A 70,000 copy-per-hour, six-tower press to be operated on a former U.S. Army complex led a summer wave of press installations.

The Standard-Examiner in Ogden, Utah, ordered the shaftless Comet press from KBA North America's Web Press Division in York, Pa. The high-speed, single-width press replaces a 30-year-old Goss Mark II and commercial Goss Suburban press. Each tower will include eight shaftless couples, allowing for a total capacity of 64 pages collect and 48 back-to-back pages of process color, or 32 pages process color and 32 pages of spot color. One tower features heatset printing capability, and the press includes two high-speed 80-page jaw folders, one with quarterfold capability.

"We are going to be the highest-quality press in the West with this purchase," says Publisher Scott Trundle.

The paper's new 105,000 square-foot production facility is being built on a 1,100-acre complex once part of the Army's Defense Depot. Plant construction began this summer, with delivery of the Comet scheduled to begin next April in order to have the press up and running in time for the 2002 Winter Games in nearby Salt Lake City.

Among other recent press-installations:

• Dow Jones & Co. ordered 18 Colortop 6000 four-over-four tower units from TKS Inc. of Richardson, Texas. Part of The Wall Street Journal's three-year capital-investment program to increase color capacity, the towers will be installed at nine of the Journal's 17 U.S. printing plants that currently operate TKS presses. They will be integrated with existing presses to produce a 12-web system capable of printing 96 pages with 24 process-color positions. Tower units feature TKS' anti-fanout device, infeed and outfeed rollers and a new slow-speed inker with TKS digital-ink pumps. The first two towers will be installed at the Charlotte, N.C., plant this fall, with national startup slated for early 2002.
  
  
• The Journal Register Co. completed installation of a 10-unit DGM-850 press from Dauphin Graphic Machines Inc., Elizabethville, Pa., for the Daily Freeman in Kingston, N.Y. The presses include six Enkel Autoweb splicers. With a Saturday-edition launch last fall, the Freeman began producing a minimum of four sections daily, increased color use, and became a seven-day publication for the first time in its 127-year history.
  
  
• Goss Graphic Systems of Westmont, Ill., announced a series of press upgrades. The Daily Oklahoman of Oklahoma City purchased two eight-couple Global Newsliner towers with digital inkers, two CT45 running-belt reel-tension-paster systems, and a double 2:3:3 jaw folder to be located at the end of one of the newspaper's three existing Goss Metroliner presses. Star-Tribune in Minneapolis ordered five Goss Headliner offset units configured with injector inking systems matching those on the paper's five existing Headliner presses. The Birmingham (Ala.) News purchased unit, folder and press-control enhancements for its three Metroliner presses, and plans to reduce its web width to 50 inches. In late July, Goss announced it was filing for a prearranged Chapter 11 bankruptcy, but had reached agreements with shareholders and lenders that would allow the company to continue operating through the restructuring process (see related story).

Insert-advertising giant TC Advertising has acquired J.J. Grace Inc., parent company of newspaper-advertising software-and-service supplier AdOut of Van Nuys, Calif.

Baltimore-based TC Advertising says the acquisition "continues the expansion of the marketing and producing solutions we offer our newspaper partners." TC's offerings include inserts, television magazines, special supplements and color comics.

Through its AAPS division, AdOut has outsourced the advertising pre-press workflow for several California major-metro dailies, including the Los Angeles Times (TechNews, Jan./Feb. 1999, p. 21). It also developed TheSpecDept.com, an Internet-based ad-design resource (TechNews, May/June 1999, p. 7).

"By focusing our individual strengths and sharing, both companies will benefit," says AdOut President and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Turner, who will remain with the company.

Six major newspaper groups have taken equity positions in AdOne LLC. Its aggregated ClassifiedWarehouse.com World Wide Web site now claims a combined print circulation of 24 million, including affiliates in 43 of the top 50 U.S. markets.

A.H. Belo Corp., the Journal Register Co., Lee Enterprises Inc., Media General Inc., Morris Communications Corp. and Pulitzer Inc. all made investments in the New York City-based Internet company.

Five other newspaper groups—Advance Publications Inc., Donrey Media Group, E.W. Scripps Co., The Hearst Corp. and MediaNews Group—acquired AdOne earlier this year.

Meanwhile, AdOne competitor Power Adz.com has become the first classified aggregator to incorporate NAA's Bona Fide Classified mark.

The Rensselaer, N.Y., company now attaches the logo to tens of thousands of classifieds originating from the more than 170 NAA-member newspapers using its online-classified solutions.

Research conducted by NAA and Fleishman-Hillard found computer-savvy 21-to-40-year-olds prefer newspaper classified ads and enjoy using the Internet to find what they want. Armed with these findings, NAA created the Bona Fide branding strategy to differentiate newspaper classifieds on the Internet.

"The Bona Fide Classified mark is designed to separate, elevate and authenticate newspaper ads amidst the clutter of ads on the Internet," explains Tony Marsella, NAA vice president for classified advertising. "It transfers the trust, loyalty and preference that consumers feel for newspaper classified ads to the new-media world."

Dogged by ongoing questions about its financial health, Goss Graphic Systems in late July filed for a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy organization plan.

Before filing, the 115-year-old Westmont, Ill., press manufacturer reached agreements with its major lenders and shareholders allowing Goss to continue operations during the bankruptcy process. Majority shareholder Stonington Partners LP and other lenders will also inject $100 million in cash and up to an additional $50 million in interim financing to keep the company afloat.

"Our agreement permits uninterrupted service to our valued customers," Goss Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Jim Sheehan said in a statement. "We are confident that with the support of employees, suppliers, creditors and customers, a successful reorganization will be achieved."

In 1996, industrial conglomerate Rockwell International Corp. sold Goss to Stonington Partners for $600 million. Almost immediately, questions began circulating about the spun-off company's financial health.

Sheehan predicted Goss will emerge from the Chapter 11 proceedings within several months. In the meantime, the company plans to continue normal operations and production. Goss already has begun cost reductions, "refined its product portfolio" and installed a new enterprise-software system.

Under the terms of its restructuring plan, Goss will repay all creditors "in full over time."

The company listed assets of $586.5 million and liabilities of $646.7 million in its bankruptcy filing. More than two-thirds of the holders of its $225 million in subordinated bond debt agreed to exchange the notes for a new issue of $112.5 million and stock in the reorganized company.

TechNews Volume 5, Number 5: September/October 1999

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