Newsprint: Ways to Save

In addressing practices in the pre-press and press areas at a Monday-morning symposium on newsprint conservation and management, David Stone, vice president of operations at the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader, advised, "Start at ground zero."

One area he watches closely is registration. "Color registration at our shop starts with the original photograph," he explained. "When it is scanned into the Macintosh, color-register marks are added. On paginated pages that output directly to negative film, we keep our imaging devices in the color mode. This practice forces the imaging drum to start at zero for all four-color plates, ensuring the register marks will be on the same position each time."

Stone said giving employees a stake in efficient practices can have a dramatic effect. "Several years ago, we were experiencing severe registration problems," he said. "We decided to give the plateroom function to the press operators, and as an extra incentive, the color operators were paid a premium to be responsible for making their own color plates. This one step went a long way in solving most of our registration problems."

The Herald-Leader starts the press at 10,000 copies per hour and sets ink and water balance before going to a higher speed. When stopping the press, operators turn off the black ink and disconnect the air lines to the portable color tanks.

"This procedure prevents ink [from seeping] through the page packs while down," Stone said. "It also ensures that the ink is carried off the plates more quickly for the next hot start."

Steve Aguina, manager of newsprint operations at the Chicago Tribune, addressed conservation efforts in the areas of shipping and handling. The Tribune presents all suppliers with a booklet that sets ground rules for their relationship.

In detailing expectations, the booklet divides the Tribunes' specifications into four areas: railcars, loading patterns, Graphic Communication Association bar coding, and wrappers and headers. Some of the guidelines:

• Railcars. Required dimensions are 50.6 feet in length and 9.2 feet in width. The cars must have hydro-cushions, with wood floors and sides. Such requirements, plus their required loading patterns, have kept transit damage to 0.05 percent.
• Loading pattern. Tribune rolls are 45 inches in diameter. They require a 2-by-2 offset pattern in their required cars, thus producing a secured load.
• Wrappers and headers. They require 60-pound wrappers with pre-glued, poly-coated headers. Headers must not be corrugated, and wrapper crimp must not exceed 5.5 inches.
• Bar codes. The Tribune uses the Abitrol System to monitor newsprint inventory and performance, so they require that each role be bar-coded per GCA standards. Bar codes follow the roll through production and are affixed to a roll performance-evaluation sheet once the roll is consumed. This helps measure runnability by press, unit, date, product, roll size, shift, crew and by web-break type.

TechNews Volume 1, Number 4: July/August 1995

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