IBD goes CTP
by Brad Grimes
In 15 short years, Los Angeles-based Investor’s Business Daily has expanded its circulation to over 250,000, making it the fastest-growing newspaper in America. In 1964, sister company William O’Neil and Co. created the first daily computer database to track the stock market. Small wonder, then, that a paper with such momentum and technical savvy would undertake an aggressive transition to computer-to-plate systems.
While traditional newspapers take a cautious approach to CTP, IBD dove right in. Earlier this year, the paper purchased 23 CTP systems from Purup-Eskofot, a Danish company with U.S. offices in Atlanta. By the end of September, the newspaper had finished testing and deploying its first five systems. According to Ben Mical, IBD’s national print-site manager, the group will have all 23 systems up and running across 11 different print sites by April 1.
The rollout was carefully planned. "A year and a half ago, we tested every CTP device available," says Plant Manager Gary Preuss. "Our R&D guys went to all the trade shows and assessed run speeds on all the equipment."
They settled on the Purup-Eskofot DMX system because it was fast and reliable, Preuss says. Now the L.A. plant is cranking out 2,000 plates a day at the rate of two plates a minute. Mical likens the system to a ’57 Chevy: "Those cars were workhorses, in the same way these devices are very solid."
Solid, maybe. A breeze to implement? Not quite. At the same time IBD was bringing its CTP systems online, it also was installing a Unisys editorial system to create the requisite digital work flow. The two didn’t always play nicely. "It was a major endeavor to get the systems to communicate," says Mical. "We had problems sending and receiving some files, among other little things. But the Unisys and Purup-Eskofot engineers kept in close contact and ironed each issue out."
In fact, both Mical and Preuss agree the Purup-Eskofot technicians are a big reason the implementation is going smoothly. They use pcAnywhere remote-access software, allowing engineers in Denmark to dial into the system, take control and troubleshoot glitches.
Training the newspaper’s staff took time, says Preuss. "It’s like rebuilding a jet engine while the plane is in flight," he explains. "You have to maintain altitude while working." For that reason, he says, the newspaper is still doing conventional stripping in the short run as a backup.
And what of the jobs that have been eliminated by the CTP system? Preuss says he still needs those workers on staff. "Quality-checking the plates is a main consideration," he says. "People have to look over a new plate every 30 seconds. They have about 10 seconds to actually check them out."
It’s a high-speed job, but nothing a fast-moving operation like Investor’s Business Daily can’t handle.
Grimes is a senior editor for PC World magazine in Boston. E-mail, brad_grimes @pcworld.com.