All About Newspapers

The twentieth annual event of WAN-IFRA in the sub-continent, WAN-IFRA India 2012 is all set to be held in Pune during September 26-27, featuring three parallel conferences ? Newsroom Summit, Printing Summit and Crossmedia Advertising Summit. While an interesting line-up of speakers from India and abroad shall be deliberating various relevant topics including, managing newsrooms in the social media era, opportunities from multiple platforms, the power of print, achieving operational excellence, green publishing, etc, some of the newspaper technology venders like 4Cplus, CCI, Fujifilm, Goss International, manroland web systems, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Printing & Packaging Machinery Ltd (MHI-P&PM), OneVision, //wifag, etc would also be marking their effective presence, leveraging advantage of the event in identifying more business potentials along with promoting their machines and solutions. In an interaction with All About Newspapers, four such venders - 4Cplus, CCI, Goss, manroland web systems, and //wifag - shared what they have in mind. Excerpts.

What will be your expectations from WAN-IFRA India 2012?

4Cplus: We expect to learn about the trends and future expectations from thought leaders in the publishing industry who will be speakers at the conference. We also look forward to meeting old friends and making new ones, it is a great platform to network with industry people.

CCI: For CCI WAN-IFRA India has been a good place to present our solutions and meet relevant people from the industry. We expect that this year's WAN-IFRA India will be as successful as in the past years. Especially in the area of digital publishing, practically all media houses are exploring new ideas and monetization possibilities ? this is a very exciting time for CCI since our solutions are focused on just this.

Goss: To meet as many customers as possible and walk away with new enquiries for presses.

manroland: WAN IFRA India conference is a great platform for the Indian newspaper industry to discuss new initiatives and ideas. We are looking forward to meet the industry and our customers to understand new trends and developments in the Indian newspaper industry.

//wifag: At this conference key people of leading companies in the media and printing industry will come together to network and discuss subjects of current interest. It will be a lieu of sharing and learning in view to address current and future business challenges.

Having major presence in WAN-IFRA India 2012, what shall be highlights of your presentations at this event?

4Cplus: We have supported and been a part of WAN-IFRA India for many years. This year also we are sponsoring the internet kiosk and will also have an information tabletop. Visitors can drop by at our booth to have a look at MediaEagle MIS dashboards for the decision makers in media and to get an update of our latest offerings in the areas of newsroom automation, advertisement management, circulation and tablet publishing.

Goss: We will show the complete range of products but focus on the newly released products that suit the Indian market.

manroland: manroland web systems will focus in a major way on our youngest product ? CROMOMAN 4-1, the double width single circumference press with a revolutionary floor mounted design. The press has been designed to reduce capital expenditure on building and air conditioning costs, designed to run on Indian newsprint and is equipped with built in tolerance for voltage and frequency fluctuations under variable power supply conditions. The press can fit into existing pressrooms with its low height and width requirements and can be upgraded to heatset, UV and Quarter folding options for various applications. As part of the official plant tour of the WAN IFRA India Conference, we are delighted to invite our customers to the live demonstration of the first CROMOMAN 4-1 press installed in India at The Times of India plant in Pune on September 27, 2012 after the closing session of the conference.

//wifag: The subject of the presentation is how much automation is needed to achieve operational excellence. The opportunity and platform is given for //wifag to make a brief presentation of our new range of economical and competitive presses for the Indian and other growing markets.

Would you brief about your new products being/to be offered in India?

4Cplus: We are now providing our enterprise solutions over tablets making it easy for publications to make their staff mobile. For the senior management, we have developed MediaEagle which is a management information system with dashboards to provide key decision making data to the top management in today?s tough environment. Our circulation system with cutting edge technology that includes GIS and real time logistics MIS has been received very well from abroad, we hope our Indian customers will also be able to benefit from it.

CCI: Our main products are CCI NewsGate and CCI AdDesk. CCI NewsGate is our cross media editorial solution. One of the latest developments inside NewsGate is the CCI PageDirector, allowing a highly automated template driven production for print and digital media. With CCI AdDesk Sales, which is our crossmedia ad booking system, we now offer also commercial advertising solutions in India including functionality for cross media ad booking and self service portals.

Goss: The new products are the Universal XL (4x1 rated for 70k) and Magnum HPS (2x1 rated for 70k). manroland: We have recently launched our latest product CROMOMAN 4-1 in the Indian market, with the first installation in the world at The Times of India, Pune. The press is designed with proven manroland components for printing speeds up to 75,000 copies per hour offering various production options such as web width variability and quarter folds.

//wifag: Over the last months, we have been examining the needs and requirements in the different markets. We had interesting and engaged discussions with industry stakeholders. An inventory of our product offering was established and the gaps with expressed market expectations identified. A new focus was defined and based on the research, a new //wifag line of press products will be launched in the next weeks. It is our firm belief that the new competitive printing solutions will fit perfectly into the Indian market and will meet all requirements of Indian publishers and printers.

What are your specific plans for Indian market? Would you offer affordable solutions for small newspapers in India, while as of now only large size newspaper establishments are being catered to?

4Cplus: We have started offering our enterprise solutions on a software as a service (SaaS) basis to growing newspapers and startup newspapers. In foreign markets the small newspapers have also liked the idea. By using the SaaS model we have been able to expand the market and the publisher benefits as there is no upfront investment in license cost, infrastructure like hardware, database license or maintenance.

CCI: With the current market development in India, the demand for highly efficient and cross-media publishing systems will grow. We support our customers to implement high efficient production workflows and to implement their cross media strategies. Worldwide our customers are not only the major newspapers. It is more a question of innovation. Our clients include some very small, but highly innovative newspapers with circulations below 1,00,000 and approximately 80 seats.

Goss: We have a complete range of products from the Community press rated for 35k up to the Colorliner and FPS rated for 90k. So we have a product to meet every need.

manroland: As mentioned already, we have developed the CROMOMAN 4-1 specially for the Indian market after several years of market research in the Indian pressrooms. The press has been designed with reduced height and length dimensions to overcome the space constraints in smaller newspaper pressrooms. Therefore the press can fit into existing pressrooms of small newspapers, drastically reducing the capital expenditure on new building expenses. The press can also run without air conditioning and can print on Indian newsprint. Additionally, the press is equipped with built in tolerance for voltage and frequency fluctuations under variable power supply conditions that are quite common in smaller centres in India.

//wifag: India is an important market for //wifag and the WIFAG-Polytype Group. This year we opened a new subsidiary in India. Our aim is to promote the full range of products and services of our Group. Today, the combined resources and experiences of SOLNA and //wifag cover large publishing companies as well as small printing houses. Our new range of products is smart and competitive, with solutions suitable for large, medium and small companies. It is well known that in 2011 //wifag bought the Swedish SOLNA Group and Chinese EKPAC Graphics, Hong Kong. With the acquisition of SOLNA, //wifag enlarged its product portfolio with cost-effective and competitive printing single width presses for the still growing newspaper press market in the emerging markets.

Can you also brief us about your current market share in India/worldwide in your domain?

4Cplus: Our philosophy has been to focus on our work and back our solutions with a high level of service. This has earned us goodwill and word of mouth publicity. We work with close to 100 media companies on the Indian sub continent for enterprise solutions. In India, we have more than 80 percent market share for editorial systems, 65 percent market share in advertisement management and more than 70 percent market share for circulation systems. The share is by newspaper titles, it may be higher if you look at number of users as most of our clients have multiple editions. We also have installations in Middle East, Africa and South East Asia.

CCI: Currently we have two customers in India: The Times of India and The Hindu.

Goss: Our market share in India is relatively small due to the tariff situation on single width presses but worldwide we are a market leader.

manroland: manroland web systems is the world market leader in newspaper and commercial web offset market and every third newspaper in the world is printed on manroland presses. In India, we have an esteemed client list which includes Bennett Coleman, HT Media and Dainik Jagran amongst others.

//wifag: //wifag is a steady force in the market place. SOLNA is, in terms of sold units, clear number two in China for single wide, single or double circumference printing presses. //wifag has a very substantial installed machine base in North America and Europe and is now especially addressing the Indian market to get a fair share of that growing potential.