Newspaper & Magazines
Newspaper & Magazines
Newspaper & Magazines
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PRINT<br />
SEMI-COMMERCIAL<br />
DOOR<br />
The time is long past when a newspaper publisher could survive by<br />
using his press for only a few hours each day and most European printers/publishers<br />
have now gone down the semi-commercial path or are<br />
planning to do so. The options are increasingly varied and the issues<br />
significant – so is the cost. But if a newspaper press is expensive to run,<br />
it’s even more expensive if it’s not running, and the appeal of keeping<br />
the cylinders turning becomes ever greater as market pressures increase.<br />
But moving into the semi-commercial<br />
sector requires much more than<br />
investing in new equipment. It demands<br />
that every job is approached on a<br />
‘commercial basis’, from a quality, cost and<br />
turnaround angle. This means achieving<br />
consistent high quality, short make-readies,<br />
fast throughput and low waste as well<br />
as the ability to print on to a wider range of<br />
stock. It might need changes to staffing levels<br />
and working practices and a press in<br />
operation most of the day will certainly require<br />
a different maintenance programme.<br />
UK newspaper printer Mortons Print Ltd.<br />
in Lincolnshire moved into the semi-com-<br />
Mortons Print Ltd. managing direc<br />
Mortons Print Ltd managing director<br />
Ian Fisher (right) and pressroom<br />
manager Ian Barton<br />
54 N&M NEWSPAPER&MAGAZINES 1/2008<br />
mercial market over ten years ago when it<br />
installed a Goss Universal press, which was<br />
extended in 2002 with a second dryer and<br />
the addition of Baldwin Impact automatic<br />
blanket cleaning technology. However, the<br />
move had its surprises as Ian Fisher, managing<br />
director of Morton Print, explains.<br />
“At the time we could see an opening in the<br />
market to uplift the quality of the newspaper<br />
titles we were producing by incorporating<br />
a heatset printed cover and so in 1996<br />
we installed a 72-page Goss Universal with<br />
drying facilities on one tower. Everything<br />
went smoothly and we discussed in detail<br />
with our customers the exciting new opportunities.<br />
t Most were very enthusiastic, but<br />
we w had a few long standing customers who<br />
suddenly s starting thinking what they could<br />
do d if they changed the format of their pub-<br />
lications<br />
completely and took them to the<br />
commercial c<br />
web sector! The result was<br />
that<br />
we actually lost some clients comple-<br />
tely<br />
– a scenario we had not considered at<br />
all.” a<br />
Using U all towers<br />
Fortunately, Mortons Print Ltd. soon<br />
won extra work and found a market<br />
niche that has taken it from strength<br />
to<br />
strength. In 2006 it installed a singlewidth<br />
w manroland six-tower Uniset with the<br />
capacity c to print 96-pages in full colour.<br />
Last year the company equipped the Uniset<br />
with a manroland folder and invested in<br />
new Ferag equipment that gave it total flexibility<br />
in the integration of the press, folder<br />
and mailroom.<br />
“A newspaper press represents a huge investment<br />
but its full potential capacity is<br />
often never achieved because of limitations<br />
within the post-press area,” says Ian Fisher.<br />
“At present, if a job does not require all<br />
six towers, then those not used are effectively<br />
wasted for the duration of that work.<br />
We already operated off-line stitching facilities<br />
and had mailroom systems from WRH<br />
Marketing UK, including a Ferag RollSert<br />
inserting unit, plus stacking, conveying and<br />
trimming systems. These have proved to<br />
be highly efficient, enabling the production<br />
of tabloid and quarter fold work incorporating<br />
a wide range of inserts.<br />
“The additional Ferag equipment installed<br />
in 2007 resulted in huge press flexibility,<br />
which enabled us to utilise the majority of<br />
towers for most of the time. For example,<br />
we could print a job requiring four towers,<br />
then quarter fold and stitch it on-line using<br />
the new StreamStitch facility. At the same<br />
time we could produce a completely different<br />
job on the remaining two towers, with<br />
the output from these being handled offline<br />
by the existing equipment. The tower<br />
combinations could be one and five or three<br />
and three, while the stock, run lengths and<br />
finishing could be totally different for each<br />
job.<br />
“For a relatively low cost we created what is<br />
effectively a second comprehensive mailroom<br />
facility without having to duplicate the<br />
equipment we already have, and we achieved<br />
this within the present factory space.<br />
The versatility of the existing RollSert system<br />
means it can be used for either on-line<br />
or off-line inserting, while the significantly<br />
higher throughput, which can be achieved<br />
with on-line inserting, stitching and trimming,<br />
enables us to handle longer print<br />
runs more efficiently and take us into new
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