Two of the last major-metro dailies without plans for next-generation pagination systems have chosen their dance partners.

The Los Angeles Times selected an editorial-and-pagination system from Danish software developer CCI Europe, while The Wall Street Journal signed a contract with CCI’s largest metro-market rival, Unisys Corp. of Blue Bell, Pa.

Both papers’ parent companies have longstanding relationships with their suppliers. One Times Mirror Co. daily, The Hartford Courant, was the first U.S. paper to install a CCI system, while WSJ parent Dow Jones & Co. has worked with Unisys for 20 years.

At the Times, installation of the CCI NewsDesk editorial-and-pagination system will include approximately 1,650 workstations. Based on a central Oracle 8i database and including a disaster-recovery solution, the system will be rolled out over 21 months.

At the WSJ, replacement of a custom-developed front end with some 300 workstations running Unisys’ Hermes editorial-and-pagination system and WireCenter wire-management system has already begun. The systems, which will be integrated with Dow Jones’ page-delivery system, use Oracle’s Enterprise Edition as their database engine.

Quark-InDesign Battle Goes Vertical

Now that Adobe Systems Inc. has positioned InDesign as a challenger to Quark Inc.’s desktop dominance, both companies are turning their focus to vertical markets.

Calling the move "a new way of strengthening the relationship between Quark and its customers," Denver-based Quark spun off its Quark Publishing System application to Modulo Systems Corp. of Cambridge, Mass. Modulo retains strong ties to closely held Quark, and several members of Quark management sit on its board of directors.

Led by Lee Silverman, formerly head of Cybergraphics’ U.S. operations, Modulo will customize QPS for specific vertical markets, including newspapers. "Modulo benefits from being close to Quark, but we have greater ability to respond to the market and the users," Silverman says.

Meanwhile, Adobe unveiled InCopy, an editorial work-flow tool intended to give InDesign QPS-like functionality. Available only through system integrators and third-party developers, it will serve as the linchpin for several newspaper vendors’ integration efforts.

A CTP Wildcat

ECRM Inc. of Tewskbury, Mass., recently introduced the Wildcat, a 120 plate-per-hour computer-to-plate system priced just beneath the six-figure mark.

Costing $99,500, the Wildcat produces 120 broadsheet plates per hour at 1,000 dots per inch; it also will generate plates at resolutions of up to 2,540 dpi and with 150-line screens. It can be ordered with a red laser for imaging on silver-halide metal plates or an optional green laser also capable of imaging photopolymer plates.

In Brief

Cascade Systems Inc. of Acton, Mass., developer of asset-management and

e-commerce solutions, acquired MidSystem Technology Ltd., a British developer of work-flow management software. MidSystem technology had already served as the search engine for a Cascade ad-tracking system installed at the Los Angeles Times; the two companies now will integrate their products formally.

Flint Ink Corp. of Ann Arbor, Mich., acquired The Ink Company of West Sacramento, Calif. The move brings to two the number of major ink suppliers to the U.S. newspaper industry.

Heidelberg Web Systems announced the first sale of its gapless Mainstream 80 press, to be unveiled in May at Drupa 2000 (see p. 36). Dansk Avis Truk, which prints some of Denmark’s largest daily newspapers, will install the press in June.

Robertson Press Machinery Co. of Webb City, Mo., sold its first low-profile remanufactured News King four-high printing tower to newspaper and commercial printer Five Star Printing Ltd. of Virden, Ill. "Up until now, News King users have not had a workable option for back-to-back four-color printing," says Marketing Director Sheryl Lallemand.

TKS Inc. sold 276 digital ink pumps to the Austin American-Statesman. "The quality printing from the digital ink pumps and the functionality of the keypad controller were deciding factors," says Bob Tucker, the paper’s vice president for operations.

TechNews Volume 6, Number 1: January/February 2000

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