SuperConference = Super Content

NAA's first annual Newspaper Operations SuperConference played like "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly."

Most presentations were very good--jammed with solid information. The weather was mostly bad--rainy, then windy, then cold (for Miami, anyway). And the ugly? You guessed it--the vendor panels, where buyers repeatedly charged supplyside CEOs with giving too little value for the industry's "fistful of dollars."

The event March 3-8 at Miami Beach's Doral Ocean Beach Resort combined NAA's previously separate Pre-Press, Press and Materials, and Post-Press conferences into one mega-extravaganza. Each became a segment of the overall SuperConference, preceded by a primer on related technology and followed by a discussion.

The Good

Those stumbling along the road to pagination must have envied Phoenix Newspapers' Howard Finberg in the pre-press segment. His papers have been paginated since 1985. PNI's new goal is a publication database to produce multiple products from the same information. CCI Europe is working with them on it.
Gary Cosimini of Adobe previewed Amber, the next release of the popular Acrobat portable document format. Amber, he promised, will allow color-ad transmission, including one ad to many destinations; the ability to look at the same ad from various platforms and features allowing on-line publishing and archiving.
Yoav Lorch of Scitex Corporate Ltd. updated the audience on Scitex's PressPoint, which can transmit newspaper content via satellite to digital printers located in hotels, cruise ships, airports and kiosks. Scitex will demonstrate the technology in Atlanta during the Olympics.
Advertising Customer-Service Manager Kara Gabbert of the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times told how she surveyed advertisers and found that Macintosh with Quark, Illustrator and Photoshop is the platform of choice for digital ads. She used the responses to generate tips, including guides to black-and-white correction, color correction and third-party vendors.
The Houston Chronicle's decision to outsource pre-press operations to American Color is paying dividends, said Color Room Manager John Harrington, now an employee of American Color. The Chronicle's pre-press area operates with newer equipment, 16 fewer people and a 15 percent reduction in costs.
Niko Ruokosuo, who oversees process control and print quality for the Los Angeles Times, found quality management lacking at most papers-policies, he said, are ineffective, documents are in disarray, customer needs go unrecorded, assessments of suppliers do not exist, job descriptions remain incomplete or nonexistent, measurement equipment is not calibrated regularly, and training remains insufficient. An ISO 9000 program, he said, can address these problems.
Rochester Institute of Technology Assistant Visiting Professor Dennis Floss gave a "thumbs up" to the AP2000e digital camera, which features a large CCD array, a SCSI interface for direct download of images and a burst rate of two images per second for six frames.
During the press segment, John R. Steker, vice president of sales for Bob Ray & Associates Inc., shared the costs of his web-width reduction programs: 55 inches to 54 inches for about $50,000; 50 inches for $175,000 to $200,000; or a two-step reduction to 54 inches and later to 50 inches for about $225,000.
Savings on materials, better quality control, faster makeready, shorter production times--all are expected as The Times of Munster, Ind., rolls out its computer-to-plate program. Production Director Larry Maas, who oversaw the first software-based raster-image processor and the first open pre-press interface in the United States, is at it again. One CTP system has already been installed, and all systems will be in place within 20 months.
David H. Roberts predicted similar wonders for NAPP System Inc.'s CTP flexo set up. CTP eliminates film cost, reduces staffing requirements, improves image fidelity and cuts printed waste, said NAPP's director of research. The Decatur (Ill.) Herald & Review is the beta site.
Xerox Graphic System's Verde film works "pretty darn good once you get the defects out," said Paul Pinyot, director of newspaper operations for USA Today. The paper could eliminate 55,000 gallons of developer per year if it switches to the new film. Pinyot gave Verde a "B" for quality and "B-" for productivity improvements.
The Boston Globe's Vice President of Production Michael A. Ide impressed the post-press audience with a video of a press-to-pocket inserting system that allows on-line inserting at press speeds. He also discussed the Integrated Mailroom Management System based on artificial intelligence that the Globe is developing with IBM and The Washington Post.
The Roanoke (Va.) Times & World News has implemented a system called Pinpoint Target Marketing that can deliver newspapers, national magazines and product samples to specific addresses. Metro Circulation Manager Bill Burks noted they switched from youth to adult carriers and combined traditional and alternate delivery forces to pull it off.
Toby Pearson, circulation director for the Austin (Texas) American-Statesman, said his company has developed an interactive newspaper in print form. The subscriber calls a listed number and enters his or her own phone number into the automated answering system to request special sections. The system merges this phone number with the circulation database and matches the request to the account. Only 5,300 of some 250,000 subscribers asked for the year-end stock review, for example. The American-Statesman estimates it saves 260 tons of newsprint per year.
Thinking out of the box, Arif Haji, assistant director of operations for the Los Angeles Times' Orange County Plant, used the concept of a cube to automate their bulk-handling operations. The system takes untied stacks of newspapers and conveys them into a "Times Cube" for delivery to the field. It eliminates the need for bottom wraps, ties, trays and stretch wrap and helps reduce worker injuries. The first line is expected to go live in June.

The Ugly

Tuesday's Pre-Press Industry Outlook pitted Autologic Information International Inc.'s Alden Edwards, Monotype Systems' Dennis Nierman, Prepress Solutions' Bob Trenkamp and Sysdeco Group's Johs Jamne against a roomful of the CEOs' less-than-contented customers.

Edwards lamented that in the '70s and '80s, vendors made margins from hardware, software and installations; today, they make them from software only. The shift from proprietary to open systems hurt many companies, agreed Jamne.

"The carnage isn't over yet," Trenkamp warned. "It will be a far smaller industry sometime soon."

Edwards admitted, "A lot of people were inept at implementing what they were saying. Suppliers didn't make the transition [to open systems] fast enough."

The audience couldn't sympathize. "You keep talking about hardware and software and plug and play, but not about people," one customer complained. "No vendor has focused on training."

Said another, "Your support is terrible. Customer service is No. 1 in our business, but apparently not in yours."

The Press Industry Outlook began more upbeat. KBA-Motter Corp.'s Scott Smith, Man Roland's Helgi Schmidt-Liermann, Mitsubishi's Ron Ehrhardt, Rockwell Graphic System's Mike Kienzle and TKS (USA) Inc.'s Mike Shafer detailed future technical wonders: shaftless and digital presses, keyless inking, single-fluid lithography, gapless cylinders, and automatic dryers.

The audience seemed more concerned with today's issues: Rockwell Graphic's suit against foreign manufacturers that may lead to import tariffs, how to add value to existing presses, poor quality, and the lack of parts exchange programs.

"When it comes to parts-exchange programs," grumbled one attendee, "I certainly don't feel shaftless!"