Please add the Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer-Times to your future "50 Inch Update" [September/October 1998, p. 25] list. We are under contract for the installation of a new KBA Colora press and plan to be converting from a 54-inch to a 50-inch web in the near future.
John Jenkins
Production Director
Fayetteville (N.C.) Publishing Co.
Newsrack Change
We noted that another manufacturer of electronic-coin mechanisms received some coverage on the Y2K and dollar-coin issues in a recent issue of TechNews ["Coining Y2K," November/December 1998, p. 5]. To expand your readers' knowledge:
We're all familiar with the Y2K software situation. Bellatrix Systems' SC2000 single-copy software is now Y2K compliant. However, there is another Year 2000 situation that can become a real opportunity for newspapers to grow circulation. The U.S. Treasury Department has announced that it will begin circulating a new $1 coin in January 2000. This new "gold-clad" coin will help newspaper single-copy sales by allowing your customers to more easily purchase Sunday (and future daily) newspapers out of newsracks that currently require four-to-12 quarters for the same paper. The problem is that most mechanical coin mechanisms can't accept the new dollar coin.
We count over 325 newspapers in our worldwide customer base, all using Bellatrix Coin Wizard and/or Data Wizard electronic coin mechanisms to help provide single-copy pricing flexibility from their newsracks. By retrofitting Bellatrix electronic coin mechanisms into your newsracks in 1999, prior to the introduction of the dollar coin, your newspaper will be better prepared to meet your single-copy customers' future needs. All Bellatrix Coin Wizards and Data Wizards manufactured since 1994 have already designed into their circuitry the capability to accept the new dollar coin. In the past couple of years, Bellatrix has sold more than 10,000 electronic coin mechanisms to newspapers in Canada that handle not only the "Loonie" Canadian dollar coin but the "Toonie" two-dollar coin as well.
Steve Morris
Senior Vice President, Sales & Marketing
Bellatrix Systems Inc.
Bend, Ore.
CTP Clarity
I found your cover story on computer-to-plate technology ["The ABCs of CTP"] to be fairly well on target. All-in-all, it painted the CTP process in a favorable light. However, there are several threads that could have used more detail to crystallize the point.
David Stone
Vice President, Operations
Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader
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