NEWS ANCHOR

20
NEWSPAPERPRINTING
into an automated line that punches, exposes, processes and
bends them, ready for the press room; and they have a capacity
to make 800 plates per hour, with a minimum of staff. All
components are punched and pinned, from the film coming
off the imagesetter through to press so, although not as precise
as with CtP, the register is quite good and make-ready is very
quick.
The other oft-touted financial benefit of CtP is the lower
overall cost of consumables that results from the elimination
of film. However, many commercial printers and newspapers
would argue that doesn’t always hold true. By the time they
count the higher cost of the CtP plates and chemicals there
isn’t much of a saving. For the very large papers this is particularly
true because they have managed to negotiate such low
prices for their film and analogue plates.
Finally, for newspapers there is an additional factor in the
ROI calculations, the film-to-plate ratio. Unlike commercial
printing, where usually only one set of plates is made per job,
it is common in the large dailies to make as many as six or
more sets. Printing the paper on a number of presses concurrently
makes it possible to meet their delivery deadline. It’s the
only way you get to check last night’s scores while eating breakfast.
Using the example of The Star one last time; they have an
average daily circulation of 465,000 and their six Man Roland
presses are rated at a maximum speed of 85,000 copies per
hour. The math is simple. It would take over five hours running
flat out if they just printed from one set of plates. Making
more than one set of plates reduces the printing time but it
also reduces the potential savings from the elimination of the
film. So for many newspapers, looking for ways to reduce production
costs in the face of declining ad revenue, CtP hasn’t
proven to be the right direction, at least not yet.
However, the CtP outlook is far from bleak, and it has
already proven a viable option for many newspapers. Based on
the numbers reported by Ifra and the rosy sales reports from
some platesetter manufacturers, an increasing number of the
ROI calculations must be yielding positive numbers since the
conversions continue at an accelerating rate. When they do
CtP Options for Newspapers:
The most recent trade shows, IPEX and NEXPO revealed a
selection of platesetters for
the newspaper industry:
At the end of 2005 Agfa
claimed an installed base of
over 1,500 newspaper computer-to-plate
systems, making
it a leader in this category.
The company offers the
:Advantage and Polaris violet
laser platesetters for newspapers
(both manufactured by
make the switch, the options are very much the same as for
commercial printers. It is pretty much a battle for dominance
between visible light and thermal technology.
The vendors of these technologies are racing to convert as
many of the remaining papers as possible. And in North
America Agfa is the dominant vendor of visible (mainly violet
laser diode) platesetters and plates, while Kodak, having repatriated
KPG and purchased Creo, leads the march to thermal.
There are some other vendors in the market such as ECRM,
Screen and now Fuji is making a charge at the newspaper market,
but Ifra’s 2005 figures indicate that Agfa and Kodak/Creo
had over 80% of the platesetter installations, divided almost
equally between them. There is little more competition for the
consumables business, although Fuji and Southern Lithoplate
do have noticeable share.
So the race will continue until the last paper has been converted
to CtP. The vendors know that if they win the platesetter
they will likely win the plates too, and experience shows
that once a newspaper installs major prepress equipment they
will probably run it for at least six or seven years. That adds up
to a lot of plates if you are the chosen supplier, and a long wait
if you aren’t.
But regardless of the agendas driven by the vendors, those
newspapers that have yet to adopt CtP won’t be forced to
change before they’re ready. Perhaps, for the very large papers
like The Star, the ROI will never justify the switch to CtP. It
may be that the perceived quality issue and customer demand
will finally force the remaining papers to install platesetters
because ultimately, it’s about pleasing the customers. For the
newspapers the risk is not so much about losing the customer
to another paper, but rather losing him to another media, and
that’s a dilemma that all printers can understand. CP
(* Ifra counts total platesetter installs rather than the number
of customers so market-share percentages maybe misleading.)
Jim Dutton has over 20 years experience in the graphic arts industry.
He can be reached a j.dutton@sympatico.ca
Punch Graphix). The latest offerings are manual and semiautomatic
versions of the :Advantage line targeting mediumsized
newspapers. The new violet laser devices Xm (manual)
and Xs (semi-automatic) offer a throughput of 85
plates/hour and resolutions from 1,000 to 2,540 dpi.
They can image plates up to 41 x 25 inches.
The NEWSmatic is an automated violet laser CtP
system from ECRM capable of delivering up to 80
broadsheet plates per hour.These economical systems are
manufactured in the U.S.
Fuji is making moves into
the newspaper market showing
the new Saber News
CTP at Nexpo. This violet
device is capable of up to
130 single plates/hour, or up to
www.canadianprinter.com APRIL/MAY, 2006