NEXPO Review: Pre Press

First Published: May 2008

Saving Money and Time Drives Advances

By Heidi Ernst | Photo By Ringo H.W. Chu

Outsourcing—and its frequent companion, consolidation—were common topics among NEXPO® exhibitors and presenters with suppliers offering new outsourced services and presenters discussing outsourced functions ranging from overflow color work to IT help desks.

The need to reduce costs is the primary driver for outsourcing as well as advances in plate technologies and digital workflow systems, some of which offer features for those who are outsourcing printing.

Several companies introduced new products or services to help meet newspapers’ outsourcing needs. Express KCS (www.expresskcs.com), a San Jose-based company with production facilities in India, debuted its ATM (Ad Tracking Module) workflow system, spec-ad design capabilities and editorial services.

2AdPro (www.2adpro.com), a Woodland Hills, Calif.-based company, showed its new workflow tool, the 2.0 version of JobDirect, a platform that builds print and Web ads for publishers and was developed in 2AdPro’s India facilities.

Atex (www.atex.com) unveiled Managed Services, offering management (on-site and off) of servers and databases. “Fundamentally, we’re replacing IT,” said Scott Roessler, ATEX Americas chief executive officer.

American Outsourcing Solutions, a year-old U.S. ad-production and Web-publishing outsourcer that completes all work in Dallas, Pa., just added pagination to its services (see story, p. 18).

Partnerships designed to ease outsourcing also were a hot topic at NEXPO. Here are a few:

2AdPro and Software Consulting Services (www.newspapersystems.com) announced the SCS/Track ad-production tracking system that offers global ad building and manages end-to-end ad design and production. Affinity Express (www.affinityexpress.com) debuted Service Bureau 2.0, a workflow system that uses Mediaspectrum (www.mediaspectrum.net) technology in Affinity’s production facilities in India and the Philippines.

Meanwhile, through a partnership with DPS Inc. (www.dps-ct.com) and its ad-tracking system, CCI Sourcing (www.ccisourcing.com), which has sales offices in Atlanta and fulfillment in India, sends ad-production work to a server in San Francisco so files stay in the United States.

While outsourcing “has become synonymous with offshoring, it doesn’t have to be the case,” said Bill Blackwood, vice president of newspaper services for American Color (www.americancolor.com). Blackwood, whose company started doing overflow color and pre-press work in 1988 for the Houston Chronicle and now has 70 employees on-site, spoke at a Consolidating and Outsourcing session.

Other panelists discussed how their newspapers are using outsourcing and consolidation to save resources. Harriet Boyd, director of information technology for the Los Angeles Times, described consolidating 10 IT help desks for Chicago-based Tribune Co. in the United States into one in Bangalore, India.

Joe Gallo, vice president and chief information officer for The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, talked about outsourcing ad-production to Affinity Express. And Toni Humphreys, director of regional toning centers for Gannett Co. in McLean, Va., outlined the consolidation of photo-toning operations for 86 dailies into a few U.S. regional centers.

Each project posed different challenges, but some themes emerged: Get executive-level support and know your workflows before starting. Saving money also was a common goal. Boyd’s average per-call cost dropped from almost $10 to under $4, Gallo’s outsourcing has saved about 20 percent, and Humphreys said Gannett expects to save $2.5 million this year from the photo-center mergers.

Saving money and time—while enhancing newspapers—also drove advances in digital workflow systems.

ProImage America Inc. (www.newsway.com) showcased OnColor ECO, a software tool that saves about 15 to 20 percent on ink costs by replacing some cyan, magenta and yellow ink with less expensive black ink. Polkadots Software (www.polkadots.ca) announced that AdFlo, once a module of its workflow system, now stands alone and has a new Web-portal interface. One reason for the split is to allow newspapers that outsource printing to do everything upfront on ads and pages.

To enhance ad-space reservation functions, ppi Media US Inc. (www.ppimedia-us.com) introduced a new version of its AdDispo solution for seamless integration. ECRM Imaging Systems (www.ecrm.com) announced the 8.0 version of Harlequin RIP in its WorkMates NEWS production workflow. Fusion Systems International (www.fusionsystems.com) showed the latest release of its Workflow ESP Advanced workflow solution.

Heightened efficiency and lower costs extended to computer-to-plate choices, with exhibitors debuting faster machines with smaller footprints. Anocoil Corp.’s (www.anocoil.com) new negative-thermal-plate CTP processor, the Aquablator, is only about  three feet long and  four feet wide and processes 200 plates per hour. At 225 pph, alfaQuest Technologies’ (www.alfaquest.com) violet FasTRAK V CTP system increases its plate throughput 25 percent over the old version.

ECRM debuted the MAKO NEWSmatic HS plus, a fully automatic violet CTP production that produces up to 150 pph, doubling the original machine’s capacity. Southern Lithoplate (www.slp.com) released a full-market commercial launch of its TIGER V violet CTP plate, which provides water receptivity for easy maintenance of ink and water balance.

Eastman Kodak Co. (http://graphics.kodak.com) introduced Generation News, a high-speed thermal CTP platesetter based on the engine technology of Trendsetter News but with a compact footprint and increased automation and speed up to 300 pph.

Agfa Corp. (www.agfa.com) announced the North American debut of its :N92-V violet laser plate, which incorporates a violet photopolymer plate technology and offers improved run lengths. And the news version of Fujifilm Graphic Systems U.S.A. Inc.’s (www.fujifilmgs.com) EcoMaxx-V chemistry-free violet CTP machine offers a lower environmental footprint and processes as many as 300 pph.

No longer a question of violet versus thermal, both proven technologies, CTP choices, like many options for newspaper publishers today—including whether to fulfill a job in-house or outsource it—come down to economics.