Three Cheers for CMYK U.
by L. Carol Christopher
Give me a C! Give me an M! Give me a Y! Give me a K!
What does that spell? COLOR!
At CMYK University, the Millersburg, Pa., training facility conceptualized by Thomson Newspapers visionaries, you’re not likely to run into a pep squad. And the only cheerleaders you’ll en-counter will be execs from newspaper groups around the country, including Gannett Co. of Arlington, Va.; Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. in Birmingham, Ala.; Media General Inc. in Richmond, Va.; Cox Newspapers Inc. of Atlanta; and USA Today’s print-site network.
"The idea for the center arose out of need," says Tom Shafer, a former Thomson exec who’s now CMYK U. president, as well as chief executive officer of Opsfusion, a newspaper-operations consulting company. "Every-thing you read, everything we were experiencing, said [Thomson] had to do something about recruiting, training and retaining qualified press operators. From talking with other newspaper groups, the need was unanimous."
Serendipity lead to a solution. Dauphin Graphics Machines Inc. was in the midst of expanding its manufacturing facilities near Harrisburg, Pa. "We reached an agreement that DGM would supply the classrooms and press lab, and Thomson would provide the curriculum, staff and administrators," Shafer explains.
Despite Thomson’s February decision to sell its newspaper division, CMYK U.’s future appears secure. The center even has expanded its curriculum to include pre-press courses.
An "intense" weeklong beginner’s class gives students hands-on use of various press equipment, as well as classroom study and take-away information allowing them to continue learning on the job. Graduates are expected to perform at "the one-, possibly two-year level of press operator," Shafer says.
An advanced course focuses on color theory as it relates to press operations and troubleshooting, along with old, new and anticipated press technologies.
Some of the courses can be "taken on the road" and are tailored for specific audiences. The press-training curriculum includes an executive-level course to teach publishers, advertising people, editors and human-resources administrators to "speak" press, Shafer adds.
The school has not yet officially opened, but CMYK U. plans to offer
several specialty courses in November and December, and two courses in
January. The anticipated price for each of the five-day press operator
classes is $1,250 per student. For more information, contact Shafer. E-mail,
tom@opsfusion.com; phone, (203)
675-6514. 
Christopher is president of Christopher Communications in Berkeley, Calif. E-mail, cchristo@weber.ucsd.edu.
Elcography To Get Tabloid Test
by Lisa Rabasca
Although Elcorsy Technology Inc. won’t ship its first digital press to the commercial market until next year, it has received its first order from a Japanese company that will use it to print business forms–and a tabloid newspaper.
The Quebec company’s Elco 400 currently prints 50,000 tabloid pages per hour at 400 lines per inch with four colors and 256 gray levels, officials say. The press allows for the sequential printing of 128 tabloid pages on a single web, as well as the ability to process different jobs without stopping.
Computer-to-press technology will allow for the personalized printing of newspapers and advertising inserts, says Pierre Castegnier, Elcorsy’s vice president of marketing.
The technology was introduced at NEXPO®96 (TechNews, July/August 1996, p. 19) and most recently demonstrated at Drupa 2000, the German megashow held earlier this year.
Known as elcography, the technology uses an electrocoagulation process reminiscent of high-school chemistry electroly-sis experiments. When current passes through an ink solution, anodes in the pigment are attracted to raised cathodes on the imaging cylinder. After excess ink is removed, the remaining ink transfers to paper via cold pressure.
Digital printing is priced competitively, according to Castegnier. At
the break-even point, he says, it would cost about $1.18 to print a 64-page
tabloid with full color on every page using the Elco 400, compared with
about $2 using offset printing.
Rabasca is TechNews associate editor. E-mail, rabal@naa.org.
HP’s Digital Alliance
A giant in the desktop-printing field is partnering with a digital-press pioneer to bring the technology to market more quickly.
Hewlett-Packard Co. will partner with Dutch digital-press developer Indigo
N.V. to co-develop high-end, color digital-printing systems. While the
emerging technology remains aimed squarely at the commercial-printing
sector, the alliance reflects HP’s goal to "accelerate growth
in the digital printing and publishing marketplace and expand its leadership
beyond inkjet and laser printing to…production printing systems,"
the Palo Alto, Calif., company said in a statement.