Thomson Tapped for Advertising Solutions
With a regional approach in mind, Enterprise NewsMedia Inc. selected Thomson Interactive Media to publish both classified and display ads online. Starting with online classifieds powered by TIM’s Classified IQ product, Enterprise will then build online directories, regional guides and other ad-driven World Wide Web sites using TIM’s Directory Express and SiteCrafter tools.“TIM’s unique approach will allow us to immediately leverage our strengths in local classified advertising, and grow into other online products and revenue streams,” says Jim Plugh, president and CEO of Massachusetts-based Enterprise, which publishes The Patriot Ledger of Quincy and 10 other newspapers.
TIM’s online-advertising customers claim a combined print circulation of 4.7 million. They include parent company Thomson Newspapers Inc., Guy Gannett Communications, Media General Inc. and the Houston Chronicle.
Times Plant Cited for Design
Bursting with "color, industrial materials and imagination," The New York Times' new plant at College Point opened a new chapter in the paper's storied history. It also captured a prestigious architectural award.
The Times' $350 million, state-of-the-art facility took top honors in the Business Week Architectural Record Awards' $25 million-plus private-sector category. The jury cited both the 515,000 square-foot plant's aesthetic appeal and its efficiency—College Point's productivity 
matches another facility built by the Times eight years before, while costing $100 million less. Jurors also gave the Times very high marks for employee involvement
in the plant's design.
"The Times wanted to use the process of designing the plant to foster a less contentious relationship with its nine unions," Business Week's congratulatory writeup stated. "Three hundred employees contributed ideas. The jury agreed they had something to say."
See TechNews, January/ February 1998, p. 13, for a full plant profile.
Hensel to Judge Ergonomics
When the Center for Office Technology readies its list of notable ergonomics programs next spring, the newspaper industry will be represented. Donald A. Hensel, NAA’s environmental-services manager, will serve as a judge in COT’s 1999 Outstanding Office Ergonomics Awards. Winners will be announced at the group’s annual conference in April. Applications, which will be judged on the basis of program results, breadth, longevity, innovation and sharing, are due by Nov. 31. For information, contact COT at (703) 684-7760, or e-mail CtrOfTek@erols.com.Pre-Press Partners
In order to offer an integrated editorial library, ad-management and pagination system, Cascade Systems Inc. and Advanced Technical Solutions Inc. have established a co-marketing agreement. Both companies will sell Cascade’s MediaSphere digital-asset-management solution and its PhotoTrack image-assignment and tracking module with ATS’ NewsDesk II editorial system. Both database-driven, the products complement each other, officials say. “We believe that Cascade is addressing a set of problems most newspapers are still struggling with even as they make the conversion to digital work flow,” says Malcolm McGrory, Cascade’s president and chief executive officer. “By co-marketing…we can offer the tight integration and efficient workflow that are critical for any newspaper publisher striving to remain competitive into the next century.”Inserts Top ROP
More proof that inserts are a force to be reckoned with: For the first time since newspapers began collecting the data nearly two decades ago, advertisers spent more money on preprint advertising than run-of-paper ads.According to NAA data, advertisers spent $12.6 billion on inserts last year, narrowly edging the $12.1 billion spent on ROP. However, preprint-spending figures include such costs as printing, paper, freight and distribution, while those for ROP ads do not.
Still, it’s clear that preprints are growing by leaps and bounds. Eight years ago, insert spending totaled $3 billion, or roughly one-third of newspapers’ ROP revenues. Equally significant is the continuing growth of part-run inserting, which has grown 66 percent since 1992; full run declined 6 percent over the same period. In fact, the 44.4 billion partial-run inserts distributed last year nearly exceeded the 45.6 billion full-run preprints (TechNews, July/August 1998, p. 6).
Cart-Loading Suit Settled
Cannon Equipment Co. and Quipp Systems Inc. announced that they have settled Quipp’s patent-infringement lawsuit involving cart-loading technology. Quipp had claimed that Cannon’s NCL Series II cart loaders infringed its patents. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
A Wave of Shafless Installs
Papers big and small have ordered shaftless presses from a wide range of suppliers.The New York Post ordered four new shaftless presses from Goss Graphic Systems, which is naming the presses in the paper’s honor. The Postliner presses, which will be installed next fall in a new 450,000 square-foot facility slated to open in the summer of 2000, feature a couple-shaftless drive system developed by Indramat.
The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, Pa., selected a more traditional Goss Colorliner press for its $40 million production facility being built in Hampden Township, Pa. (TechNews, May/June 1998, p. 15). The 56-couple, 75,000 copy-per-hour press, slated for a May 1999 delivery, will feature seven four-high towers and a double 3:2 rotary folder. Configured to a 50-inch web width, the press is capable of producing a 56-page paper with process color on each page or a 72-page paper with 40 pages of process and 32 pages of spot color.
The Wenatchee (Wash.) World and The Bulletin of Bend, Ore., will become among the first North American sites to run KBA-Motter Corp.’s shaftless Comet press.
In Wenatchee, a four-tower, 32-couple configuration will offer a capacity of 32 pages, all with process color. The press will be equipped with a jaw folder in a quarter-folder arrangement and four reelstands. A KBA Drivetronic press-control system with a raster-image processing interface will allow ink values to be preset.
Editor and Publisher Rufus Woods says staffers mulled refurbishing their existing press, but “determined that we would be smarter to invest in the new technology.” He cited startup waste of as few as 30 to 50 copies.
In Bend, a single-width, 28-couple press will be installed in a new 73,000 square-foot facility. Allowing up to 40 pages with up to 24 pages of full process color, the Comet will be equipped with upper and lower former boards for printing up to four sections, a 2:3:2 jaw folder and a quarter-folder. As in Wenatchee, the press will include a RIP interface for presetting.
Both sites are expected to be up and running next fall.
Gannett Co. has ordered two shaftless, six-tower UNISET 70 presses from MAN Roland Inc. The 48-couple, two-folder presses will be installed in a new production facility in Minneapolis, where they will print USA Today as well as regional commercial work. The press will be online in June 1999.
Configured for flexibility, the presses will be capable of printing up to 10 webs for 80-page newspapers, with up to 16 pages of process color and 64 pages of spot color. Other configurations allow 48 pages of full process color, or 64 pages with 32 pages of process color and 32 pages of spot color. Web-lead flexibility is bolstered by the Technical Production Planning workstation, which will be pre-programmed with 200 web leads.
The UNISET’s shaftless-drive system includes couple silencing
for fast plate changes and three form rollers for commercial work. It
can run at speeds of 70,000 copies per hour.
BHG's Breakup
For the past decade, Boulder-based Blevins Harding Group has helped publishers rethink the way they produce newspapers. After applying the same visioning process to its own business, the newspaper-consulting group has split into two independent companies, each led by one of its former principals.Chuck Blevins is now principal of Chuck Blevins & Associates. Based in Vienna, Va., CB&A specializes in operational and equipment planning, as well as process-improvement strategies. Ken Harding heads Harding Ankarlo designALLIANCE, which remains in Boulder and focuses on business design, team development and coaching, strategy design, facility design and interior-design services.
“We realized having two busy principals located in different regions of the country challenges our ability to provide the unified, strategic leadership that enables our growth and success,” the two principals said in a press release. “It became clear that reinventing ourselves and providing services under two independent companies was the best solution.”
Blevins and Harding will continue to collaborate on joint projects.
Coining Y2K
Here’s another Year 2000 problem to mull over: a new dollar coin will replace the much-maligned Susan B. Anthony dollar. Approved and signed into law last December, the new gold-colored coin will include magnetic-security features. It will be put into circulation once the present supply of Susan B. Anthony coins is depleted, now estimated to be around January 2000. So readying coin-operated newspaper racks could pose yet another Y2K headache.Kasper Wire Works Inc.’s Sho-Rack newspaper racks with electronic mechanisms can be recalibrated to accept the new coins on location. Using a laptop and Sho-Rack’s F-Cal software, the process will take approximately two minutes per mechanism, according to a press release. The electronic mechanisms can also be calibrated at Sho-Rack’s factory in Shiner, Texas.