october Rind 2015 October 2015 SN.pdf · non-subscribers for digital access and that typically the...

A Journal of the Press Institute of India - Research Institute for Newspaper Development

October 2015 | Volume 36 | Issue 10 | Rs 40www.pressinstitute.in

SurveyRIND

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THE YOUNG WILL ALWAYS MAKE A DIFFERENCEWINNERS ALL The WAN-IFRA World Young Reader Prize champions for 2015 ranged from profit-making initiatives through experiments with new digital solutions to teaching about freedom of expression and about professional newsgathering. The winners (pictured above with World Editors Forum President Marcelo Rech; names on page 4) received their awards and talked about their initiatives at the WAN-IFRA India Conference in Mumbai that included a special session on strategies for youth engagement. That might have been just as well. A recent survey in the US showed that newspapers continue to attract younger and younger audiences, even in the 18 to 24 age group. And, as if on cue, the focus this year at WAN-IFRA India was on looking at the way ahead and finding ways to innovate and grow rather than wondering how to get out of a morass of imponderables.

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FROM THE EDITOR

Sashi [email protected]

The findings of the 15th edition of a data-heavy Newspaper of Association of America report (Circulation Facts and Figures) released recently may be interesting to publishers and editors in India. Rick Edmonds, writing for poynter.org (The Poynter Institute), says that among 175 papers responding to a Newspaper Association of America (NAA) Survey, the median ‘bottom-line contribution’ of circulation had risen from 42.6 per cent in 2011 to 56.1 per cent in 2014. He quotes John Murray, NAA’s vice-president of audience development and author of the report saying that the significance of that improvement should not be underestimated. “I think we haven’t told the story very well of how the industry has managed to stay profitable after five to seven years of declining ad revenue,” Murray told Edmonds.

Typically, Murray found the median rate for a one-week seven-day subscription rose from $3.66 in 2008 to $4.50 in 2011 to $5.74 in 2014. That is a 64 per cent increase over the six years. Edmonds mentions that three quarters of the papers now also charge non-subscribers for digital access and that typically the higher-priced print subscription is bundled with digital access. Nearly 60 per cent of ‘paid starts’ in 2014 were for this combination, he writes.

If that’s about the commercial side of running a newspaper, I found encouraging news relating to the editorial side from an article written by Brian Tierney for philly.com (The Inquirer/ Daily News). The skyrocketing audience of newspaper content on all platforms, he writes, is evidence that journalism still touches an important chord in society today. In reality, more Americans read newspaper content today than ever before, he adds. Some 88 per cent of adults - that’s 176 million Americans - consume newspaper media on digital platforms, according to recent comScore research. “And despite popular myths (must be indeed heart-warming for publishers and editors of newspapers), comScore shows that newspapers continue to attract younger and younger audiences: 92 per cent of women and 87 per cent

Newspapers still the most reliable, continue to attract younger audiences

of men ages 25 to 34 read newspaper content, with similar numbers in the 18 to 24 age group.”

It’s easy to see why, Tierney points out. “In a world of information overload, newspaper content remains the reliable shortcut to news that is actually accurate and interesting. Some 59 per cent of Americans trust newspaper content, compared with the 37 per cent who trust information on social media. This trust allows journalists to shine the spotlight on matters that require our attention, wherever they find them. It allows newspapers to carefully cover issues of local importance, from government to sports to the newest restaurant. And it is that trust, earned over years of shining the spotlight on such issues, which allows investigative reporters to be taken seriously and gives newspapers the power to confront corruption - even in law enforcement.”

*********************Magdoom Mohamed, who heads WAN-IFRA

India (South Asia, technically), must be buoyed by the fair amount of success this year’s WAN-IFRA India Conference and Expo have brought. He and his enterprising team comprising V. Antony, Anand Srinivasan, Selva Prabu and Vijayalakshmi clocked 565 registrations for the conference, just short of a record. Over three days, the Expo welcomed more than 750 visitors. This year, taking a slightly different road from the past, the focus at the conference was more on looking forward, charting the way ahead, and finding ways to grow and innovate – more in tune with the times. Magdoom and his team have received many congratulatory letters and emails appreciating the efforts made. There were also voices seeking more Indian case studies. Magdoom says for that to happen WAN-IFRA India’s advertising and marketing efforts alone will not do. All stakeholders must pitch in. And that means publishers, editors and technical heads of vernacular and smaller newspapers must show more interest and take an active part. Can we look forward to that happening next year?

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Cover page photo: Courtesy, WAN-IFRA

On the cusp of a new era, problems galore 6

A ‘unique chance’ for print to remain relevant 8

Now we have to wake up, reinvent our business’ 10

'Our business is to bring credibility’ 12

Programmatic is ‘simple’ – focus on premium 14

Rebooting the news for mobile 18

Potentially a big win for your bottom line 20

Sheet-fed offset machines and tabloids 24

Industry Updates 28

Other News 49

Events Calendar 53

WAN-IFRA World Young Reader Prize champions for 2015 WORLD YOUNG READER NEWS PUBLISHER OF THE YEAR - Kompas Daily (Indonesia)

Other winners: France’s news media for actions after Charlie Hebdo attacks (January 2015), Kids’ News (Denmark) for special edition after Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris (January 2015), Heilbronner Stimme (Germany) for #4dez for an experimental mobile you-are-there World War II experience, Ilta Sanomat (Finland) for Kupla experiment in video news special reports by local young online celebrities, Swedish Public Television (Sweden) for Lila Aktuellt Kollen interaction with youth audience, The News Lens (Taiwan) for the combination of Becoming Aces, Becoming Change and Special Reports initiatives, Press4Kids (USA) for News-O-Matic app for children, South China Morning Post (Hong Kong) for Young Post coverage of Occupy Central movement, Yomiuri Shimbun (Japan) for Chukosei Shimbun special edition and initiative targeting adolescents, Youth Ki Awaaz (India, since 2008) for its approach to taboo subjects, Seattle Times (USA, since 1992) for enduring and evolving news in education work, Clarin (Argentina, since 2001) for interactive news experience at the Children’s Museum, Philippine Daily Inquirer for Junior Snoops youth journalism initiative, Mi Super Diario (Latin America, since 2003) for its editions in six countries, Het Belang van Limburg (Belgium) for Newsquiz Reinvented, St. Louis American (USA) for STEM (Science Technology, Enginerring Math)initiative targeting underprivileged groups, United Daily News (Taiwan) for News Buzzer game, Mathrubhumi (India) for Nanma volunteering initiative, Malayala Manorama (India) for School Harvest Project, Straits Times (Singapore) for Idea Jam, and Daily Trust (Nigeria) for Train our Youth educational work with refugees.


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On the cusp of a new era, challenges galore

Advertisements have been one of the biggest revenue earners for newspapers. But things are changing drastically. Newspaper revenues

from ads are going down and Google and Facebook are laughing all the way to bank, said Patrick Daniel, editor-in-chief, English and Malay Newspapers Division, Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), Singapore. Delivering the keynote address at the recent WAN-IFRA India 2015 Conference in Mumbai, focussing on growth and innovation for South Asian news publishers who are emerging from two years of difficult business climate, he stressed the importance of promoting the print and digital media in tandem.

Declining revenues affect the growth of a company and its staff. Quoting statistics, Daniel said margins

Digital advertising cannot replace falling print advertisement, and Google and Facebook are “eating our lunch”. This problem will have to be faced by all players in the print industry sooner or later. Remaining relevant for a technology-savvy population while keeping print alive, and understanding the 24x7 relationship with the audience to know, reach, connect and engage them are ways of overcoming the situation, feels Patrick Daniel, editor-in-chief, Singapore Press Holdings. Gayatri T. Rao reports

have steadily risen from 31 per cent in 2009 to 34 per cent in 2012, but thereafter, declined as steadily from 30 per cent in 2013 to 29 per cent last year. “Margins are still high, but under pressure. Managements don’t like to see these kinds of declines,” he pointed out. Without a change in strategy, the future looks bleak. However, Daniel put forward a ‘Vision for a different future’, the title of his address. Talking about the problems first, he said the real title of his presentation should have been ‘Mumbai, we have a problem!’ because the problem of falling revenues is common to all newspapers and would have to be faced up to by every publication sooner or later.

Citing figures in support of his statements, Daniel said advertising revenues have declined in USA, UK, Japan, and in other countries as well. Publications in India would soon have to confront the problem too, he warned. The reason, he said, was that the industry is being hit by massive forces such as mobile and social media. “We have the audience. That is not the problem. Revenue is the problem… and the nub of the revenue problem is that digital advertising cannot replace falling print advertisement, and that Google and Facebook are eating our lunch.” Detailing his vision for a different future, he drew upon SPH’s own successful implementation of a four-pronged strategy.

Transform newsroomsNewsrooms should become hubs of integrated

print-plus-digital operations, working 24x7, Daniel recommended. Saying that “if we remain print, we’re in serious trouble”, because newspapers are ‘slow

Patrick Daniel lights the traditional lamp to signal the inauguration of the WAN-IFRA Conference, as (l-r) D.D. Purkayastha, K. Balaji, Jacob Mathew, K.N. Shanth Kumar, and Magdoom Mohamed look on.


journalism’, with news being accessed only the day after it happened, he stressed the need for gearing up to multi-media operations, involving videos as well as text. The rationale, he explained, is that people are found to prefer different media at different times of the day. On waking up, they reach for their smartphones. While having breakfast, they may look through a newspaper. During working hours or at lunch, they use their laptops or desktops to access news, and after work, they turn again to their smartphones, or the television. The requirement, therefore, is to push appropriate content out to people on the preferred vehicles at specific times.

Tapping into the best ideas for growth is also important, Daniel said, and quoted his own organisation’s efforts in this direction. They fund staff who come up with new ideas, and give them time to implement these as well, besides investing in external media-related start-ups.

Diversify sources of revenueWith advertisement revenues falling, it makes sense

to develop other sources of funds. While defending and growing the core business, the print media can also grow additional businesses and adjacencies, and simultaneously look out for new opportunities, Daniel said. Talking of SPH, he said the Group has grown from five magazine titles in 2003 to over a hundred today. The content is available across platforms like print, tablet and mobile phones.

The organisation had been growing its news portfolio and digital franchise by increasing digital content and classifieds. “We transformed ourselves from a Tamil and Malay Newspapers Division to an English/Malay/Tamil Media Group with print plus digital integration, and diversification to media adjacencies - SPH Radio, Straits Times Press, Shareinvestor, SPH Data Services, SPH Golf and Think Inc,” Daniel said. “We have completely revamped our products to suit the requirement of our consumers. We have also come up with new offerings in the form of new magazines, thus diversifying our sources of income,” he explained. At the same time, exhibitions and investment in properties have been developed as growth pillars. Asserting that there is no one-size-fits-all revenue model, he said experimentation is the key, and players needed to try out options to seek an answer as an industry.”

Cut costsReducing expenditure is an unfortunate necessity in

the face of shrinking revenues, Daniel said. At SPH, the newsroom was comprehensively re-designed and revamped with costs in view. Productivity improvement is usually linked to reduction in process time. “Get it right the first time by eliminating errors,” was Daniel’s advice to the participants at the WAN-IFRA conference.

Attention also needs to be paid to integration of tasks by avoiding fragmentation and too many hand-offs, eliminating unnecessary or low value-add tasks, and simplifying the work. Speaking from experience, he recommended taking activity steps in parallel, rather than sequentially, and automating activities to reduce the time spent on repetitive tasks.

Maintain high journalistic standardsWhile sourcing and growing alternative revenue

sources, care should be taken not to diminish journalistic standards, Daniel cautioned. “Avoid collision of journalism and advertising.” He left the audience with three points to ponder:

1. The rate of change is going to accelerate2. The digital era has now given way to the

connected-consumer era3. Audience insight is the new battleground.Nearly 600 delegates from more than 30 countries

attended the three-day WAN-IFRA Conference in Mumbai in September. <

Avoid collision of journalism and advertising, Daniel cautioned, while enthusing those present to maintain high journalistic standards.


How do you view the journalism scene in the developed world? What have been some of the more recent developments there?

Online and in the last years, digital and mobile have been the topic of discussion among journalists. That doesn’t mean that the newspapers make most of the money from online.

But, of course, it is the new kid on the block. Everybody is looking at that. And this is also a competitive area because the threshold to write journalistic pieces online is much lower than contributing to high-quality journalism. So the big question for us is how we can still promote high-quality journalism, which takes quite some effort and also has its cost, in the new digital world.

What are some of the initiatives taken by WAN-IFRA in the fi eld of training and research?

A ‘unique chance’ for print to remain relevantManfred Werfel, director, World Printers Forum, WAN-IFRA, is concerned about the loss of newspaper revenue from ad sales. While in Mumbai for the WAN-IFRA Conference and Expo between September 2 and 4, he explained that the situation of the loss of ad sales has arisen due to the growth of Facebook and Adsense from Google, and that it is a global occurrence. Speaking to Gayatri T. Rao, he suggested ways to overcome the situation

We have a couple of training and research offers. We are training journalists and editorial departments on how to prepare themselves for the multi-channel publishing era. In the past, print journalism and online journalism were separate, very often. And now we think it is high time to merge them. So, content is king and second comes the question of which channel to publish the content in. And that is why journalists should co-operate in integrated newsroom content. And, of course, we still do training in the area of production.

How do you see the digital wave transforming news reading habits?

You can say that the headline news is becoming a commodity. People can get their news from hundreds and thousands of sources and many of them are for free. The other question is what the role of quality journalism in newspapers is, based on this background.

So the daily news is no longer in the centre of newspapers anymore because you will get the daily news anywhere. So the focus of newspapers is more and more on the story – the story behind it, the background information – and that’s where the newspapers are moving their focus to. And this is also very important to the society because it is not enough to know what happened. It is more important to know why it happened and how you can infl uence what is happening. And that is the role that newspapers have to play in this society. To infl uence the economy and politics and not only the stock exchange. This news you can get anywhere. But the role of the newspapers is to support the democratic development of the society.

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Manfred Werfel emphasising a point to a delegate at the conference. Newspapers are now focusing more on background information, he said.

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What are some of the tough challenges newspaper editors face today?

The toughest challenge is to secure an economically solid future. The old model of the newspaper, where the revenue was based on advertising income, is being challenged by the new online situation. And it is not that the other newspapers are competing. But it is the big online players like Google and Facebook who are. Newspapers have to develop new business models. There is no one golden way found yet. But many different ways and experiments are being explored. But you cannot say that this is the future. But one thing is for sure that the old business model does not work anymore. Last year was the fi rst time that the revenue of all the newspapers came (more) from circulation and not advertising.

What is your impression of the media scene here now in India, especially since you have visited the country so many times in the past?

I think India is a very lively and developing market for newspapers. It is heartening to see that many of the language newspapers are very strongly developing. The circulations are in the millions now and, on the other hand, the challenge in India is the copy price is very low. And like I just said, here too, advertising is in danger. In general, that’s an area where the Indian industry has to work. And I think in India you might go from printed paper to mobile, skipping the desktop era. But I believe that in the long-term, the newspaper will not disappear, but it will get the unique chance to combine paper and digital/mobile in exclusive products. This the others like Google and Facebook cannot do because they do not have the print with them. And that’s where we can see the future.

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What are some of the recent developments in terms of initiatives taken at HT Media?

We are involved in a very big project at the moment - an all-new newsroom for all of our three main titles - Hindusthan Times, Mint and the Hindi daily Hindustan. And currently, we are migrating to an all-new content management system. This will be a very integrated way of working between our print and digital teams. We are dramatically overhauling how our day works and our job descriptions. We hope that our digital drives the process.

You have interests in print, electronic and digital. How does one supplement the other?

You can use digital to stitch all of these together, synergies between them, capitalise them and to accelerate them. So digital is a powerful way to find new value in your content, to find new audiences and reach them and even to develop new brands.

You have several printing sites across India. How do you ensure uniformity of excellence on the editorial side as well as in print production?

From the editorial perspective, one of the ways we are trying to ensure uniformity is to bring everyone to a single platform. So the editor in Delhi can see whatever is being done in Bhopal or Ranchi. Similarly, an editor in Bhopal or Ranchi can see what is being done in Delhi. That way everyone can know in a live sense what is going on in the system. But of course technology is just one piece of the whole. The other piece is culture and training. So, we are greatly upgrading our investments in training. And working harder to shift our culture to high quality in whatever we do.

‘Now we have to wake up, reinvent our business’News breaks very fast across multiple platforms. Nicholas Dawes says that becomes one of the most challenging aspects of his job as the chief editorial officer at HT Media, India. Dawes was in Mumbai for the WAN-IFRA Conference and Expo 2015. In a chat with Gayatri T. Rao, he explains how his company is dealing with this and other major challenges confronting the newspaper industry

What are some of the tough challenges editors like you face today?

Oh that’s a big quest-ion! We face all kinds of challenges.

One is that we live in a much accelerated world. News breaks very fast on multiple platforms.

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It’s contested. So we no longer earn the conversation any more. We have all kinds of different competitions, which we did not imagine before that we would have. They are TV and new websites being launched every day. There’s social media conversations that’s going on. We used to have a lot of stability and security in our environment. We knew basically what we had to do every day. We had to put out a newspaper. Now we have to wake up and reinvent our business.

What is your impression of the media scene in India?

I think the media scene in India is one of the most dynamic in the world. It’s exposed to all the global changes that are happening and it’s adopting and making it one of its own in a very compelling way. You hear a lot about what’s happening in the English space.

But what’s actually happening in the language space – Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam, Marathi, etc is extraordinary. The kind of abilities it brings together in a big strong traditional industry with connecting capability makes the Indian newspaper industry the most interesting place to work in.

Nicholas Dawes launches into his speech at the WAN-IFRA Conference.


‘Our business is to bring credibility’The need of the day is to distinguish ourselves as professional journalists, feels Marcelo Rech, executive director of Zero Hora, Brazil, and president, World Editors Forum. Rech was invited to speak on why ‘professional journalism’ is more important than ever, at the WAN-IFRA Conference at Mumbai. Talking to Gayatri T. Rao, he says we need to take the digital challenge head-on and project our credibility as journalists among amateur writers in social media

How do you view the journalism scene in Brazil? What have been some of the more recent developments there?

Brazil has well-developed journalism in all media platforms. Print is very strong. Radio in Brazil is very important as well. There are many 24-hour radio news channels, one of which is our company and, of course, newspapers. What is curious about newspapers in Brazil is that many surveys about the willingness to pay for information puts Brazil at the top among countries where people are more willing to pay for information. So today, 22 per cent of the Brazilian population says it will pay for digital information. So that brings us to a more comfortable position to charge for news or for information. Most of the Brazilian newspapers are already on their payroll. I would say that 80 per cent of Brazilian newspapers are charging for their news. But we also have to think that it is not news as on radio or on TV.

We have a different approach about news that news must be less reactive and more reflective.

How well has Zero Hora been doing as an online site? Do you also publish a newspaper?

Yes. Zero Hora is the flagship of the company. It’s a newspaper. Our company RBS Group publishes eight newspapers in two different states in Brazil. We have the combined circulation of half a million copies a day, which is nothing in comparison to India (laughs). But it is an important circulation in Brazil. And Zero Hora is doing well. The circulation is stable and has been stable in the last year. Of course, print circulations are declining and digital circulations are up. So the combined circulation is stable. It has been stabilised. But we are facing tremendous challenges about revenues in Brazil, not just the structural transformation of the industry, but also the problems of the economy in Brazil.

How do you see the digital wave transforming news reading habits?

What is most presumable is that we used to read our newspaper every day. Now we read newspapers all the day. I think this is the most important change that we must realise. When we printed the newspapers, we used to read the newspapers let’s say 20-30 minutes every morning. With the digital editions, we read the newspapers maybe two minutes in the morning, plus three minutes at the end of the morning, plus five minutes during lunch, plus two or three minutes in the afternoon, plus six-seven minutes in the digital format on mobile at night and maybe a little more time before going to sleep. With a lot of breaks. But we have to decide which forms are consumed during

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Marcelo Rech responds to questions posed by the writer. He says journalism is all about credibility.


the day – during break in work or in school – or when you are on the bus or train while returning home maybe, for 20 seconds.

What are some of the tough challenges news editors face today?

I think that the biggest challenge is to differentiate ourselves into professional journalists that make journalism a way of living from amateurs whose amateur information is being published in social media. Our opinion must be considered at a much higher level than the ocean of opinions that are already in the social media. So the great challenge of how to differentiate ourselves as professionals, from the amateurs that are in every place, we have to bring in our work credibility. Our business is not to bring in news. But our business is credibility in the fi rst place to think about.

And secondly, we have to go much further than what is just the surface of the story. We must go

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much deeper than just report news. We must be more refl ective. We must translate. We must make connections between different fragments of a story, to give signifi cance in a sense to it in a much more refl ective way, not just while writing but also while speaking.

What is your impression of the media scene here in India?

Know what? I think India has a great media environment. It’s so wonderful. Very good newspapers. Very strong TV coverage as well. I really don’t know, but I think you have a very strong radio system as well. India is a reference for the world – how a country can develop as technologically savvy. Even India is like Brazil. But in terms of technology, how technology can be used, the readers, they are well aware of. Most of them know. You will have in future tremendous impact in the media, a positive impact in the media in India.

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World News Publishing FocusYour Guide to the Changing Media Landscape

BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT WITH WAN-IFRA

While some publishers still associate programmatic with cut-price remnant inventory, The Economist is coming from a very

different angle. For The Economist, programmatic does not rhyme with remnant simply because The Economist doesn’t have any remnant inventory.

“Frankly, we are a little unusual at The Economist,” observes Ashwin Sridhar, VP of Online Advertising at The Economist Group. “For four months out of 12, we have to tell clients that we are sold out and have nothing to offer – so we have never been part of a network other than our own publisher network, and have never had remnant inventory to [make available] on a network. That means we never had a programmatic programme before about April 2014.”

In some ways, however, that makes the prestigious news group a remarkable case study, since its interest in programmatic is solely in programmatic premium – in itself an indicator of how far the technology has come since its early beginnings as a “robotic bargain basement.”

“From our point of view, this is about a drive to efficiency from the client side, and that is the space we are going after,” says Sridhar. “That doesn’t mean we need to drop rates; instead we are trying to give

Programmatic is ‘simple’ – focus on premium

FOR THE ECONOMIST

In March, WAN-IFRA published a new report, 'The impact of programmatic advertising on news publishers'. The report examines the major issues surrounding this new trend, which is reshaping the online advertising world. The report features several case studies from all over the world. Here is an excerpt from the report, describing how The Economist will leverage its well-known brand to sell its premium inventory programmatically. Steve Shipside, WAN-IFRA contributor, has the story

advertisers access to the same inventory, and to enable that, we have brought in programmatic specialists. I have a director of programmatic in the UK and one in the USA.”

Winning over the sales forceGiven the suspicion with which sales people tend to

view programmatic, this might sound like a recipe for trouble – appointing two advocates for such a strategy could easily sound like trying to hammer an unpopular policy through. Sridhar is keen to point out that this is not the case, and the key to making it happen is the conversation/education process within the company.

“We still compensate the sales team for programmatic sales, and that goes a long way towards taking the fear away. To be honest, it annoys me to see sales people going back and forth [in conventional sales procedures] when they should be closing a deal and moving on to the next one, and that is how we have presented programmatic.”

Sridhar does acknowledge, however, that there are some problems. “Of course, there are a couple of things. The lack of knowledge is one; if you go around the sales floor in any publishing company and ask what programmatic is, then nine out of 10 sales staff will


tell you that it is RTB and there is no role for a sales person there.”

In reality, programmatic is much more than RTB and Sridhar offers an easy counter to the above assumption.

“I would argue that there is more need for a sales person in programmatic than anywhere else. What we need is the sales narrative; the reason to buy in one publication rather than another is what it is all about, and we need integrated solutions to help brand advertisers solve the complex challenges they now have. For that you need a sales person who understands the marketing challenges and can put together a programme of solutions. I would argue that this is impossible if you are solely reliant on machines.”

Revolution, yes, but from withinSo fi rmly does Sridhar believe the key is making

the most of the existing skills and knowledge of the sales team that he has opted not to fl ood the sales fl oor with external consultants in a bid to usher in the new practices. While the appointments on both sides of the Atlantic show the importance of programmatic to the publisher, it is still clear that to a large extent: The Economist has opted for change from within rather than importing talent.

“We can’t do programmatic without the platform itself, so we used Google’s to start off, and at that point Google seemed to be the best option. In terms of helping with strategy, we did not bring in a consultancy fi rm because we are very different. We live in a world where we often say we won’t take your money as we don’t have inventory to sell, and absolutely nobody understands our proposition better than we do. So we started talking to a number of other publishers in

the UK to try to understand what they are doing and took a look at whether that made sense to us, and from there we crafted our current strategy.”

The company told Digiday (http://digiday.com/publishers/economist-uses-programmatic-drive-subscriptions/) in a report this January that six months ago it “began running its own ad retargeting program in-house by having a dedicated member of its marketing team execute campaigns via a DSP – DoubleClick Bid Manager. ... This approach leans heavily on The Economist’s own data. It utilises data sets collected through a data-management platform (DMP), supplied by BlueKai.” That said, it hasn’t moved away from agencies entirely. “We’re trying to straddle both [agency and in-house] approaches,” Mark Beard, VP, Digital Media and Content Strategy and Circulation and Marketing Director, UK, The Economist, told Digiday.

All of which sounds quite straightforward – yet even a special case like The Economist must surely be confronted with obstacles on the path to effi ciencies.

“Certainly,” Sridhar says, “not least a mismatch in expectations and understanding between the premium offering and the buyer side. We might agree a number of impressions with Agency X, but the agency side continues to see it as an RTB opportunity and behaves accordingly. So we agree on a million impressions and send that to the agency, which then wants to only take a fraction of the total because they are buying across multiple publishers with an RTB mindset. It’s suffi ciently new to buyers and publishers alike that there is a mismatch in expectations about what is being delivered.”

Not a means of lowering headcountFor all the education process, however, Sridhar is

insistent that the future of programmatic for The

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From a technology/operations background at CBS Interactive, Ashwin Sridhar has taken over as VP Online Advertising & Head of Ideas People Media at The Economist, where he is responsible for

display advertising on the website as well as The Economist’s publisher ad network and the programmatic strategy and revenue stream.


Economist has nothing to do with RTB or with replacing sales staff: “You can’t do away with the sales team, and any organsation that thinks this is a technological means of lowering headcount is only thinking short-term. Initially, I had no interest in programmatic back when it was all about remnants, but its evolution has meant that it has become more interesting.

“Now that I’m looking at it and seeing how we can maximise our sales force, I think that moving

(This article was originally published in the March-April 2015 edition of World News Publishing Focus, the bi-monthly magazine published by WAN-IFRA.)

everything to programmatic could mean we free 40 percent of our sales force’s time to get out there and prospect new clients.” <

SOME ENDURING IMAGES FROM WAN-IFRA INDIA 2015

Magdoom Mohamed (right), managing director, WAN-IFRA South Asia, presents Patrick Daniel a memento — a framed picture of Chhatrapati Shivaji, an Indian warrior king who established the Maratha Empire.

L-r: K. Balaji, technical director, The Hindu Group; K.N. Shanth Kumar, director, The Printers (Mysore); and Magdoom Mohamed share a joke on their way to inaugurate the Expo.

A view of a section of the audience at the inaugural. Kumar Nadesan, managing director of Express Newspapers Ceylon, is seen in the foreground, right.

Patrick Daniel explaining a point to Joeri Gianotten (right) of Crowdynews.


Quite a few sessions had speakers captivating the audience. In the foreground is Benedicte Gercke, category director, Paper and Energy of News UK and Ireland. D.D. Purkayastha, CEO and executive director, ABP Group, is seen (second from right).

Amit Khurana (extreme right) holds the attention of (l-r) Patrick Daniel, K.N. Shanth Kumar and K. Balaji at the TechNova booth. Others in the picture are P.V. Manohar and Deepak Chawla.

(L-r): S.L. Kulkarni of Cyril Graphics with Pierre Borot of Techniweb and Peter Kirwan of Goss International. The Expo proved to be a wonderful platform for publishers, editors and suppliers of plant and machinery to exchange thoughts and ideas.

The manroland booth saw lively conversations over endless cups of tea and coffee. Pankaj Bhasin (in business suit), managing director of manroland India, spared time to meet visitors.

Nicholas Dawes (left) chats with Nasr Ul Hadi, ICFJ Knight Fellow with HT Media, during the tea break. The outdoors provided the prefect setting for such conversations.

(L-r): K. Balaji, K.N. Shanth Kumar and Thomas Jacob, deputy CEO, WAN-IFRA, release the WAN-IFRA Special Report on New and Emerging Business Models of Newspaper Printing Companies.


BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT WITH WAN-IFRA

WAN-IFRA: You’ve moved from Mashable to The Wall Street Journal. Why did you make the move? What was it was like moving from a start-up to a traditional media organisation?

Banks: I moved to the Journal because I was ready for a change — a new challenge in a new environment. It wasn’t an easy decision, though. I’d seen Mashable through so much growth and innovation, I felt extremely loyal and proud of what we’d accomplished. It took several months for me to feel like I finally understood how the Journal works, partly because of its size and the new tools and systems I had to learn to navigate. The size alone was a pretty huge culture shock that took some time to adjust to.

What does your role as lead news editor for mobile entail?

I was hired to help reporters and editors think about how they could create unique content for mobile, and content that’s optimised for mobile. That includes everything from working with designers and developers to building new templates for content on mobile,

AT THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Rebooting the news for mobileIt is predicted that at least 2 billion people – a quarter of the world’s population – will be using smartphones by 2016. The smartphone phenomenon is changing the way people consume news content, and media organisations globally are realigning their strategies to adapt to those changes. Leading the mobile news revolution for The Wall Street Journal is a former managing editor of Mashable, Emily Banks. She is at the forefront of innovation, training journalists and editors to create better content for mobile devices. Newsrooms are moving away from the “web first” model towards mobile-specific content, she says, and it’s an essential part of ensuring that newsrooms are more nimble. She talks with Angelique Lu about her new role, wearables, the Apple Watch, chat apps, automation, and what 2016 holds for mobile news

then teaching editors how to use those templates, to working toward making sure, for example, graphics that we publish work on mobile. I also will jump in and pitch ideas aimed at mobile – like an interactive [applet] about smartphone ergonomics that readers access on their phone, by playing a little game. Performing tests in this interactive could determine whether their phone is too big or too small for their hand.

Tech news over the past couple of weeks has been dominated by the release of the Apple Watch. What’s your take on the watch? Will it affect journalism, or is it a passing fad?

The Apple Watch will certainly be a popular and innovative new device, but its beauty really is in its ability to save the wearer time and keeping her from having to reach for her phone constantly. That will be extremely useful when, for example, you’re walking down the street and need directions. It’s far more convenient for a watch to point you in the direction you need to go, rather than pulling out your phone. Publishers will make watch apps, but I don’t think they’ll get a lot of


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: WN

PF

use. I’m not convinced people will want to read e-mail on a watch, let alone read news. Since the iPhone will still be nearby, I think people who want to consume news will do so on their phones.

In more general terms, what role do wearables have to play in the future of journalism?

I think they’ll be useful in terms of alerts, customisation and geolocation. For instance, we may see more customisation of news alerts, as publishers try not to bombard users with pings on their wrists. We’ll be able to deliver content ever more relevant to the user, based on her preferences and location.

What’s your take on chat apps and the news? Will it be the next arena for news consumption?

Chat apps are the next frontier for news, and perhaps they’ll even overtake social media platforms in terms of attention from news organisations’ audience development teams in the next year. My colleagues in our Asia office have experimented with sharing content online and sending push alerts twice a day. We’ve reached more than 800000 followers on a platform, which is a significant number.

In light of the news that AP has hired its first automation editor, to monitor content produced by software, what’s your take on automated journalism? Has The Wall Street Journal done anything with automation and their mobile content?

I find it fascinating, efficient and frightening. Fascinating to see what technology is capable of understanding and translating. Efficient for certain types of news, like earnings reports and sports game recaps. And frightening for what it means for the future of the profession, which has traditionally been slow to evolve and adapt to new technologies. If we embrace this trend, rather than avoid it, journalists will be able to evolve along with it, and it can be a positive trend, freeing journalists from chasing and regurgitating commodified news.

However, I don’t believe a robot or an algorithm will ever replace the analysis, context, voice or ethics that a human can provide.

What do the next six to 12 months hold for you in terms of identifying and responding to new mobile trends? And what do you think lies ahead for 2016?

Emily Banks is leading the mobile news revolution for The Wall Street Journal and is former managing editor of Mashable. She also participated in the World Editors Forum at WAN-IFRA’s 2015 World News Media Congress in Washington, DC in June. She joined Jennifer Preston from the Knight Foundation; Lou Ferrara, vice-president for Sports, Business, Interactive and Entertainment News at The Associated Press; and Melissa Bell, senior product manager and executive editor of Vox.com on the Story Telling Rebooted panel.

From the Journal and elsewhere, you’ll start to see content created specifically for mobile platforms, and even more content created specifically for social platforms-and then a cross-over between the two. Publishers will move away from shoehorning content created for the web and print downstream into mobile. If we do make mobile content upstream, there’s strong chance it’ll make the rest of the newsroom faster and more nimble.

I think we’ll continue to explore what new platforms make the most sense for reaching our subscribers, and measuring the return on those. Does Meerkat make more sense than Periscope? With a subscription model and without the ability to put ads on those, does it even make sense to use those platforms? Those are just a few of the questions we’re already asking.

In 2016, I hope we see more use of the technologies inside smartphones in relation to news and how it’s delivered. For instance, recognising your patterns – what content you gravitate toward, the times of day you launch the app, and whether and when you watch video to provide more news and content you might be interested in. <

(Angelique Lu is an Australian journalist based in Paris with the World Editors Forum. She initially joined WAN-IFRA on a University of Wollongong/Australian Government-funded internship scheme. This article was originally published in the May-June 2015 edition of World News Publishing Focus, the bi-monthly magazine published by WAN-IFRA.)


EVALUATING YOUR EXPENSE MODEL

Potentially a big win for your bottom line

To help replace shrinking print advertising revenues, publishers are leaning more heavily on digital revenues, finding ways to effectively

lure advertisers from print to digital advertising and counting on circulation revenue to play a much larger role in the total revenue picture. Often, executives focus nearly exclusively on their expense line during budget season or when revenues aren’t meeting expectations. However, strategic operational expense adjustments are necessary to maintain profitability and warrant the same level of focus as revenue—especially for departments that require a significant portion of an operating budget.

Benchmarking key expense metricsPublishers most typically measure a set of key

metrics for each department. Knowing which metrics to monitor and how they compare across the industry is critical for success. And by ‘success’, I mean ‘profits’. Publishers and industry leaders talk frequently about changing revenue models. However, it is just as important to periodically examine and benchmark key expense metrics to make sure that each dollar spent in major categories is spent effectively. Expense resources should be evaluated and reflect a favorable ratio compared to peer newspaper groups.

This process can be very easy for newspapers in a large group with multiple newspapers and a large corporate staff to compile and share these key metrics. Finding and comparing these comparisons can be much more challenging for smaller groups or independent newspapers lacking resources with

The shift from print to digital content is happening at different speeds in our industry. This shift occurs differently by market and by country. For most newspaper executives, keeping up with the rapidly changing publishing business has required them to rethink their approach to not only manage revenues, but also reconsider the evolution of their distribution model, audience acquisition strategies and the metrics they use to make needed decisions. Bob Terzotis explains

experience and expertise in each specific discipline. Still, it is critically important to benchmark expense line items in a way that helps identify areas for potential efficiencies and fosters stronger understanding of how one’s business operations compare to others. When evaluating key metrics and identifying effective ways to adjust business practices and reduce the cost model, it may be necessary to engage an outside resource with the level of expertise to ensure the job is done right.

Where should you start? Schedule periodic ‘health assessments’ for each department as a means of diving deeper into the company’s spending trends and gaining insight into how others have adapted to the changing business environment. There are many tools and resources available to undertake this voyage of discovery, including organisational membership, participating in benchmarking studies, reaching out to peers or engaging with companies specializing in this type of evaluation. The key is to understand the drivers of expense, ask the right questions in determining where opportunities might exist and be open to changing with the industry to maintain or improve profits.

The changing expense modelHave you actively examined current operations,

measured the need to change against other successful peers and developed a roadmap of expense change for the future? Too often, newspapers adjust expenses on the fly, rather than strategically. The short-term expense adjustment model, in many cases, can be a

Bob Terzotis.


driver of future challenges if not applied strategically. Fortunately, there are a few simple benchmarks to examine in evaluating the health of a company’s circulation department. Asking these questions can lead to opportunities for improving the expense line and, ultimately, profi tability.

The revenue paradigm is shifting. 1. What per cent of my total newspaper revenue comes from the circulation department and how does that compare with my peers? In international markets, how does this compare to countries where your audience and revenue trends most emulate?

The relationship between revenue and 2. expense should be similar. How have circulation department expenses been trending in comparison to circulation volume? Are these trends balanced from the print to digital shift given the much reduced cost of digital content delivery? Are ratios in line with reasonable expectations? In comparison to my peers or the industry? Am I adjusting to the new business model? Where is the opportunity gap?

Ratios are important. 3. What is the ratio of expense to revenue for my newspaper? How much opportunity for improvement exists on each side of this equation? How do I approach evaluating potential opportunities and make sure that I’ve considered all the options?

Delivery is generally the most expensive 4. cost centre of the circulation department. How do these costs compare to peers? Am I spending too much in some areas but not enough in others? Is my route turnover running ahead of or behind the industry norm, and are we diligent in examining route profi tability as it relates to route turnover? Are others managing differently, or more effectively?

Subscribers drive revenue.5. Are my starts and stops balanced? Am I deliberately investing in this area since circulation revenues now mean more to my success? With the increased importance in digital audiences, am I investing enough to grow this segment of my market? Since success rates for digital acquisition are different than print, do I fully understand which are the key drivers to success?

Staff for the future.6. Is my staffi ng or compensation structure in line with like-sized newspapers or those with similar market challenges?

Invest where needed, save where you can. 7. If I’m going to invest more, where do I fi nd resources and is it possible to redirect current resources within the organisation?

You need the right skills for the future, 8. but you don’t have to own them. Do I have the right tools and/or level of expertise to determine where to invest or reduce spending to maximize the effectiveness of my operation? If not, where do I get them?

Building the right roadmap to transition 9. is very important. What is the most effective rollout timeline for any changes to my operation so that we experience little or no disruption?

Keep your eye on the ball going forward. 10. What are the key metrics I need to monitor in the future to ensure I’m maximizing the return from changes?

And fi nally…The newspaper industry has evolved over the past

fi ve to ten years. Publishers have a strategic plan for the revenue side of their operation. They should be just as strategic about the investments being made on the expense side. Company leaders should do the analysis, build a plan and execute. If they don’t have the skills in-house to evaluate their expense line items, they are encouraged to fi nd them. A fresh perspective on the company’s operations spending model can be the biggest opportunity for a company’s bottom line in 2016 and beyond.

(The writer is the executive vice president with Mather Economics, where he helps clients achieve revenue and subscriber acquisition needs. His deep circulation background makes him uniquely qualifi ed to assist publishers and circulation heads in meeting market challenges.)

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P . V . Ch a n d r a n e l e c t e d p r e s i d e n t , In d i a n Ne w s p a p e r So c i e t y P.V. Chandran has been elected president of the Indian Newspaper Society for 2015-16. He succeeds Kiran B. Vadodaria. Chandran represents Grihalakshmi, a Malayalam magazine published by the Mathrubhumi Group of publicati ons, of which he is a whole-ti me director. Somesh Sharma (Rashtradoot Saptahik) is the new deputy president, Akila Urankar (Business Standard) vice-president and Mohit Jain (The Economic Times) honorary treasurer. (Courtesy: The Hindu)


Many mofusil town tabloid/newspaper publishers mostly use sheet-fed offset machines, which they find cost-effective

vis-à-vis web-offset machines, press-run being the determining factor. The first rotary offset lithographic printing press was devised, designed and created in England in 1875 by Robert Barclay. Offset printing is actually a modification of the lithography process. The lithography process was improved in and around 1889 when limestone (actual image carriers) was replaced with grained metal plates of zinc and that was the advent of offset printing. The technique grew by leaps and bounds, being the least cumbersome and fastest of all other available means of printing. In the process, the image area and non-printing area are on the same plane of the surface of a thin metal plate, the difference between these two elements being maintained chemically.

An offset press generally uses rotary operation. It has an additional operation system besides feeding, inking, printing and delivery - the dampening unit, which applies water to the plate which is the image carrier. There are three cylinders in the sheet-fed offset machine – a plate carrier, a rubber blanket and an impression cylinder. A thin metal plate with a planographic image is wrapped around the plate cylinder, the dampening rollers coat the plate with water, the ink rollers ink the image area of the plate, and then the inked image is transferred to the rubber blanketed cylinder. The image on the rubber blanket is in reverse and it is turned the right way around when it is transferred to the paper. The rubber blanket is water-repellent and protects the paper from any distortion.

Sheet-fed offset machines and tabloids

Som Nath Sapru.

The offset process can suit both low- and high-budget publications – of course selection of the print-plant is very crucial and tactically important. A multicolour, sheet-fed offset machine is suitable for magazines, multicolour textbooks or coffee-table books, which are mostly multicoloured all through. Som Nath Sapru talks of the features of the off-set printing process, with particular reference to sheet offset machines.

All sheet-fed offset presses make one impression with each revolution of the cylinders. As the plate cylinder rotates, the plate comes in contact with the dampening rollers first, and then the inking rollers. The dampeners wet the plate so the non-printing areas repel ink. The inked image is then transferred to the rubber blanket. A suction bar lifts and drops individual sheets of paper into place, after which each sheet moves to the impression cylinder wrapped with the rubber blanket, which carries the reversed impression with ink/colour from the plate cylinder. When the paper comes in contact with it, it gets printed as it passes between the blanket and impression cylinders. It then moves on to the delivery side of the machine.

The machines have an accelerator and brake, besides a clutch. In much larger presses, the clutch, of course, is the gears and cams that allow a printing press to start at an ‘idle’ speed –- the speed at which one can do press checks – like colour density, dot gain or dot loss or highlight areas smudge etc. Only after such checks does it finally get up to ‘running speed’. The running speed of sheet-fed offset presses can be

A four-colour sheetfed offset machine with 15K to 18K iph (rated).


between 15K and 25K iph vis-à-vis a web-offset press with the speed of 30K to 75K iph.

These days, the offset process mostly works in coordination with computer-based photographic techniques. Most printing presses have modern image-setters and are capable of creating composite text and illustrations once they receive these through electronic modems directly on their systems in one single piece positive, ready for exposition on the PS plate. Publishing/production houses have to keep pace with the advances in colour reproduction techniques and the ever- and fast-growing technologies in processing and transfer of images and text from remote locations.

Modern sheet-fed offset process and machines have eliminated costly make-ready, easy plate-making (by use of PS plates etc), having the ability to print fi ne-screen halftones on less expensive, coated or uncoated, calendared or non-calendared sheets by using the latest computer software-based techniques which reproduce images of consistently high quality. Offset printing produces sharp and clean images and text more easily and in less time than erstwhile letterpress printing. This is because the rubber blanket conforms to the texture of the printing surface. The latest PS plates are easy and quick to be readied for the press, with longer printing plate life and defi nite and sharper reproduction of the text or visuals.

Just fi fteen years ago, pre-press for the offset process was revolutionised with CtP (Computer-to-plate) technology, which replaced computer-to-fi lm (CtF) technology that allowed the imaging of metal/polyester plates without the use of fi lm. The technology eliminated the time-consuming stripping of text and images and traditional plate-making processes.

CtP, in a real sense, revolutionised the printing industry by reducing pre-press time, lowering costs of labour and undoubtedly improving print quality. The CtP system uses thermal or violet technologies – both have the same characteristics in terms of reproduction quality and plate durability (longer print-runs). Violet CtP systems are cheaper than thermal ones. The thermal CtP system has to be operated under yellow light. The CtP system can be used on conventional PS plates as well, which is known as CtCP. Here, conventional plates can be exposed, making it a comparable, cost-effective option.

Modern sheet-fed offset machines have the capability to adjust the amount of ink on the fountain

roller which is controlled by in-built computer devices. Increase and decrease of inks can be done with the programmes fed into the computer attached to the machine, to change the density of certain colours in specifi c areas of a visual, or even infuse or defuse highlight areas of any image while the form is in run. All these operations are driven electronically with the aid of the computer programmes. The effects and results can be viewed by the operator on the computer screen. The quality of a sheet-fed offset printing press is assessed on the basis of the number of distribution and form rollers it is built with. The greater the number of distribution rollers, the more accuracy in the control of ink uniformity. In case there is a large solid colour area in a given page, fewer rollers will not accomplish uniformity of colour in that area vis-à-vis reproduction of multiple roller sheet-fed offset machine.

Yet another essential system is the dampening system, as offset plates function on the principle of water-and ink-receptive areas. A layer of moisture is applied on non-image areas in order for ink to adhere

Ed i t o r ’ s n o t e : In the arti cle about the compensati ng web-line stacker in the September issue of RIND Survey, a sentence in the fi rst column on page 7 should have read: Prominent local manufacturers are Technicon and Pramod Engineering. They are not customers as was menti oned. We are sorry.

A single-colour sheet-fed offset machine, domestically manufactured with12K to 15K iph (rated).


only on the image areas, whether text or visual. Throughout the press-run, the dampening system keeps on moistening the plates consistently on single colour or multicolour presses.

There are three kinds of dampening systems in sheet-fed offset machine: (i) direct, (ii) indirect, and (iii) intermittent-fl ow dampening system. Most of advanced multicolour sheet-fed offset machines have an indirect dampening system. The systems feed the dampening solution directly into one of the ink form-rollers (ink rollers that touch the offset plate) via a water form-roller in contact with it. The system is called ‘indirect’ since the water travels to the offset plate through the inking system and not directly to the offset plate as in the direct system.

The special advantages of the sheet-fed offset machines – which happens to be a major and most advanced modern printing method – is that it makes it possible to print near-original quality texts, halftones and illustrations. With the offset technique, one can use any stock of paper, coated or uncoated, calendared or even newsprint. The preparation copy of the offset process is mainly photographic or image-assembly, which goes very well with modern reproduction methods.

The major disadvantage of the process is the diffi culty in controlling the balance between ink and water. In case there is less dampening of the non-printing areas of the plate, ink sticks; if there is excess dampening, it can cause the paper to stretch, which will result in non-registration of the multicolour images and will affect overall registration of the form. A last minute correction in a form means that the pre-press operation has to be done in entirety.

The routine maintenance of an offset press is comparatively expensive, for, to get high quality results in printing, the press premises need to be air-conditioned and humidity controlled. Most domestic manufacturers of sheet-fed offset machines keep in mind maintaining look-alike international standards of such machines without sacrifi cing essential systems for the reproduction of any publication, may it be a tabloid, magazine, pamphlet or any text book. Undoubtedly, the comparison is with some of the best-known sheet-fed offset machines such as Heidelberg, Komori and manroland. Some domestic sheet-fed machine manufacturers who have established themselves are Autoprint, Swift, Sahil Graphics, Super Printo Graphics, Monu Graphics, Ajit Offset Machinery and Padam Graphics.

(The writer has a master’s degree in Print Technology & Management. He served 33 years with the United States Information Service at the American Embassy in New Delhi as chief of Publications. During 2005-2011, he headed IPAMA as CEO and was editor of the IPAMA Bulletin. He is now general manager, Pramod Engineering, part of the Delhi Press Group.)

India-devised, designed and manufactured sheet-fed offset machines are equipped with easy cleaning devices for blanket cylinders and impression cylinders, keeping in mind operator safety. The machines are provided with easy plate edge-bending devices as well. The quality of print reproductions on these machines is sharp and clear on a variety of applications and paper stocks.

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B . V . Ra o , Aj a y Si n g h j o i n FirstpostIn a bid to strengthen its editorial team, Firstpost

has appointed B.V. Rao (editor) and Ajay Singh (executi ve editor) to assist R. Jagannathan, editor-in-chief of Firstpost and Forbes India, confi rm sources. Rao began his career with Delhi Mid-Day in 1989, where he worked ti ll 1991, before moving on to The Indian Express, Bangalore, where he worked ti ll 1994 as news editor. Then, he joined Free Press Journal as executi ve editor and worked there for two years. He had also worked for The Times of India as deputy resident editor for about a year. Rao has also served as editor, Governance Now. Singh leverages close to 25 years of experience with sti nts at The Times of India, Economic Times, Telegraph, The Pioneer, Business Standard, Star News, NewsX, Eeenadu TV, Sahara Samay and Governance Now.

(Courtesy: exchange4media.com)

Patrika launches 37th editi on Patrika has launched its 37th editi on in Sagar

in Madhya Pradesh with a circulati on of 27500 copies from Day 1. Patrika publishes in Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur, Gwalior, Ujjain, Ratlam, Satna, Khandwa, Hoshangabad, Chindwara & Shadol. The Sagar editi on of Patrika will also cover Tikamgarh, Chatt arpur and Damoh. The Patrika enjoys a readership of 12.9 million readers across India.



lock enabling their quick and tool-free exchange in just a few steps. As a result, maintenance tasks can be completed easily in just a few minutes. For newspaper printing, technotrans AG offers a full line of peripheral equipment, from dampening solution circulators to central ink supply systems. In digital printing, the focus in Hamburg is again on cooling and temperature control. technotrans is also actively seeking to discuss this with users and manufacturers.

WORLD P UB LISHING EX P O 2 0 1 5 , HAMB URG

Krause CtP portfolio to be on show

Krause will present its CtP portfolio at the World Publishing Expo 2015 in Hamburg. The motto: ‘Intelligent CtP systems automated and integrated’. On show will be innovative CtP solutions for future production requirements. CtP will be fully automated, run autarkic, provide a transparent system status overview and produce top quality at low life-cycle cost with low maintenance needs in the future. In short, CtP systems must be interfaced with the production environment and respond self-learning to changing demands. In order to operate man-less for a long time, the robust Krause CtP units have the highest plate-loading capacity with 3.000 or 6.000 plates online.

In its CTP Systems, Krause implements Industry 4.0 and innovative 3D printing components, designed by Krause Dimatec, a new company that was specifi cally set up to develop the technologies. Intelligent CtP systems enable networking of machines, real-time-monitoring on smartphones and a cross-site analysis of machine performance status by central maintenance teams and the Krause Service. Networking from the sensor to the Internet, innovative 3D printing components and energy effi ciency modules in accordance with ISO 51001 will be shown live in Hamburg. In addition, the latest JetNet workfl ow improvements will be demonstrated.

A further highlight is the Krause BlueFin CleanProcess Kit for the LowChem application, which so far means a process-related gumming on both sides of the plate. With the CleanProcess Kit, the plates will be cleaned on the bottom side after the gumming and guarantees a clean process in


Modernisation with new spray dampening units

At this year's World Publishing Expo 2015 in Hamburg, technotrans AG focuses on the modernisation of offset printing presses. The company from Sassenberg in Westphalia (Germany), will present its peripheral equipment for increasing the effi ciency of established printing presses at stand 4.700, from the 5th to the 7th October. This year's focus is on the installation of new printing units or the replacement of already existing printing units in order to improve the competitiveness of the printing companies.

technotrans will not present any technical exhibits on site at the Expo. Instead, the expert in peripheral equipment favours a dialogue with interested visitors with a technical background. "Securing competitiveness through modernisation in the fi eld of offset printing can be quite a challenge," says head of Sales Peter Böcker, and this is exactly where he wants to help his customers. This is why the individual situations at the various printing companies will be discussed face to face with the customers during the exhibition. "The reason for this is that every system is specifi cally adapted to the requirements of the customer and, thereby, always a unique solution," explains Peter Böcker. He sees a strong potential for higher levels of effi ciency in cases where there are no spray dampening units at all or where outdated models are used.

The deltaspray.line product range helps users to save costs. The spray dampening systems feature a unique nozzle cleaning concept, do not require any active compressed air, and increase the productivity of proven printing presses signifi cantly. Due to their individually controlled nozzles, the modular and symmetrical spray dampening units ensure a highly precise dampening solution dosing process. In addition, the exact dampening solution application improves the quality of the printed product to a considerable extent.

The nozzles are equipped with an anti-twist protection that ensures the specifi ed positional angles are maintained. They also feature a bayonet

Industry Updates


downstream systems like punch/benders, sortation systems and gripper systems of the press. A longer bath life, a more stable automatic plate feeding on presses and less waste paper are sustainable process improvements of the CleanProcess Kit.

The above mentioned components and the highly successful PowerLoading directly from pallets with 3000 plates will be available from the WPE also for already installed LS Jet and LS Performance platesetters. Krause will offer upgrade kits for the plate loading from trolleys and pallets or the Clean Process Kit for BlueFin LowChem processors.


Future-oriented KBA solutions for newspapers

Innovative solutions to facilitate cost-effective production of high-quality newspapers, magazines and supplements, future-oriented business models built around digital newspaper printing, press up-grades to enable sales-boosting fi nishing options and new advertising formats for the printed newspaper, and service offers geared to maintaining the value of older press installations are the central topics that will be addressed by KBA-Digital & Web Solutions AG & Co KG at this year's World Publishing Expo in Hamburg (Hall 4, Stand 330). The recently formed business unit KBA-Digital & Web Solutions is the product house responsible for web-fed digital and offset print – and thus also for the newspaper market – within the Koenig & Bauer group (KBA).

Despite the fact that a number of newspaper publishers have invested in inkjet systems over the past months, the offset process continues to dominate new investment activity in this segment

of the market. With Aschendorff in Münster and Oppermann in Rodenberg, for example, two more German media companies have opted for the extremely fl exible confi guration and automation options of the KBA Commander CL in 2015. As an alternative to analogue offset printing, the KBA portfolio has already included the RotaJet family of high-volume digital web presses for a number of years. Engineered to satisfy specifi c needs of the publishing industry, the new RotaJet L for web widths from 89 to 130 cm now further expands the existing capabilities. KBA has supplied impressive proof of the suitability of digital inkjet printing for hyper-local and narrowly targeted short runs, personalised inserts and special event- and reader-oriented marketing products in cooperation with newspaper publishing partners. The branch is gradually recognising the publishing potential of digital print, but is still hesitant to invest in print due to the economically still unconvincing focus on online channels.

Given the general reluctance to commit to new investments, retrofi ts and upgrades for existing presses have gained enormously in importance. Representatives of the KBA Web Service Department and PrintHouseService GmbH will be in Hamburg to present examples of their increasingly sought-after services, ranging from preventive maintenance, via complete press overhauls and relocations, to the retrofi tting of product fi nishing modules to both KBA and third-party presses. A number of innovations, such as service data glasses or the software tool, M

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The KBA Commander CL, with its fl exible options for the retrofi tting of further automation modules, accounts for the most new press installations in Europe.

With its robust design, superior web handling and automation, the KBA RotaJet L inkjet press (here for a web width of 130 cm) is predestined for digital newspaper printing

Industry Updates


Process Analyzer, will be presented at the Media Port Newspaper on 6th October. KBA will be providing further information at the WPE press conference to be held in the Prag conference room on the second fl oor of the Hamburg Exhibition Centre at 2 pm on 5th October.


manroland to share varied experiences, insights

Who has the most modern and effi cient newspaper press of the year 2015? manroland web systems is actively involved in the offset project of the new Colorman e:line in Bamberg as well as in the worldwide fi rst digitally printed daily newspaper, the Walliser Bote in Switzerland. manroland web systems has developed future-proof business models together with its customers and will present them at the World Publishing Expo 2015.

Dieter Betzmeier, member of the board at manroland web systems, is expecting professional and exciting discussions in Hamburg (manroland web systems, Booth 4.530). “Many of our customers already went into action and started the future of newspaper printing together with our company. In most cases, the challenges for newspaper printers are similar:

How do I optimise the production technology for small runs and regionalisation? Under what

preconditions can traditional newspaper printing be handled economically?”

Anyhow, the solutions for the printers are not always the same: there are investments in new offset and digital presses as well as many retrofi ts of existing presslines. This is what Dieter Betzmeier wants to talk about at the WPE: “We gained important experiences and got to know different business models at every project. These insights we would like to share. Therefore a communicative exhibition like the WPE is the perfect platform.” manroland web systems especially prepared some highly demanded key topics: these contain the new ink density control IDCµ for newspaper printing, upgrades and retrofi ts and the entry to digital newspaper production and resulting continuative business models.

Walliser Bote of the Swiss printer Mengis Druck AG in Visp is a revolutionary best-practice example for digital newspaper printing. Integrated to a digital inline production workfl ow, the folding system FoldLine takes over the inline fi nishing. The inline folder is essential for the integrated production. Many printing experts that have visited the printing house in Visp are convinced and left with totally new perceptions about digital business models. Today, Mengis produces the newspaper in the evening and different commercial products, such as books, magazines and maps, in the daytime. An important component of the workfl ow is the MasterQ software. It plans the effi cient production order of all incoming jobs, as the workfl ow integration is also one of the core competencies of manroland web systems: Besides MasterQ, also Workfl owBridge (for industrial fi nishing) and DigiLink (connects digital and offset production planning) have established on the market.

InlineDensity Control with micro marks (IDCµ) is the name of the fi rst ink density control for newspaper printing from manroland web systems. It successfully went into production at the printing company in Bamberg. No matter if it is integrated to the new operation concept or a retrofi t, it always offers great benefi ts. This is effi cient for all newspaper presses from manroland web systems but also for other fabricates.

Upgrades and retrofi ts have been in the focus of new investments of newspaper customers during the last year. The ‘puzzle strategy’, a solution from Augsburg that allows successive retrofi ts of single components, is especially famous in the USA. At every time, the

The FoldLine fi nishing line from manroland web systems shows great opportunities and productions at the Mengis Druck AG.

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customers benefi t from the service and technology know-how of manroland web systems. All around the world, the project teams from manroland web systems help to make press rooms more effi cient and future oriented due to retrofi ts and upgrades.

WAN - IFRA INDIA EXPO 2015

'Green’, innovative solutions from TechNova

At the recently concluded WAN IFRA 2015 Conference and Expo, TechNova had a wide range of solutions on display for delegates, showcasing their ‘green’ range of innovative solutions for the Indian newspaper industry. While globally the impact of digital media is evident, it has not been able to make a signifi cant dent in the Indian print market yet. According to a lot of industry players, contrary to the scenario in Western countries, print and digital media are currently complementing each other in the Indian media space. The Indian print industry is still growing at a high single-digit rate and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8 per cent during 2014-19. Most of the growth in the sector is expected to come from Tier II and III cities and rural markets.

2015-16 has started with positive note with many projects being rolled out. Regional newspapers are buoyant on expansion plans and investments in technology upgrades and CSR initiatives are on the rise. Many newspapers are also very keen on converting to environment-friendly green range of prodcuts. So overall, the sentiment is quite positive. According to the latest industry trends, customers are demanding the following: - Chem-free violet and chem-free thermal plates- Process-less thermal plates- Cost-effective iCtP solutions for smaller print

centres- Quality enhancement through use of FM and

Sublima screenings, as well as through various colour management software, automation, etc- Press automations with retrofi ts of spray damp,

auto wash system, auto-inking system on presses, etc

Keeping in line with the trends, TechNova’s focus at IFRA India 2015 was to further strengthen its existing product portfolio with ‘green’ and innovative solutions that are in sync with the customer needs. The company showcased its complete range of pre-

press CtP solutions and technologies – violet, thermal, UV and iCtP systems. TechNova has recently tied up with Amsky to offer their thermal and UV CtP Systems in the Indian newspaper market. A lot of inquiries were generated from smaller print centres, with a run-length of less than 50K impressions.

TechNova also highlighted its software solutions where customers got an opportunity to experience the wide range of Agfa Software that they offer to Indian newspapers. The range includes quality and productivity enhancement software such as Arkitex Intellitune (Auto Colour Correction); OptiInk (Ink Saving), Sublima Screening, VeriPress (Softproofi ng) and Enterprise Solutions. Other than plates, Team TechNova also talked about its spray dampening system which can help reduce water consumption by as much as 30 per cent, as well as other customized solutions like Auto Blanket Wash systems, low VOC washes that help printers reduce their overall carbon footprint.

WAN - IFRA INDIA EXPO 2015

Will digital publishing catch hold in India?"The Indian market is calling out for multi-channel

systems that are inexpensive and easy to use. This is particularly true for small and mid-size publishing houses," says Gerhard Raab, VP of International Sales at ppi Media, and a man in the know. Along with Sabine Jaehmlich and Gopal Krishnan, he represented ppi Media at the WAN IFRA India Conference & Expo. This year too saw cutting-edge technology for front-to-back production workfl ow in publishing displayed at the annual event for publishers in India. There was great interest in innovative products and solutions as demonstrated by the rush of visitors at the ppi booth.

As part of a tour guided under the banner, Editorial & Content Management Systems, Sabine Jaehmlich, Gerhard Raab and Gopal Krishnan provided visitors with a 10-minute overview of Content-X's most important functions and invited them to individual demonstrations and further discussions. The editorial system, Content X, renders content such as copy and infographics media-neutral until published automatically on different channels as required. Once the content has been created, it never gets lost and can be formatted for publication on

Industry Updates


any channel."Aside from newspaper publishers, Content-X also impressed many visitors to our booth from the field of magazine production and corporate publishing. Not only were we able to generate a lot of interest for Content-X, but a lot of visitors were also excited by our other multi-channel solutions such as AdX, InsightX, our analysis tool, and MonetizeX, our paid content model. While interest is high, there is still little motivation to invest in digital publishing solutions. Print revenue remains stable and little money is being made with digital ads. Growth rates are indeed formidable but nonetheless remain at a low level. Still, the time is also right for South Asia to turn its attention to digital publishing," says Gerhard Raab.

The Oklahoman opts for Content-X

The Oklahoman, a daily newspaper published by the Oklahoman Media Company, has implemented a new editorial system: it has decided to replace its present editorial system with Content-X, a joint solution from ppi Media and Digital Collections. The daily newspaper has been produced with Content-X since June.

With a circulation of 146000 copies a day, The Oklahoman is the largest daily newspaper in the state of Oklahoma. The Oklahoman Media Company decided to switch to the editorial solution developed by ppi Media and Digital Collections. Just a few days after the contract was signed, Content-X experts from both ppi Media and Digital collections met to draw up the necessary system specifications with the project managers and users at The Oklahoman. To the delight of everyone involved, the spec was completed

and the editorial system was installed and configured in record time. “In that first week we identified and blueprinted workflows and went on to configure a large part of the CMS. We had AP wire and photos flowing in and could produce stories and design whole pages … which we imaged all the way to plate.” says Jay Spear, director of Emerging Technology at The Oklahoman Media Company.

Content-X stands out not only as a comparatively low-cost editorial solution, but is also particularly user-friendly and multifunctional. It combines the functions from the Digital Asset Management system DC-X which the editors at The Oklahoman enter texts and photos into with the layout functions from Adobe’s InDesign and the InDesign Server. InDesign is used to design the graphic layout of the daily newspaper. It is highly integrated, allowing layout editors to track the progress of their editorial work in real time. So, Content-X lets editors and layout artists work on the article simultaneously. This has been made possible using plug-ins developed by ppi Media. “Content-X enables us to work efficiently. Because it is linked to InDesign, we can work with layout templates, and powerful automation through InDesign saving time and costs,” says Spear. After installing the remaining modules, templates and systems and following successful trainer and admin training, the daily newspaper went live with Content-X in June this year.

A centralised content hub from WoodWing

WoodWing Software has announced Content Cloud, an innovative one-stop solution for cloud-based managed content, uniquely offering unlimited storage as part of its services. The highly scalable solution hosts a wide range of applications for producing and managing digital and print content as well as for digital asset management and analytics. With the new offering, WoodWing addresses such essential requirements of magazine and newspaper publishers as the support of the latest channels, efficient distributed collaboration; easier distribution and sharing of content; and improving the return on investment in content.

It is the dilemma of the publishing industry – publishers worldwide need to cope with high economic pressure while addressing the need to

Sabine Jaehmlich, ppi Media (extreme right), provides an overview of Content-X.

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offer their media brands in print, Web, on tablets and smartphones, as well as in social media. To ensure efficiency across channels, many of them are looking to technology, and some publishers are very successful in this endeavor. With the WoodWing Content Cloud, magazine and newspaper publishers now can utilise a cloud-based solution for content creation, production, archiving, sharing and analytics. As a single source of managed content and digital assets, the solution can scale to meet the growing needs of any kind or size of business. Content Cloud enables easy collaboration with external contributors worldwide, supporting global publishers and content producers to share their content with confidence and ease.

The Content Cloud hosts a wide range of applications. The new Elvis DAM multi-tenant digital asset management server instance forms the backbone of the platform, enabling users to easily upload, manage and share their digital assets as well as to reuse them across applications inside and outside the Content Cloud.

WoodWing Elvis DAM provides efficient management of unlimited file stocks. It allows digital assets to be integrated with the Adobe Creative Cloud applications as well as with workflow publishing solutions such as WoodWing Enterprise. Users can also bring their digital assets to business applications for CRM, PIM, WCM, and more, significantly increasing the RoI of their content. Elvis DAM will continue to be available also for on-premise installation.

With WoodWing Inception, publishers can create structured, media-neutral HTML5 content for immersive storytelling, leveraging an article-based approach. The content can be easily published via channels like the new Adobe Digital Publishing Solution (DPS), and later Apple News, Facebook Instant Articles and more. In addition, Inception will fully interact with WoodWing’s multichannel publishing system Enterprise – the on-premise application, used by many leading publishers worldwide, integrates the creation and production of content for print, Web, tablet, mobile and social media within one efficient workflow.

Publishers running WoodWing Enterprise as a private cloud on Amazon Web Services (AWS) can connect their Enterprise instance with the Content Cloud, enabling them to exploit the high potential of the integrated environment in terms of creativity and efficiency, and to include WoodWing Inception into their workflows. WoodWing´s Content Cloud also comprises Enterprise Analytics, enabling publishers to have an unparalleled view into the effectiveness of their processes in Enterprise, so that they can immediately observe the progress of their content creation at any time and from any location.

More applications including a brand portal and an authoring tool will follow soon. “Since the founding of WoodWing, we have always strived to realise the full potential of content for any kind of business through state-of-the art solutions and streamlined content creation, management, delivery, consumption and monetization,” says Roel-Jan Mouw, CEO of WoodWing Software. “With the wide array of applications in the Content Cloud, we again help magazine and newspaper publishers to re-imagine their content processes and to meet current and future creativity and efficiency requirements.”

With WoodWing Content Cloud, users can take advantage of the benefits of a cloud-based solution. The applications are easy to install, with no additional hardware required, resulting in significant savings and minimal IT support and maintenance. Ongoing updates and new releases ensure that the state-of-the-art environment meets industry requirements at all times.

“Choosing between an on-premise installation and a cloud-based solution also has important economic aspects,” Mouw explains. “A large on-premise installation is a major investment that is depreciated over the life of the solution and appears in the balance (CAPEX). By contrast, a subscription to a cloud-

The new multitenant digital asset management server instance of WoodWing Elvis DAM forms the backbone of WoodWing´s Content Cloud, an innovative one-stop solution for cloud-based managed content.

Industry Updates


based solution is an operating expense (OPEX) that shows up on the profi t-and-loss account as ongoing expenses.”

WoodWing’s Inception drives TopGear evolution

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) launched the popular television series about cars and other motor vehicles in 1977. Known for its humorous style, the series broadcasts exciting news about cars, along with road tests of cars from around the world and features The Stig, an anonymous test driver played by numerous famous racing drivers over the years. TopGear, which is the most widely watched ‘factual’ television show in the world, has offshoots in the United States, Australia, Russia and Korea.

The App Lab, a London-based digital strategy and product development consultancy focused on tablet and mobile publishing, produced the TopGear app. Featuring articles by the best automotive writers in the business, illustrated with high-resolution videos and images, the app puts readers fi rmly behind the wheel of the most exciting cars money can buy. In addition, it includes reader interaction, bonus content and much more.

Working with TopGear, The App Lab evolved the design and structure of the app based on the latest digital publishing technologies. “The Adobe Digital Publishing Solution and WoodWing Inception were the catalysts for the evolution of TopGear,” says

Craig Llewelyn-Williams, managing director for The App Lab. “We now have a much higher degree of fl exibility and can signifi cantly increase production effi ciency of dynamic content, as well as the timeliness and reach of the contents of the app. Key features for this great step forward included the article-based approach along with the ability to create complete editions as collections of articles.”

The team runs a dual workfl ow. The pixel-perfect content of the monthly magazine is created with InDesign, while the dynamically updated content employs WoodWing Inception. “We had concerns about introducing an additional workfl ow but the effi ciency and ease-of-use of Inception makes this feasible,” Llewelyn-Williams explains. Inception is currently used exclusively for the news section, but the team is already considering using the HTML5 authoring tool to create articles for other sections, too.

“The introduction of the HTML5 workfl ow gives us the opportunity to increase the customer engagement by allowing us to publish more frequently,” adds Simon Carrington, publishing director at TopGear.

The App Lab worked closely with the TopGear editorial and creative teams to develop the app’s user experience. Based on these designs, WoodWing Digital Services then developed the technically robust HTML5 templates for use in Inception. “The cooperation with WoodWing Digital Services was crucial in order to meet the tight deadline,” Llewelyn-Williams adds. “We were able to focus on our core competencies and have been relieved of the purely technical workload.”“With our comprehensive portfolio of consultancy

and production services, we help brands and media reduce time to market, increase fl exibility, gain control over resource costs and adopt the latest technologies at a very early stage,” says John Fong, managing director of WoodWing Digital Services. “The cooperation with The App Lab is a shining example of how we can help our customers get things done.”“Inception is a one-stop solution to creating

beautiful, responsive content for all digital channels in a highly effi cient way,” says Jeroen Sonnemans, managing director of WoodWing Europe. “The great interest in the application that we introduced at the end of June shows that publishers and brands have been waiting a long time for such a solution.”

The App Lab is a digital strategy and product development consultancy specialising in tablet and mobile publishing. The team has unrivalled hands-

TopGear has launched a new app for Apple iOS devices using the most advanced digital publishing technology – the new Adobe Digital Publishing Solution and WoodWing´s cloud-based HTML 5 authoring tool Inception.

Industry Updates


on experience dealing with the specific editorial and commercial needs of publishing operations of every size, from global newspaper groups to small independent boutique houses. The App Lab has developed apps and has published digital editions for some of the most successful titles on tablet and mobile devices.

Platewriter 3600 Pro offers long-term benefits

Glunz & Jensen has launched iCtP PlateWriter 3600 Pro, an affordable, inkjet computer-to-plate system. The system produces press-ready aluminium plates, without the use of chemical processing, in a daylight environment suitable for commercial printers, quick printers and in small and mid-size newspapers and book printers. At Graph Expo 2015 in Chicago, Glunz & Jensen will reveal the iCtP PlateWriter 3600 Pro series.

The PlateWriter 3600 Pro is based on a new technology that takes inkjet plate-making to a completely new level in productivity and usability. The PlateWriter 3600 Pro is based on stable solvent ink technology (same as used in the PlateWriter 2000/2400 systems) ensuring increased stability and reliability in day-to-day production operations. It comes in a modern design with easy access for cleaning and maintenance. The enhanced format model offers landscape plate loading for higher throughput speed. The PlateWriter 3600 is suitable for 2-up, 4-up and 8-up press formats up to 915 x 1140 mm (36.0 x 44.9”) plate sizes. At Graph Expo 2015, Glunz & Jensen will demonstrate the PlateWriter 3600 Pro with live plate-making at Booth #637.

Space-saving and affordable, the PlateWriter CtP solution is completely self-contained and its chemical-free approach means no additional equipment (such as plate processors or washout units) is required. Digital and semi-automated, it produces digital CtP plates, which delivers accurate registration and high quality for process colour jobs. In addition, the semi-automated plate registration system provides a versatile plate handling approach so multiple plate sizes and gauges can be used in parallel, with no changes.

This makes the Glunz & Jensen PlateWriter ideal for printers with one or more printing presses. PlateWriter applies a Liquid Dot image on to non-photosensitive

aluminium printing plates. The imaged plates are manually fed through the integrated finishing unit that dries the plates and bonds the liquid dots to the plate surface, making them capable of printing more than 50000 impressions on press. It has the lowest energy usage in its class vs laser-based systems, and it eliminates water usage, chemicals and disposal costs commonly used in traditional plate-making methods.

Community Impact 'ups game' with Compact

Community Impact Newspaper of Pflugerville, Texas, has confirmed its investment in a Goss Magnum Compact. The highly-automated Magnum Compact press will be central to the company’s new, purpose-built printing operation, designed to meet an ever-increasing demand for this regionalized, community newspaper. Scheduled for installation in Q2 2016, the Goss Magnum Compact will enable the publishing house to bring high-quality printing on-site and maintain its competitive edge with a wide range of versioned products.

With 20 regional issues and a circulation of over 1.5 million copies a month, Community Impact Newspaper has seen significant growth since its launch in 2005. The model for a publication that features relevant, local news, continues to increase in popularity in the regions it currently serves, and owners, John and Jennifer Garrett, are confident it can be replicated elsewhere. “The news industry is a very competitive marketplace, with online and print competing for the same audience,” explains John Garrett, owner, Community Impact Newspaper. “To be heard over other news channels, you have to up your game. This means providing a news source that is highly-targeted, provides quality content and has a good reputation for accurate, reliable information. This is where print is stronger than digital media, and Community Impact Newspaper is proof of that.”

Shortly after the husband and wife duo moved to Austin, they recognised a gap in the market for an informative publication designed for local citizens. However, drawing on their extensive experience within the newspaper industry, they understood that people would not pay for subscriptions and decided to mail it for free. Says Garrett, “Gone are the days of people paying for news, so in order to be

Industry Updates


profi table you have to ensure that your publication has high-quality content. This ensures that advertisers recognise its value to readers. In addition, providing a regionalised, versioned newspaper that reaches a very specifi c, local target audience is crucial. This approach has served us well to date but we continue to look for ways to enhance our paper to provide an even better product in the future. To take the next step, we need to bring high-quality printing in-house and increase our versioning capabilities. That’s where the Goss Magnum Compact comes in.”

With simplifi ed operation and run-length fl exibility, the Magnum Compact enables users to print a wide range of products competitively. The ability to print cost-effective runs as short as 500-1000 copies provides printers not only with an alternative to digital print, but an economical way of handling runs

up to 250000 copies, giving unparalleled production fl exibility and a powerful competitive advantage. Community Impact Newspaper recognised that by managing versioning and targeted inserts at the production level, the company can not only better control the product quality but explore new opportunities to enhance it.“However, we knew very little about print production

when we started exploring this opportunity,” explains Garrett. “We researched the level of investment required and the technology on the market, and this is when we started the conversation with Goss. Seeing their presses really helped us to visualise how we could leverage this technology. The print house we have used to date uses Goss technology, so we knew the print quality was of a high standard. However, other features, such as its suitability for short runs and versioning, automatic plate loading and quick changeovers were also critical factors that led us to choose this press.”

The Goss Autoplate technology delivers fast make-readies and enables successive jobs to be run with complete plate changes within two minutes. This is accomplished with minimum waste and contributes to maximum press uptime. Plates that have been removed may be reused for repeat production of shorter run jobs, further extending the value proposition of the press. Community Impact’s press confi guration will include three Contiweb FB pasters, three four-high Magnum compact towers and a Goss N45 folder with quarter folder, ensuring superior, crease free folding capabilities. “While we think that the press will be well utilised, we

are confi dent that there is plenty of room for growth. We know the decision to bring print in-house isn’t typical for publishers, but we have a market-leading product and are certain of the many opportunities available - just within what we are doing today, let alone when we start to grow.”

Goss marks 20 years leading press automation

Twenty years after Goss Autoplate technology was brought to the market, Goss International is honoring a key milestone in the history of offset printing. Introducing reductions in make-ready time, labour and expense, the Autoplate innovation has extended the web offset advantage and created

In-house print capabilities to provide increased quality control and production fl exibility.

L-r: Paul Lynch, consultant; Derek Sullivan, creative director, Community Impact; David Ludwick, operations manager, Community Impact; Mike D'Angelo, managing director, Goss Americas; John P Garrett, publisher and CEO, Community Impact; Graham Trevett, VP Sales, Goss; and Mike McGeady, district sales manager, Goss.

Industry Updates


opportunities across a wide range of sectors and applications. Goss Autoplate automatic plate-changing was first introduced on the M-600 press in 1995, offering the ability to plate up an entire press in less than three minutes due to a simple, precision-engineered sequence. Plates were placed into cassettes on the printing units while the press was running or idle; then, at the push of a button old plates were automatically rotated off the cylinders and replaced by the new ones. All or any combination of plates could be changed in this way.

According to Goss product manager, Jean-Pierre, Moioli, despite initial skepticism, live demonstrations at trade shows and open houses, together with field experience, rapidly established Autoplate technology as the flag-bearer for web press automation. “The beauty of the system was – and is – the simplicity of its operation made possible through precision engineering, without requiring extra cleaning or maintenance,” explains Moioli. “With the realisation that the shorter the run, the greater the benefit, came a freedom to explore run lengths beyond those traditionally associated with web offset and even to compete with sheetfed.”

Today, more than 2100 Goss Autoplate units are in operation on a range of commercial and newspaper presses worldwide, including M-600, Sunday 2000, 4000 and 5000, and Colorliner CPS press systems. In addition, its development has directly influenced a range of additional Goss innovations in industrialized print production. These include:

The ‘96-page’ web offset press, creating new economies for very high-volume commercial printing and directly challenging the lower-volume gravure industry- Non-stop edition change (NSEC) which ensures

further time, energy and waste savings in make- ready particularly for high-volume versioning- Automatic Transfer printing for on-the-run

sedition changes, eliminating conventional make- ready requirements in some applications“Our M-600 experience made the wider press

format possible with the same design, creating more opportunities for printers – and the larger the plate, the greater the benefits,” comments Moioli. “One of the main goals achieved is reliability, proven by field experience with close to 100 percent plate change success. In the case of Automatic Transfer we have customers running 48-page format press lines that are changing more than 700 plates a day.”

Most recently, as the single, most significant enabling technology of the Magnum Compact press, Goss Autoplate know-how has led to a new era for newspaper printers and publishers. In reducing make-ready time by as much as 90 per cent, the Magnum Compact press lowers the break-even point of economical newspaper production. Combined with additional features such as consistent high quality, wide substrate flexibility, heatset options, and a versioning tool, this development provides the means to reach into new markets particularly for those that currently produce small- to medium-circulation publications.“Through our decades of experience with Auto-

plate technology, we were able to develop a simple, cost-effective system entirely unique to this sector. In providing the ability to change plates in 30 seconds and to complete a full job changeover in less than five minutes, printers can fill the press with work even in the shortest production window,” says Eric Bell, director of Goss Marketing. “The breakthrough with the Magnum Compact press is a perfect example of the legacy of Autoplate technology in general,” concludes Bell. “I can’t honestly claim that our product designers, back in 1995, could foresee the level of competition that we know today but, bit by bit, as margins have become tighter and harder-won right across the board, the crucial advantages of Autoplate have been unlocking new potential.”

KBA leads market for high-performance presses

KBA's annual market share for newspaper presses was temporarily down to below 10 per cent last year. This year, however, web offset business has returned to its customary level and with orders from West Asia, Germany and Asia, and a market share well in excess of 30 per cent, KBA is again demonstrating

The KBA Commander CL press for Oppermann Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft in Rodenberg, Germany

Industry Updates


its leadership when it comes to high-performance presses.

A total of 14 Commander CL press lines have been ordered in different confi gurations since the offi cial launch four years ago, and ten are already in daily production around the world. Particularly in Central Europe, but also in the USA and China, the outstanding fl exibility and scalable automation options of the user-friendly Commander CL are attracting great interest wherever new investments are planned. As far as European installations are concerned, automation modules which are decisive for economical and variable newspaper production, such as plate feeders, fully automatic plate changing and control systems for register, cut-off, fan-out and colour, are today usually a standard choice. Only recently, Oppermann Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG in Rodenberg committed for two 32-page Commander CL presses with a full automation package.

QI Press Controls bags two orders

Centro Stampa Quotidiani, based in Erbusco, Italy, has once again opted to buy a QI Press Controls system. Previously, the organisation placed orders for

IRS and IDS on two of its printing lines. This time, IDS-3D is being installed on its presses. The results obtained with previous systems and the company's positive experience working with QI Press Controls were decisive in clinching the third

The 4/4 towers Wifag makes for an impressive sight.

Dario de Cian, general manager of CSQ.

order.The collaboration with Centro Stampa Quotidiani

(CSQ) dates back to 2005 when the organisation purchased QI Press Controls' IRS for colour register. Thanks to IRS, CSQ was able to cut back on material use and the system resulted in consistently high levels of quality. Over the years, the relationship between the two companies has intensifi ed and a sense of mutual trust and loyalty is said to exist. QI Press Controls is at the service of CSQ and this goes

towards engendering an even greater confi dence in the systems.

CSQ's managing director, Dario de Cian, relates that in 2013, the company was looking for ways to reduce costs. “Our aim was to offer customers a consistency in quality without burdening them with unnecessary additional costs. This meant fi nding other ways to reduce production costs,” explains Dario de Cian. QI Press Controls was the only supplier able to offer a system capable of regulating the use of ink and water. For CSQ, this provided the key to cost savings. Thanks to IDS, CSQ was able to cut back on the number of operators on the second press line by as much as 50 per cent, at the same time as offering its customers consistent levels of high quality print.

A few weeks ago, the company once again plumped for QI Press Controls. The organisation was looking for an additional system able to operate alongside IRS. Ultimately, they opted for the new IDS-3D. Dario de Cian: “We're extremely satisfi ed with the systems and the service of QI Press Controls. We expect to achieve exactly the same results with order number three.” The order consists of 8 IDS-3D cameras for colour register, including RAS. The IDS-3D system is fi tted with dampening control and Automatic Ink Mist Shields. The system is being installed on a Wifag with four 4/4 towers and one folder.

Centro Stampa Quotidiani, or CSQ, was founded in 2000 and is one of the youngest and largest Italian printing companies using coldset technology, working for a diversity of publishers. Their product range varies from daily newspapers to individual productions, ranging from large to small print runs. Production is around 150 million copies annually, distributed throughout central and northern Italy.

Industry Updates


Meanwhile, QI Press Controls has received an expansion order from Baghdad. The Iraqi Media Network (IMN) ordered four mRC+ colour register camera’s with ink mist shields. The colour register system will be installed on IMN’s KBA Comet printing press on two additional towers. This is the second order placed by the group and is an expansion of the already present QI Press Controls’ system. IMN is a news and entertainment group funded by the government of USA that transmits the value of transparency. The printing division of the group publishes the Al-Sabah newspaper and several magazines.

Henry Wurst to install Goss Sunday 2000

Henry Wurst, Inc, one of America’s largest printing, mailing and marketing communications suppliers, will install a sixteen-page, 5-unit Sunday 2000 press system in December this year. With speeds of up to 82000 impressions per hour, the new system will replace two existing 5- and 8-unit presses at Henry Wurst’s Kansas City printing facility, while still increasing the company’s production capacity. The investment is part of the company’s long-term growth strategy to further extend its market lead and diversify its already extensive product range of both short-run, targeted or versioned products and long- run print jobs.“We create a lot of targeted, heavily-versioned

products and this press is built to manage that type of work cost-effectively and with quick turnarounds,” says Timothy Wurst, director of Marketing Services, Henry Wurst. “These benefits will enable us to broaden our scope for new business, further increasing our competitive edge and, at the same time, helping our customers to do the same.“In addition to the huge advances in productivity,

the likes of which we haven’t seen from other manufacturers in many years, the Sunday 2000 has many other features that make it unique,” Wurst explains. “Gapless blankets and pin-less folders, for example, significantly increase production and job changeover efficiency. It was innovations such as these that set the Sunday 2000 apart as a press that is truly in a class of its own.”

With a high level of automation, the Sunday 2000 system has been engineered for maximum print quality, productivity and versatility. It delivers these

advantages around the clock with proven, long-term reliability. The press is also ideally configured for both short- to medium-runs, with the flexibility to handle more make-readies and wider range of jobs.

Founded in 1937, Henry Wurst has a long-established reputation for high-quality web-offset printing. It boasts a varied customer portfolio, from some of the world’s leading advertising agencies and corporations to small, local businesses. Regardless of size, all customers receive the same high standards of service and product quality.

The specification to be installed at Henry Wurst also includes a Goss CS-1020 splicer to automate the reel changing process. The press will be equipped with the Goss PCF-SQF pin-less folder plus a Goss PFF module resulting in a wide variety of folding options for increased product and pagination versatility. The addition of a Goss VITS Rotocut high-speed sheeter provides superior cutting accuracy, an integrated print-to-cut register control and minimizes paper waste. Also included in the order is a Goss Ecocool/T dryer, which features industry-leading technology to ensure lower gas and energy consumption – key to complying with Henry Wurst’s environmental policies.

manroland’s quest for better quality

An investment in orignial spare parts, expendables and authorised consumables creates savings potentials as well as an immense increase of the press availability due to minimised downtimes, high efficiency, the long life-cycle of the original parts and the active long-term maintenance of the press. This guarantees an ideal cost-per-copy. It is profitable to invest in Original. By using best materials and due to a long-term professional competency, manroland web systems feels confident and therefore takes over the guarantee for all Original parts. This means additional security for the customers, especially for greater press revisions.

Every manroland web systems Original part meets the high quality standards that are constantly advanced. When it comes to the ‘centrepiece’ of the production – the printing system – the competency in producing spare parts should not be underestimated. manroland web systems emphasises exactly defined manufacturer specifications, uncompromising quality

Industry Updates


control and audits at all sub-suppliers. For the in-house manufacturing of spare parts, a modern tool stock and qualifi ed staff guarantee the demanded quality. Of course, manroland web systems also produces spare parts and expendables for older press lines due to the original drawings. With its comprehensive know-how, the company also updates printing presses that have seen better days.

Besides a conventional order via fax, e-mail or telephone, the online shop manroland store offers an additional and comfortable ordering possibility. Customers can order Original spare parts, expendables and authorised consumables 24/7.

Techniweb new agent for EAE in France

Techniweb will represent EAE in the graphical market of France. Due to the collaboration between QI Press Controls and EAE, the agency decided it was about time to add EAE in its portfolio. Menno Jansen, director QI Press Controls, believes that having just one agent for both QI Press Controls and EAE makes sure that the effi ciency and effectiveness of the combination QIPC-EAE will be well known in all of France.Techniweb, with its headquarter in Vitry sur Seine, has been a successful agent for QI Press Controls to actively represent and promote the sales of the latter’s equipment within the France newspaper and commercial printing market. Head of Sales of QI Press Controls Erwin van Rossem tells about the start of the cooperation fi ve years ago:

“End 2010, during the WAN-IFRA, our cooperation started successfully. After a couple of months, the orders from France started to come in, thanks to Techniweb.” QI Press Controls is happy with the services of Techniweb’s owner Pierre Borot. “The number of orders from France went up and Pierre is very familiar with the local market,” states Erwin van Rossem. “He gives the customer the exact and precise information they need.”

Now, after QI Press Controls took over EAE, EAE decided to appoint Techniweb as an agent to actively represent and promote the sales of EAE in the French market as well. Pierre Borot is positive about the addition of EAE to the portfolio. Says he: “Techniweb and QI Press Controls already have a long term partnership. The investment process of newspaper manufacturers takes a long time, some

projects takes years to develop. The addition of EAE allows us to provide a complete package deal, what is positive for our customers.”

QIPC-EAE package meets with approval

EAE has sold yet another Performance Package. The package, which comprises an update of current systems from EAE and extra automation features from QI Press Controls, ensures greater effi ciency and product improvements for printing fi rms. The package also helps bring about even faster return-on-investment times then the products of QI Press Controls and EAE do separately. This time it was the turn of IPM Press Print (formerly known as Sodimco) in Anderlecht, Belgium to buy the QIPC-EAE package. IPM Press Print has been experiencing problems of stability in its printing processes. For the past few years, print quality has been inconsistent, with a lot of wastage in the start-up phase and during print runs. QI Press Controls took IPM Press Print on a fact-fi nding mission to several well-known printing plants in the Netherlands where QI Press Controls had its IDS-3D installed. The QI Press Controls system clearly left an impression on IPM Press Print. Round the conference table, the systems offered by EAE became another item on the agenda.

The joint-venture between QIPC and EAE soon created the possibility of a combined Performance Package: IPM Press Print has welcomed the joint package with open arms.

Eric Bouko, managing director, IPM Press Print, and Erwin van Rossem, head of Sales, QI Press Controls.

Industry Updates


QI Press Controls’ head of Sales, Erwin van Rossem explains: A Performance Package offers customers the chance to upgrade their current systems and combine these with other additional automation features. This will lead to improved performance and to greater production reliability at the same time.” In addition to improved operating reliability, the customer gets a much quicker return on investment. What's more, by implementing a project even more efficiently, an attractive all-in-one deal can be provided.

IPM Press Print's Performance Package is intended for its Goss Universal, with four towers and two folders. In IPM Press Print's case, the package consists of the following components: six QI Press Controls mRC-3D cut-off controls with optional Automatic Ink Mist Shield and side-lay control; eight QI Press Controls IDS-3D colour controls and colour register with optional AIMS, fan-out light, dampening control and fault detection; QI Press Controls Intelligent Quality Management, to monitor all the processes; EAE integration for all QI Press Controls systems; an EAE upgrade for the existing Info System; and an EAE upgrade for the three current control platforms. The automation package will have several concrete effects for IPM Press Print's activities. The package's improved ease-of-use will reduce manpower requirements to a single full-time employee. The fully automated cut-off control and fan-out control will also result in drastic savings in waste, in the knowledge that this is now around 3000 copies per start-up period. The whole package will lead to improved consistency when it comes to product quality. IPM Press Print (formerly Sodimco SA) is the print plant owned by the IPM Groep, a leading Belgian media group which has been active in the industry (printed matter, magazines, newspapers, internet and television) for more than 100 years.

Long KBA Rapidas in demand

Back in 2012, it was still quite a sensation when KBA announced the installation of a Rapida 106 with 19 printing and finishing units at Amcor Tobacco Packaging in Switzerland. In the meantime, investments in medium-format sheetfed offset presses with 10, 12, 14 or more units are no longer so unusual. And that is true for both packaging and commercial printers in many parts of the world.

In 2013, for example, KBA delivered a 10-colour Rapida 106 in a double-coater configuration, i.e. 14 printing and finishing units in total, to a Russian packaging printer. In that same year, the packaging company Yuri Gagarin in Plovdiv/Bulgaria purchased a similarly configured press with an additional facility for cold foil transfer. A further 14-unit Rapida went on stream in 2015 and is now producing high-quality covers for the Appl Group in Wemding. With four printing units and a drying tower ahead of perfecting, followed by six further printing units and a combination of drying, perforating and coating towers before the final extended delivery, it is almost 99ft (30 m) long.

Long presses are even more popular in the USA. In 2014, a packaging printer in Massachusetts received a Rapida 106 with a total of 15 printing and finishing units. The configuration with ten printing units, drying tower, coater, two further drying towers and a second coater is geared to high-quality inline finishing, as is the case with almost all long presses. The company has already been using an almost 131ft (40 m) long large-format Rapida with eight printing units, two coaters, three drying towers and a triple-length extended delivery, i.e. 13 printing and finishing units, for several years. Two sheetfed offset presses with a total of 28 units in one printing plant – that is indeed something special, even today.

The next long Rapida 106 from KBA-Sheetfed Solutions will already be setting off across the Atlantic soon. The press comprises six printing units and a coater plus drying tower before the perfecting unit, six further printing units, double-coating facilities with two intermediate drying towers and a three-section extended delivery, and is to be used to print commercial and advertising products for a print group with global operations. With its 18 printing and finishing units, the latest addition to the list of long Rapidas is almost the length of the legendary 19-unit press at packaging specialists Amcor in Switzerland.

The extraordinary configurations underline the outstanding competence of KBA-Sheetfed Solutions

The longest KBA Rapida 106 to date, with 19 printing and finishing units, has already been in use at Amcor Tobacco Packaging in Switzerland for the past three years.

Industry Updates


when it comes to complex sheetfed offset installa-tions. These are not presses ‘off the shelf ’, but rather highly automated production systems which are tailored precisely to the requirements of a particular application and enable the user to remain successful with customer-oriented solutions in a competitive market.

manroland bets on in-house apprenticeships

The faculties are diversifi ed. Three trainees start as technical product designers, three more as electronic engineers for industrial engineering and another three trainees will become industrial sales representatives. There are furthermore two industrial mechanics and two cutting machine operators that are starting this year.

Daniel Raffl er, member of the Board and responsible for Human Resources, Legal Matters,

Company Development and Communications at manroland web systems, is very happy when offi cially welcoming the new trainees: “Welcome to the team of manroland web systems. We are looking forward to offering our trainees everything they need for interesting professional perspectives as part of an internationally acting company. Everyday, we experience how every single trainee has a share in our corporate culture and the success of our company due to his innovative ideas.”

After a presentation of the company and fi eld reports from trainees that already have entered the second year of their apprenticeship, the rookies were taken to a factory tour through all production halls of the company in Augsburg. Subsequent to a joint lunch, all trainees got to know their future instructors and worked on common rules and duties that have to be defi ned for the time of the apprenticeship at manroland web systems. The searching for motivated trainees for the year 2016 has already begun! Kerstin Wild, head of Human Resources at manroland web systems and her team offer interesting apprenticeship training positions.

Onyx 12 software released

Onyx Graphics, Inc has announced Onyx 12 software, the next generation of the company’s wide format workfl ow and RIP products. Built on the proven platform of Onyx 11 RIP software and Onyx Thrive workfl ow software, Onyx 12 software delivers faster RIP performance, a simplifi ed user interface and advanced fi nishing tools to do more in less time. Specifi cally developed to make printing more predictable, the software enables print operators to print jobs right the fi rst time. It will be available for the full Onyx software product line including Onyx Thrive workfl ow software, and Onyx ProductionHouse, Onyx PosterShop and Onyx RIPCenter RIP software.“With Onyx 12 software, the increase in RIP speed

is incredible! We went from a fi le taking almost a minute to RIP to now only taking nine to 15 seconds,” said Corey Nicolaisen, print technology support specialist for West Canadian Digital Imaging Inc.

“In addition the more graphical interface has Onyx Graphics’ meeting the expectations that users have of their software platforms in today’s market.”

A Rapida 106 with 18 printing and fi nishing units for a major American customer is currently an eye-catcher in the assembly hall at KBA-Sheetfed Solutions in Radebeul.

Fourteen trainees have started their apprenticeship at manroland web systems in fi ve different faculties.

Industry Updates


Onyx 12 software delivers better utilisation of memory and hardware when running the latest Windows OS to maximise the system investment with a modern, proven platform. It utilises the complete 64-bit platform throughout – in the RIP as well as modules – to harness full processing capabilities, delivering not just faster speeds but greater responsiveness as well. Onyx 12 software delivers RIP speeds twice as fast as Onyx 11 software and a more responsive user interface. Updated RIP engines, including the latest Adobe PDF Print Engine 3.6 in Onyx Thrive software, boosts performance and delivers optimized end-to-end PDF workflows.

A redesigned user interface displays a visual, interactive job list enabling operators to easily find jobs, view printer information, and quickly make edits. Complete job information – including thumbnails – is displayed and can be customised to suit each operation’s needs.

Live, colour-managed previews display job edits as they happen: users can see exactly where grommets, marks, tiling, crops, cut paths, spot colours and mirroring are placed before processing. This intuitive feature saves time and reduces waste by eliminating guesswork and proof reprints.

Quick Sets – production templates that streamline routine tasks – have been redesigned so they’re easier to build, navigate and save. Users can ensure consistency throughout the production floor by sharing Quick Sets between printers, and easily change Quick Sets for an existing job without the need to re-open it.

Print service providers can easily produce a variety of new applications, and improve the workflow for existing applications, with the new Bleed function. For example within Onyx 12, users can add borders for wrapped canvas prints, pole pocket trim for banners or top/bottom extensions for pop-up stands without the need to redesign the original artwork. Users can combine the Bleed function with Automatic Cut Path Generation to eliminate white space in print-and-cut jobs for perfectly finished pieces without artwork adjustments. New finishing tools enable automatic grommet and mark placement for creating prints that are ready for finishing. Grommet marks are accurately placed without manual measurement. Grommet mark size, style and spacing can also be customised.

New page and offset controls assist with placement of images for a variety of roll-to-roll and flatbed

applications. The new offset functions enable full-roll finishing when using roll cutters such as those from Fotoba and Zünd, and provide added control in rigid flatbed applications. These features eliminate manual positioning calculation, speed throughput and reduce waste.

New WoodWing senior VP for North America

WoodWing Software has appointed Scott A. Smith as senior vice-president, North America. In his new role, Smith will drive WoodWing’s business in the United States and Canada, offering solutions for content creation and digital asset management

Scott Smith, new senior VP, North America, WoodWing.

to marketing and publishing companies. Smith joins WoodWing from publishing icon Time Inc, where he worked for more than 12 years, most recently as VP, Technology & Product Engineering.

WoodWing Software has long been a familiar name in North America in the fields of publishing and marketing. Looking to North America, WoodWing envisions

tremendous growth opportunities in the booming field of content marketing, as well as a new era of digital publishing driven by Adobe’s Digital Publishing Solution. WoodWing’s recently introduced cloud-based HTML5 authoring tool Inception supports the current trend toward article-based publishing. Meanwhile, WoodWing’s cloud-based Enterprise Analytics continues to enable customers to gain in-depth insights into their content creation processes.

One of Smith´s key ambitions at WoodWing will be to liaise with software vendors in North America to create best-of-breed integrations of WoodWing’s solutions with leading applications, especially in the fields of WCM, CRM and PIM. “As part of my work for Time Inc, I came to know WoodWing in depth,” says Smith. “I always admired the team for its innovative strength and its support for customers who want to continuously optimise their business and adapt the latest technologies. I’m thrilled to contribute to the further expansion of WoodWing and to provide the extensive know-how of the team

Industry Updates


to customers and prospects in North America.”

Stratasys EMEA has new GM for Dach Region

Stratasys EMEA, a subsidiary of Stratasys, a leader in 3D printing and additive manufacturing solutions, has announced that Wolfgang Kochan will be joining the company to take up the newly-created position of general manager for the Dach (German speaking countries of Germany, Austria and Switzerland) Region. Reporting directly to Andy Middleton, president of Stratasys EMEA, Kochan’s role will see him drive continued growth of the Stratasys business in German-speaking countries. With a solid 15 years’ experience working in the fast-moving digital printing sector, Kochan brings a wealth of expertise managing large and diverse teams tasked with securing customer adoption of new technologies.“The recent opening of our new EMEA headquarters

facility, together with our continued and prolifi c new product development programme demonstrates our focus on expanding our operations,” says Middleton.

“Wolfgang is a very welcome addition to our EMEA team and will be integral to achieving our objectives. He and his team will help us meet our commercial targets, driving growth within key sectors like aerospace and automotive markets while helping our customers cut costs and increase productivity through the use of Stratasys 3D printing and additive manufacturing solutions.”

Comprehensive QuadTech solutions at Graph Expo

QuadTech will present a comprehensive range of solutions for packaging converters, commercial and newspaper printers, looking to improve print quality, increase profi t and reduce waste. Provided via advanced automation and effective waste control, QuadTech’s technology portfolio enables printers and converters to improve press performance. Presented at Booth 3345, visitors will learn how to achieve print consistency and reduce production costs, whether offset, fl exo or gravure.

Says Karl Fritchen, president of QuadTech: “Printers and converters the world over face the same business pressures—the need to improve competitiveness

and profi tability, while retaining high print quality and introducing additional customer value. Whether for new or existing presses, our portfolio has been developed to enable customers to take tight control of their print production, to achieve these benefi ts and protect the customer relationship. What’s more, by minimising waste, reducing errors and automating many on-press operations, many QuadTech customers are now reporting an ability to service additional business they couldn’t previously support. We look forward to meeting new and existing customers at the show, and discussing how QuadTech can positively impact their business.”

For packaging presses, QuadTech presents the world's fi rst in-line colour measurement and ink control system, the QuadTech Color Quality Solution, utilising the Color Measurement System with SpectralCam. It enables automatic sharing and processing of colour data between in-line colour measurement and off-line colour measurement industry leaders. Maintaining colour quality throughout a print run provides new levels of colour accuracy and assurance to converters and brand managers that colour specifi cations have been met. The modular and integrated 100 per cent Inspection System; inspects the entire substrate width 100 per cent of the time, delivering high levels of accuracy and quality, increasing effi ciency, reducing waste and minimising costs. The system can identify any common printing faults with its 100 percent detection capabilities, making it the system of choice for quality conscious clients.

The QuadTech Color Control and Web Inspection System with AccuCam offers image-based colour control along with in-line scumming detection, plate verifi cation, and water control from the same sensor.

Industry Updates


The QuadTech Register Guidance System with MultiCam is a closed-loop colour-to-colour register control system that enables printers to achieve good copy quickly, reducing waste. Also, optional fan-out control for newspaper printing automatically keeps the system in lateral register across the width of the web. QuadTech Ribbon Control System with MultiCam is a print-to-cut and print-to-fold registration system that minimises waste during make-ready and when cutting any imperfect substrate areas. It is easily integrated with other equipment like UV coaters, folders and rotary cutters.

QuadTech Color Control and Web Inspection System with AccuCam is designed to meet the needs of commercial and newspaper printers. It is an image-based colour control system that provides fully automatic closed-loop color control by adjusting the ink-key settings for consistent colour, eliminating the need for gray bars or colour bars. The system also has a water control capability that monitors and controls press damping levels, reducing paper waste and ink usage. The inspection capability warns press operators of many common printing faults such as scumming, creasing, transposed plates and tramlines.

The QuadTech Digital Ink System provides commercial web and newspaper printers a significant quality and cost-saving improvement by providing more accurate density control at all press speeds. The system delivers ink savings along with enhanced image quality with precise accuracy. The system is a computer-controlled ink injection system that replaces traditional open fountain ink trains, and can

be used to upgrade existing ‘pump and rail’ systems.The QuadTech Color Control System with

Instrument Flight® and SpectralCam offers unmatched colour control and quality along with the L*a*b*, TVI and density data needed to support colour management efforts and monitor adherence to industry standards. The system not only controls solid ink density, but also three-color gray balance and mid-tone dot gain, ensuring consistent top quality colour.

matchmycolor, Packz integrate solutions

matchmycolor and Packz have announced that the companies have completed the integration of their software solutions. This is a partnership of two leading software companies: Packz, which offers productivity tools for making designs print ready, and matchmycolor, which provides colour specification, monitoring and development of accurate colour recipes for packaging materials (print and plastic).

Late last year, the companies signed a partnership agreement to offer a seamless way for users to specify and manage brand colors within Packz packaging tools. In doing so, the combination of Packz Software and matchmycolor Colibri helps users design, specify, produce, manage and control brand-based colors throughout every stage of the global color supply chain.

With the completion of the integration, Packz Software has quick and direct access to brand colour standards. matchmycolor Colibri ensures that only the latest version of a colour standard can be used in Packz software, reducing the chance of errors. Packz and Colibri innovative solutions further enhance precision and efficiency in global color management and connect all participants in the colour supply chain, including brand owners, designers, printers and converters.

Packz offers high performance editing and workflow tools based on native PDF to increase efficiency and communication in prepress for labels and packaging. With already more than 250 active licenses, Packz is widely used by brand service companies (PMAs), trade shops and printers asking for centralized ink and color management resources based on open standards. A major challenge of printing, particularly packaging, is efficient, accurate, consistent colour

The Digital Ink System replaces fountains with computerised ink injectors, providing precise density control across the printed image by metering the correct volume of ink delivered to each control zone.

Industry Updates


communication throughout all media. Designers need to be able to select the correct, accurate colours for each job, and to reference color standards that are used throughout the supply chain. Proofi ng needs to be accurate; and the quality of fi nished products needs to be verifi ed.

matchmycolor provides state-of-the-art software tools to the color supply chain from design to supply of fi nished product. Colibri enables the specifi cation and management of brand colour standards, the feasibility, development and accurate dispensing of colour recipes, and colour monitoring and reporting on the quality of goods produced. The integration of the two solutions will be on display at the Hybrid Software booth (#4308) during Graph Expo, September 13-16 in Chicago.

KBA show in Bangkok evinces good response

The Bitec Exhibition Center in Bangkok opened its doors on 26 August for the four-day Pack Print International trade show shortly after an attack in the Thai capital. Just nine months ahead of the print industry’s internationally leading trade fair, drupa, 231 exhibitors from 21 countries presented their products and services to a predominantly Asian crowd. The Koenig & Bauer Group (KBA) and its regional subsidiary KBA Asia Pacifi c were among the exhibitors. Some 15000 visitors from 75 countries found out about the latest trends in the world of print. For the fi rst time Italian subsidiary KBA-Flexotecnica, responsible for KBA’s fl exible packaging printing segment, was present at this show. A fl exible web press from the KBA subsidiary based in Tavazzano will soon be installed in Thailand and a further press will be delivered to China. Flexotecnica aims to expand its position in the growing fl exible packaging market further with the support of the KBA Group’s regional sales and service subsidiaries.

Half, medium and large-format KBA Rapida sheetfed offset presses are already well established in commercial, book and packaging printing companies in Thailand and its neighbouring countries. Naturally these were the subject of great interest. In recent years, the high performance machines from Saxony have been extremely successful in Thailand. Installations of medium-format presses from the Rapida 105 series have dominated. And even though

Thai printing fi rms are currently holding back in terms of making investments, the fi rst KBA Rapida 106 at TCP on the edge of Bangkok will soon begin printing high-quality packaging at speeds of up to 18000 sph. The press, which is raised by 450mm (17.7in), will be equipped with VariDry dryers, inline colour density measurement and KBA QualiTronic professional sheet inspection system as demands for quality are rising constantly.

The new Rapida 105 PRO which was unveiled at Print China just recently has also attracted its fi rst Thai customers. Continental Packaging in Bangkok is to receive an eight-colour press with coater and UV drying. This installation also underscores KBA’s leading position in packaging printing. A customer from Myanmar ordered a four-colour A2+-format Rapida 66 at the trade show.

Although stock market turbulence in China and the terror attack in Bangkok impacted on the show’s atmosphere and the investment climate in Southeast Asia, it was important for KBA to show its colours

A few days after the terror attack in the Thai capital, KBA showed its colours at Pack Print International in Bangkok.

After the sealing the deal for Thailand’s fi rst medium-format Rapida 105 Pro (l-r): Jesada T. Suwan from KBA’s Thai agency Intergraphics, Kay Halboth, sales at KBA-Sheetfed, and Surin Kamolsuwan and Manit Kamolsuwan from Continental Packaging.

Industry Updates


in the key market of Thailand four months after its large presence at Print China in Guangdong. Stefan Segger, managing director of KBA Asia-Pacific: “Our international business also knows less favourable times. It is important for us to show potential and existing customers regularly that we are there for them and are able to offer them new products and services with which they can to survive in a highly competitive market.”

INMA selects London for 2016 World Congress

For the first time in its 86-year history, the International News Media Association (INMA) World Congress will be held in London. Association executives have announced that the INMA World Congress will be held May 22-24, 2016, at the Pullman St Pancras Hotel in London. The conference Web site is now live and accepting registrations at www.inma.org/worldcongress.

The INMA World Congress is the news media industry’s premier conference dedicated to the sharing of global best practices to grow revenue, audience, and brand. The London conference will focus on the power and passion behind the transformation of media companies to serve and monetise increasingly digital audiences. A record 500 delegates from the top media companies in 50+ countries are expected at the INMA World Congress, which will feature:- Congress programme: An internationally diverse

conference programme of aspirational case studies

Satisfied faces following the sale of a small-format Rapida to Myanmar. L-r: Jesada T. Suwan from KBA’s Thai agency Intergraphics, Patrick Soh from Seinn Lan Shwe Myay, Kay Halboth, sales at KBA-Sheetfed, and Stefan Segger, managing director of KBA Asia Pacific.

and directional keynotes that tie together trends and outliers in the media business.- Global Media Awards: The presentation of the INMA Global Media Awards at the world-famous Victoria and Albert Museum. The awards recognise best practices in energizing news brands, creating new products, engaging and monetising audiences, growing advertising revenue, developing customer insights, and instilling innovation.- Private reception at Tower of London: An opening reception at the Tower of London, inclusive of a private viewing of the Crown Jewels.- Study tours: Pre-Congress study tours of London digital media companies and start-ups as well as legacy media companies reinventing themselves for the Digital Age.“INMA aims to bring the most innovative stories of

reinvention to our global stage, while simultaneously leveraging the best of what London – as a media hub and destination – has to offer,” said Mark Challinor, president of INMA and chairman of the association’s Board of Directors. “Having the World Congress in the United Kingdom is a historic first for INMA, and we look forward to bringing what makes INMA unique to the London stage.”

The International News Media Association (INMA) is a global community of market-leading news media companies reinventing how they engage audiences and grow revenue in a multi-media environment. The INMA community consists of more than 7000 executives at 600+ media companies in 80+ countries. Headquartered in Dallas, INMA has offices in Antwerp, New Delhi, San Salvador, and São Paulo.

Other News


TOI Kolkata editor passes away a smiley. He was a man of few words. His language was simple. He was very passionate about his work and very loving. We have shared a huge number of secrets that perhaps no one else knows about. I won’t call it a loss. He is someone not to be lost. He is always around. He and I shared a dream of taking a vacation in the hills. When the rains came down in Kolkata, whenever it used to turn misty, he would always call me and describe it as ‘home weather’. He took pride in the fact that he was from North Bengal. Yes, he will always be around.”

(Courtesy: The Times of India, Kolkata.)

Are you optimising your news resources?

The 14th International Newsroom Summit, to be held in Hamburg, Germany, on 5 October during the World Publishing Expo, will bring together chief editors from some of the world's most respected mid-sized, small and regional newsrooms to share strategies for producing great journalism for the tumultuous multi-platform news world. "Powerful forces are affecting the health of newsrooms," says Cherilyn Ireton, executive director of the World Editors Forum, which is organising the event. "On the positive side, there is a growing number of smart, digital-minded journalists, comfortable with rapidly changing newsroom technology. They are changing the rules as they experiment for an audience that is increasingly mobile-focused. On the negative side, the pressure on costs is unabated, and competition is fierce and disruptive. This has resulted in strategies that shrink and integrate newsrooms and brands and encourage collaboration. "If successful, this frees up journalists to produce good content. If unsuccessful, it can lead to a credibility and brand collapse."The one-day Newsroom Summit, one of several conferences, workshops and tours to be held during the World Publishing Expo, will feature editors and media experts who are thriving in this environment, primarily at mid-size, small and regional newspapers, a sector that faces its own particular challenges. They include:- Wolfgang Krach, editor-in-chief of Süddeutsche Zeitung in Germany, Doug Wilks, News Division

Sumit Sen, editor of The Times of India, Kolkata, passed away after a brave battle with cancer. He was 60. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee offered her condolences and rushed to the hospital to pay her last respects. The TOI family and Kolkata society — spanning media and government,

art and culture, sports and entertainment — went into shock and said they were struggling to deal with the untimely loss of someone so vibrant.

A keen and versatile journalist who cut his teeth in The Statesman before moving on to The Hindustan Times in 2001 and The Times of India in 2003, Sumit Sen was as passionate about his work till his last day in office as he was the day he started out as a cub reporter on the crime beat. Newspaper veterans recall him taking on the establishment — he was credited with breaking the news of the ‘sale’ of the maidan owned by the defence ministry — and his keen nose for news that led him to several big story breaks. He was also known for his analytical and insightful reports on issues ranging from Left politics in West Bengal to India-Bangladesh relations.

Even just an hour or so before his passing, Sen was planning a major campaign on the mystery around Netaji’s death and taking stock of the daily reports. Fellow journalists remember him for his enthusiasm, focus, and the way he made friends out of complete strangers. During his time with TOI, he gave the Kolkata edition a fresh burst of energy, direction and spirit. Always brimming with ideas, he would constantly coax colleagues to think out of the box, and stay ahead of the times. Under him, TOI Kolkata came to be known as a paper that was always fresh and positive.

He fought through pain for the last few months to carry on working the way he always did. When someone complimented him on his will power, he would brush it away and say, “I am simply taking this as another phase of life. This, too, shall pass.”

Marcus Dam, who was with him at The Statesman and remained a close friend for over 30 years, said:

“It was a WhatsApp message about two weeks ago. In response to a ‘hope u r doing well’, he sent back

Sumit Sen.

Other News


managing editor of the Deseret News and KSL in the United States, Uwe Dulias, managing director of RND in Germany, and Thierry Meyer, editor-in-chief of 24heures in Switzerland, who will participate in a session dedicated to ‘The new news hub: how to be live, deep and collaborative’.-- Alison Gow, editor for Digital Innovation at Trinity Mirror Regionals in the United Kingdom, and Anders Refnov, Digital chief editor for Ekstra Bladet in Denmark, who will participate in a session on ‘How to work with Facebook, Google, Twitter, Snapchat, WhatsApp’ and other news distributors without surrendering audience.

-- Lisa MacLeod, head of Digital at Times Media in South Africa, who will share her ideas on "The little steps of change" that are needed to transform newsrooms.

-- RenéVan Zanten, general director of the Dutch Journalism Fund, which fosters innovation and start-ups in journalism in the Netherlands, who will present the results of the fund's latest scenario planning study, ‘Thinking about the future: 2025 Scenarios for journalism’.

South Asian news publishers discuss growth, innovation

Nearly 600 delegates from more than 30 countries gathered in Mumbai for the opening of the WAN-IFRA India 2015 Conference & Expo, which focuses on growth and innovation for South Asian news publishers, who are emerging from two years in a difficult business climate. In the inaugural session, the WAN-IFRA World Young Reader News Publisher of the Year Awards was presented to Indonesia's Kompas Daily.

The newspaper "has had a major role in creating new citizens capable of sustaining their own freedom of expression and peaceful change of government, two basic elements for any democracy," said Jacob Mathew, past president of WAN-IFRA and executive editor of Malayala Manorama, who presented the award. "They are also at the forefront of connecting to

the young audience via social media with actions that serve the public, create some fun and teach about journalism," he said.

Mobile News Summit focuses on new realities of news delivery

The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) is offering a one-day Mobile News Summit on 6 October in Hamburg, Germany, to bring together leading publishers and experts from The Economist, Le Monde, The Washington Post and many others who are shaping the future of mobile news.

"Mobile has clearly emerged as the main driver of growth in the news business, increasing audiences, revenues and markets and having a profound impact on news production," said Vincent Peyrègne, CEO of WAN-IFRA. "Mobile usage is exploding and is on its way to becoming the majority of all digital media activity.

This conference will provide news executives with an opportunity to hear from those at the forefront of these developments."

According to several industry forecasts, mobile revenues could reach more than 70 billion dollars globally by 2017. News apps are envisaged to take up to five per cent of this market in 2017, or nearly 3.5 billion dollars. Consumers now spend more than two hours a day with mobile, ahead of television, the desktop, radio or print. The Mobile News Summit will examine mobile advertising, editorial, emerging platforms including wearables, and much more. Speakers include:

- Jamie Credland, global head of Client Marketing for The Economist, and Edouard Andrieu, director of Mobile for Le Monde in France, in a session on the intense competition of ‘morning briefing’ apps. Both publications have created sophisticated daily morning apps that provide their own editorial rhythm and context.

- Staffan Engstrom, head of Mobile for Schibsted, who will provide a case study on the innovations the leading international publisher (6900 employees in 29 countries) is providing in mobile ads.

- Julia Beizer, director of Mobile Products for The Washington Post, who will speak in a session dedicated to opportunities for publishers in ‘wearables’ like the Apple Watch. For The Post, the Apple Watch is providing a ‘living lab’ platform to test new forms of storytelling and technology. The conference will also include a panel discussion on whether such platforms are really changing the news industry.

Other News


-- Andreasn Fuhlisch, managing director and partner of Media Plus Group, and Craig Hyde, co-founder and president of Rigor, in a session on what's new in mobile advertising.

PTI elects Hormusji N. Cama its chairman

Managing Director of Bombay Samachar, Hormusji N. Cama was elected the new chairman of the Press Trust of India (PTI). Riyad Mathew, director of Malayala Manorama, was elected vice-chairman. Cama succeeds Mohan Gupta, chairman and managing director of Jagran Prakashan. He is also a member of the Press Council and chairman for Readership Studies Council of India along with being president of the Indian Newspaper Society. Cama is also on the board of council for Fair Business Practices and Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC). Additional members of the PTI Board were also elected at the meeting. Some of the elected members of the board are Mohan Gupta of Jagran Prakashan, K.N. Shanth Kumar of Deccan Herald, Vineet Jain of The Times of India, Aveek Kumar Sarkar of Ananda Bazar Patrika, Viveck Goenka of Indian Express, N. Ravi of The Hindu, M.P. Veerendra Kumar of Mathrubhumi, Sanjoy Narayan of Hindustan Times, Vijay Kumar Chopra of Hind Samachar and R. Laksh-mipathy of Dinamalar. (Courtesy: exchange4media.com)

Shashi Sinha is chairman, ABC Shashidhar Sinha, CEO, IPG Mediabrands India,

was unanimously elected chairman of the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) for 2015-2016 at its 67th annual general meeting. The announcement comes along with the formal announcement of ABC taking up digital measurement. The digital measurement services offered by ABC would be available to all digital properties who desire to get their numbers measured based on a sound principle of measurement and in a transparent manner. The task before Sinha is to implement the digital measurement project undertaken by ABC so that the industry is benefited with credible digital data from a trustworthy independent body. ABC would engage a proven technology partner who would bring to the

table many years of experience in digital measurement together with panel data. Digital properties desiring to be measured would be tagged. The entire process of digital measurement would be controlled and audited so as to ensure that the measurement data truly reflects its audiences.

ABC would very soon start the digital measurement services and a further announcement would be made at a suitable date. I. Venkat of Eenadu was unanimously elected deputy chairman. (Courtesy: exchange4media.com)

Benoy Roychowdhury elected chairman, ASCI

At the board meeting of the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) held recently, Benoy Roychowdhury, executive director at HT Media and whole-time director of Hindustan Media Ventures, was unanimously elected chairman of the Board of ASCI. As a member of the board of governors for four years, he has represented print media and provided active support to Self-Regulation. Srinivasan K. Swamy, chairman and managing director, RK Swamy BBDO, was elected vice-chairman; and Shashidhar Sinha, CEO, IPG Mediabrands was re-appointed the honorary treasurer.


New national editor, Politics, for Express

Senior Journalist Sheela Bhatt has joined Indian Express as national editor, Politics. This is her second stint with the company. Prior to this, she was working with Rediff as editorial director. With more than three decades of experience in all the mediums such as print, TV and Internet, Bhatt has also worked with other organisations such as Star and India Today. (Courtesy: exchange4media.com)

New senior assistant editor for The Hindu The Hindu has appointed Mahesh Langa as senior assistant editor. Langa takes on the role with more than a decade of experience covering politics and

Other News


crime. He will be based out of Ahmedabad and report to Amit Baruah, resident editor, The Hindu, New Delhi. Langa has worked with Hindustan Times since 2009 and earlier with Indian Express for two years. He started his career with Tehelka magazine in 2005. (Courtesy: exchange4media.com)

Kalbag editor of The Hindu’s Mumbai edition

Sachin Kalbag, editor of Mid-Day is all set to join The Hindu Mumbai edition. The Hindu’s editor Malini Parthasarathy has confirmed the launch of the edition on the Huffington Post. She said that the edition will have more lifestyle and entertainment content for young readers, but will not be hyper-local, and that it will be a national edition with a similar structure as the Delhi addition. Kalbag joined Mid-Day in 2011 and before that was senior editor at Mail Today. He has also worked with Hindustan Times and DNA. (Courtesy: exchange4media.com)

inext revamps 12 editions to broadsheet

In a strategic shift, i next has been transformed into a slim, broadsheet newspaper, in line with the inclinations of its increasingly diversified readers. With this, India’s popular bilingual tabloid has taken a cardinal leap of sorts after a nine-year journey. With content that would be relevant and utilitarian across international, national, local, entertainment and business news, inext, in its new broadsheet format will not only have a deeper penetration within the city but will now also reach out to the audiences in the up-country footprint across the states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar and Jharkhand.

Talking about the rationale behind this change, Alok Sanwal, COO, and editor, inext said, “This step is basically to expand in our key markets and go deeper in the small towns. As of now, 12 editions in the states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand will be transformed into broadsheets, while only the Indore edition will remain in its compact format. No changes have been made in the paper’s pricing as of now. The whole idea behind going broadsheet is also to increase penetration in the tier II and III cities and

attract more of the male adult audience who are still comfortable with broadsheets.”


Rajasthan Patrika launches CSR initiative

Neenv (Shiksha Ka Sawal) is new initiative taken by Rajasthan Patrika. Neenv is basically an action based campaign focused on raising the levels of education and to promote and inspiring environment in government schools. The outreach of this campaign spreads across its footprints in one state, 33 districts, 295 blocks, 30,000+ government schools.

Neenv throws light on the ground realities and situation existing in the current government schools across the state. The campaign is boosted with the help of three main acts RTI (Right to Information), RTE (Right to Education), RTH (Right to Hearing) which aims at monitoring the government schools and public education. A team of 200 organisations, 400 reports, 500 volunteers, 50000 active citizens, 100000 RTI’s .

Google to provide free WiFi across 400 railway stations

Google is all set to bring free high speed WiFi access to almost 400 railway stations through out India. While this comes in joint collaboration with Indian Railways, the service will be using Google Fiber project, popularly known to provide fast broadband in the USA.

Now, this service by Google is said to be expanded to Indian cities under the name Project Nilgiri. With this initiative, Google and Indian Railways are jointly aiming to set up WiFi hotspots across select railway stations through out the nation to offer seamless connectivity to passengers. It is also being said the service will be allowing users to access free Internet at high speeds for first 34 minutes and later the speed will reduce. However, the connectivity will remain.It is expected that the first phase of the project shall be up and running in a span of 4 months. (Courtesy: Ananda Bazar Patrika)

EVENTS CALENDAR


November

October

2015

December 2-3, organised by WAN-IFRA, Chennai: Social Media for News Publishers. More details from [email protected]

October 5, organised by WAN-IFRA, in Hamburg: 14th International Newsroom Summit. More details from [email protected] 5-7, organised by WAN-IFRA, in Hamburg: World Publishing Expo 2015. More details from [email protected] 6, organised by WAN-IFRA, in Hamburg: Mobile News Summit. More details from [email protected] 7, organised by WAN-IFRA, in Hamburg: World Printers Forum Conference 2015. More details from [email protected]

November 2-5, organised by WAN-IFRA, in New York: Study Tour – WEF – The New NYC Newsrooms. More details from [email protected] November 3-4, organised by WAN-IFRA, in New Delhi: Increasing Readership. More details from [email protected] 17-19, organised by WAN-IFRA, in Hong Kong: Digital Media Asia 2015. More details from [email protected]

DecemberOctober 23-24, organised by WAN-IFRA, in Mexico: Digital Media LATAM 15. More details at http://dml.wan-ifra.org/


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Yes, digital publishing is here to stay

Tablets might still be a niche market in India, but they are a rapidly growing and promising new media channel for newspaper publishers. Digital publishing to tablets is another step in the ongoing evolution of the media industry. This change forces publishers to define an effective multi-channel publishing strategy, enabling them to effortlessly address any channel and to monetise new channels such as tablets successfully. A special report by Stefan Horst >>> more

Dinamalar surges forward on the new media front

A 60-year-old newspaper has adapted and moved with the times, and moved quickly. Its Web site attracts more than two million unique visitors and more than 190 million page views a month; its iPhone, iPod and iPad applications have recorded a substantial number of downloads and page views, with various apps being made available on the Android platform as well. All run and managed by a small team that is highly focused on delivering value to users as well as clients, and it has paid off well. Sashi Nair reports on the Dinamalar new media success story

>>> more

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THE YOUNG WILL ALWAYS MAKE A DIFFERENCEWINNERS ALL The World Young Reader Prize champions for 2015 ranged from profit-making initiatives through experiments with new digital solutions to teaching about freedom of expression and about professional newsgathering. The winners (pictured above; names on page 4) received their awards and talked about their initiatives at the WAN-IFRA India Conference in Mumbai that included a special session on strategies for youth engagement. That might have been just as well. A recent survey in the US showed that newspapers continue to attract younger and younger audiences, even in the 18 to 24 age group. And, as if on cue, the focus this year at WAN-IFRA India was on looking at the way ahead and finding ways to innovate and grow rather than wondering how to get out of a morass of imponderables.

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