berlin by InterTi GmbH, niiu, said to be the world’s first customised daily newspaper, is performing well with Quark dynamic publishing technology, setting a trend for media companies.

WAN-IFRA has announced that 109 newspapers in 43 countries have been awarded membership in the International Newspaper Color Quality Club (INCQC) for 2010 through 2012, the prestigious award for newspaper print quality world-wide. Among these winners of global print honours, fourteen newspapers are from India including: Anandabazar Patrika, Dainik Bhaskar, Dainik Jagran, Deccan Herald, Divya Bhaskar, DNA, Hindustan, Hindustan Times, Malayala Manorama, Mid Day, Mint, The Hindu, The Telegraph, and The Times of India. While in INCQC 2008–2010, four dailies including DNA, Hindustan, Hindustan Times, and Maharashtra Herald could make India proud getting the membership in the club of world’s top fifty newspapers.

To effectively cater Indian print market, one of the globally leading systems suppliers of equipment for the printing industry, technotrans AG has entered into a strategic cooperation with Shree Refrigerations (P) Ltd, the Indian manufacturer of refrigeration system.

In addition to its nine NewsLiners, the Axel Springer printing house in Berlin-Spandau is commissioning two further ProLiner newspaper inserting systems with CoLiner pre-gathering units from Muller Martini. Apart from the nine daily and five Sunday newspapers that are printed on a total of nine NewsLiner inserting machines from Muller Martini with a maximum of six feeders, Axel Springer will in future also be printing its weekly papers for the Berlin area to improve the daily utilization of the company-owned equipment.