4 TRADE NEWS SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014 Express Newspapers opts for Magnum Compact Express Newspapers (Ceylon) Limited, publisher of the Tamil-language daily Vorakesari, has ordered a Goss Magnum Compact press for installation at its plant in Colombo, Sri Lanka, for the production of daily and weekly newspapers and semi-commercial magazines. Launched in 1930, Virakesari is a 28-page daily with a circulation of approximately 65,000 copies; the 72- page Sunday Virakesari has a circulation or around 120,000 copies and is distributed to 15 countries, includ-ing the UK, France, India, the USA, New Zealand and Australia. A weekly edition is also published in Doha, Qatar on Thursdays under the title Tamil Times and circu-lated throughout the Middle East. Express Newspapers’ recent order comprises three four-high Magnum Compact towers with one folder for 24-page single-width production with 546mm cut-off. Installation is scheduled to begin in spring 2015. “Apart from providing more page capacity, the new press is highly automated which will make our daily pro-duction more streamlined and efficient, said Kumar Na-desan, managing director, Express Newspapers.” Automated plate-changing system The Goss Magnum Compact press is a 2x1 web off-set press with an automatic plate-changer. The Goss Au-toplate plate-changing facility will enable Express News-papers to change a full set of 24 plates in less than five minutes, including ink presets. In addition, the ability to change a single plate in less than one minute will allow Express Newspapers to produce the multiple language editions of the company’s flagship newspaper, Virakesari, with unprecedented speed and efficiency. Full automa-tion with pre-setting, automatic register control, ink fill-ing and automatic reelstands are among the other time and waste-saving features. In addition to the three editions of Virakesari, Express Newspapers publishes a raft of newspapers and coldset magazines, including: • Metro News (25,000 copies) – a daily 24-page tab-loid newspaper, and its 40-page Friday edition, which has a circulation of 40,000 copies for distri-bution across Sri Lanka. • The Vidivelli (27,000 copies) – a weekly 24-page broadsheet newspaper distributed mainly in the Eastern regions of Sri Lanka. • The Sooriyakanthi (15,000 copies) – a weekly 16- page broadsheet newspaper circulated in the cen-tral region of Sri Lanka. • The Mithiran (40,000 copies) – a weekly 44-page family magazine in tabloid format • The Genuis (20,000 copies) – a fortnightly 32-page tabloid magazine for young adults • The Jothidakesari (10,000 copies) – a monthly 100- page astrology magazine The Sugavalvu (10,000 copies) – a monthly 64-page general health maga-zine. From newspapers to books and semi-commercial As the Goss Magnum Compact press is equally suited to book and semi-commercial work as newspaper print-ing, it is an attractive choice for the company. “With the transformation of the newspaper market, we want to be sure that we are able to respond to new circumstances,” Nadesan continued. “The Magnum Compact press is a game-changer in being able to offer that versatility as well as the immediate benefit of time and waste savings. This made it our best choice to ac-commodate different editions, jobs, and the possibility of short runs for special editions or commercial publica-tions.” The fast and automatic plate changes of the Mag-num Compact mean that plates can be changed and good copy achieved extremely fast, making it viable for short runs as low as 500 copies. Iwate Nippo orders 2 Mitsubishi 4 x 1 presses Iwate Nippo, the leading newspaper in Japan’s Iwate Prefecture - one of the hardest hit areas devas-tated by the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011 - has recently ordered two Mitsubishi 4 x 1 DIAMONDSPIRIT newspaper offset presses. With a daily circulation of 210,000 copies, Iwate Nippo is widely popular among local residents and has significantly contributed to the region’s relief and recov-ery efforts after the earthquake. When the company started to work on a new print-ing centre project, it appointed MHI-PPM as a consultant for defining its production equipment needs, printing materials and energy supply requirements appropriate to the region’s colder climate and environment. The DIAMONDSPIRIT presses selected for Iwate Nippo are rated at 80,000 cph with a web width of 1,626mm (64 in). Each will be configured with three 4/4 tower printing units, two 1/1 tower printing units, one 2:2 dou-ble rotary folder and five reelstands. They will be able to print 40-page newspapers with 24 pages in colour. The presses will be operated by the Mitsubishi press control system with automated features that include ink presetting with CTP interface, various press presets, auto-matic colour register control and other production-en-hancing offerings. With this latest order, MHI-PPM further focuses on solution-targeted marketing, growing with customers in both domestic and overseas markets, and responding to diversified needs of newspaper production. A Goss Magnum Compact press Khaleej Times implements new CMS Khaleej Times, one of the highest circulated daily English language newspaper throughout the UAE, has selected Newscycle Digital in a strategic move to give the newspaper a flexible content manage-ment system for creating and publishing high vol-umes of multimedia content and delivering it across mul-tiple digital channels. The new system acquired by the Galadari Brothers Group will publish and manage the digital version of the newspaper, Khaleej Times Online, www.khaleejtimes. com, and will integrate with Newscycle’s advertising and content management systems already in use at Khaleej Times. “We consistently work on enhancing the workflows for achieving greater efficiencies in the production sys-tem and improvement in the end product, says Saghir Ahmed Khan, senior vice president, finance and opera-tions at Khaleej Times. This new system will help us de-liver multimedia content through many channels the way our audience wants to receive it, he says.” NEWSCYCLE Solutions was formed in 2013 by the combination of DTI, SAXOTECH, Atex AdBase and Medi-aSpan. It delivers a complete range of software solutions for the global news media industry, including news con-tent management, advertising, circulation, audience, and analytics across more than 30 countries.
Asian Newspaper Focus 09/10_2014
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