Salomon Print to replace outdated
automation machine with QIPC systems
Slovenian printing firm Salomon Print is now all set to replace its outdated automation systems, which are currently in use on its press. Located in Ljubljana, the company has placed order for two mRC-3D cameras for colour registration and two for cut-off register from Q.I. Press Controls (QIPC), which will be implemented on manroland ROTOMAN press. Andrej Semen, technical director at Salomon Print says, “Replacement of the existing automation system was absolutely essential as our current system is out-of-date.
Initially, Salomon Print entered into talks with suppliers active in the region, but QIPC appeared on the scene at a later stage thanks to the intervention of its agent Ivan Rogic of Grafmat-Usluge. “At that point, we decided to make a competitive bid ourselves,” explains Erwin van Rossem, head of sales at QIPC. In fact, Salomon Print didn’t need to think twice about QIPC’s offer. In this, Andrej asserts that the (QIPC) system was not only price attractive but highly competent and well-known in the market for its top-class products. The four mRC-3D cameras will automate the colour and cut-off register systems, resulting in big saving in waste when it comes to colour and cut-off control.
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News media urged to go
for digital audiences at INMA summit
INMA (International News Media Association) at its recent Global Media Summit Africa in Cape Town urged news media companies all around the world to gear up for digital audience. The crowd of news media companies in the summit heard the association saying ‘Adapt or Die’ at the closure of the two-day event. Media owners from different quarters of the world gathered in Cape Town to attend the conference, the first-of-its-kind to be held in the southern hemisphere. The attending media companies were asked to move with the times and adapt to the digital age and the threats posed by social media in stealing away audiences and revenue from traditional, legacy media.
‘Innovention’ was the term bandied about, a portmanteau of ‘innovation’ and ‘invention’, at the summit. According to Sandy MacLeod from Toronto Star, news media companies should not reinvent themselves, but rather source the right partners in order to adapt the current challenges of falling revenue and lower subscriptions. Yasmin Namini, a digital media consultant with 30 years of marketing and audience building experience with The New York Times mentioned users would pay for digital content, provided it was good content. The next INMA summit is taking place in February 2017 in London on Big Data.
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World Publishing Expo 2017 coming to Berlin
WAN-IFRA has announced that the next revamped edition of World Publishing Expo alongside the DCX Digital Content Expo in 2017 will be held at Messe Berlin on October 9–11. To be executed under the motto ‘Make Publishing Successful’, news media professionals from all over the world to gather at the expo. Berlin, named one of the top 15 cities in the Innovation Cities Global Index, was the site of World Publishing Expo in 2013. That show attracted more than 8,500 visitors from 90 countries and 267 exhibiting companies. Indeed, the capital of Germany is increasingly a popular destination today for both events and visitors.
Alexander R Petsch, MD of World Publishing Expo, said that the burning issue of securing sustainable business models is chief among publishers and journalists. “With the two exhibitions, we aim to help master the irreversible changes that digitisation has brought about,” he added. Manfred Werfel, deputy CEO of WAN-IFRA, mentioned, “The expo is an annual industry gathering for international news media experts, and it provides a platform to discuss and investigate the latest technology solutions and services, but also to network and benchmark strategic imperatives.
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Japanese newspaper that grows as green plant!
Innovations in the newspaper industry have marked a new pinnacle in Japan. A leading daily in the country, The Mainichi Shimbunsha, has recently invented a cent percent sustainable newspaper that becomes plants. How does it happen? The newspaper is embedded with dried flower and herb seeds. Once finished reading, readers can tear the paper and spread on a mud bed, which eventually can sprout and grow into plants and flowers within weeks. Known as ‘Green Newspaper’, the newspaper is made of recycled and vegetable paper.
The paper has been in circulation for sometime in the market, but the publishers had brought the innovation with the recent announcement of newer novelty. The idea was conceived by Dentsu Inc, one of Japan’s largest advertising agencies, which works with The Mainichi Shimbunsha. This eco-friendly newspaper has had a huge success, a circulation of over four million copies a day across the country and revenues of about eighty million yen, equivalent to over $700,000.
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The Financial Times to
acquire digital subscription firms
To strengthen its digital subscription, The Financial Times is in talks to buy companies capable to handle the online activity, which is the key in this digital era. For the new move, the newspaper is capitalising on greater financial support from its new owner Nikkei Inc. The news media company is now hunting for partners that can ‘support and accelerate its growth in quality content and, in particular, based on digital subscriptions. The Financial Times is also interested in technology firms that bolster its data analytics—valuable for targeting readers with advertising and subscription offers.
About a year ago, Japanese company Nikkei Inc bought the London-based The Financial Times at $1.3 billion after a bidding war with Germany’s Axel Springer SE. Prior to that, the financial newspaper was owned for 58 years by Pearson Plc, which had focused resources on turning around its education business. With Nikkei’s backing, The Financial Times bought a controlling stake in London-based Alpha Grid to make more branded content, such as creating videos for advertisers.
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San Francisco Chronicle switching
to new self-service subscription portal
To manage both print and digital subscriptions, San Francisco Chronicle has switched to a new self-service customer portal to manage print and digital subscriptions. Hearst Corporatio, owner of the newspaper, is now planning to implement Newscycle Subscription Link—a portal that can be used from any web or mobile device. This ‘link’ enables customers to complete transactions and update account details, such as payments, address changes and delivery preferences, from a single online page.
At San Francisco Chronicle, Subscription Link will be integrated with Newscycle Circulation, providing a single point of access to real-time customer and billing information for all print and digital subscribers.
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10th KBA Roadshow in China
Under its mission statement ‘Add More KBA to Your Day’, KBA had pulled crowd at its 10th KBA Roadshow in China, conducted from October 20-28. The roadshow series began back in 2007 and gained instant momentum with Chinese print professionals. The high numbers of visitors each year are firm proof of the event's standing. And this year's tour was no exception: Around 700 guests attended the seminars in Shanghai, Zhengzhou, Changsha, Taipei and Shenzhen.
As a follow-up of the success that KBA earned at the drupa 2016, the focus at the 10th KBA Roadshow was placed on the latest KBA innovations serving print, finishing, product refinement and technology optimisation. In the wake of the recent easing of economic growth, Chinese print companies are facing increasingly intense competition. With its uniquely broad product range, KBA is in this respect already acknowledged as a strong partner in China. Over the past 10 years, more than 10,000 visitors have sought information on innovative print solutions from KBA at 50 roadshow venues in more than 30 cities.
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Druckzentrum Nordsee in
pursuit of waterless technology
A decade ago, German newspaper publisher Druckzentrum Nordsee was established as a wholly newspaper-focussed firm, but the company is now involving into a busy service unit delivering anything from a hybrid flyer to calendars and a 1000-page spares catalogue. According to a source from the production department of the company based in Bremerhaven, they are constantly finding new applications for the waterless print process.
Apart from semi-commercials, where they would be competing with classic heatset, Druckzentrum Nordsee has found previously untapped market potential for products using new papers and folding options, in addition to newspaper-like and hybrid print products.
Publisher of Nordsee-Zeitung, Druckzentrum Nordsee was the host of the 12th get-together for users of KBA's waterless Cortina press last month in Bremerhaven, attended by user and supplier representatives.
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Pure customer orientation
at manroland web STORE
In partnership with the British web offset printer Trinity Mirror Print, manroland web systems has substantially shaped its new manroland web STORE, a B2B online buying platform, for spare and wear parts as well as authorised consumables. The ordering process on this online store is extremely efficient, and the implementation is a complete success. Manroland web systems has developed the store in very close collaboration with Trinity Mirror Print Watford, which explained all its functional requirements and tested their implementation intensively.
Trinity Mirror Print in Watford is a very demanding and ambitious pilot customer for manroland web systems. The large contract printer with six locations in Great Britain prints, for example, high circulation newspapers in tabloid, ¼-fold and broadsheet formats. Future-oriented customers like Trinity Mirror Print are early adaptors of the manroland web STORE as a solution for their ordering and logistics needs.
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Italian company ACM SpA invests
in Q.I. Press Controls automation
In the wake of drupa 2016, Q.I. Press Controls (QIPC) has reeled in yet another key order, which came from the Italian printing major ACM SpA. The Italian printing company has decided to invest in IDS-3D system from QIPC for colour control and mRC-3D system for colour register and cut-off control. In total, five mRC-3D cameras for colour register and cut-off control and two IDS-3D cameras for colour control will be installed at ACM SpA.
Based in Torre del Greco at the foothill of Mount Vesuvius, ACM SpA wanted a new automation system for its recently acquired KBA Compacta 618 press. According to a source from the company, the newly installed KBA press required the QIPC system because it would help them to access new markets.
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Durban to host WAN-IFRA congress in 2017
Next year WAN-IFRA is taking its World News Media Congress, World Editors Forum and World Advertising Forum events to Durban, South Africa. The event has been set to be organised from June 7-9, 2017, marking the second coming of the congress to the African continent as it was last held in Cape Town in 2007. According to WAN-IFRA, choosing of Durban for next year’s edition is an attempt for a broader plan to expand activities in Africa and connect with leading media conglomerates going for sheer transformation in news media industry across the continent.
Vincent Peyrègne, CEO, WAN-IFRA, says partners are outlining ‘groundbreaking support’ for the plan and Durban is an ideal venue. He further adds that South African news publishing companies are showing real thrust for innovations which they would have to taste it during the congress. This year, the Women In News (WIN) leadership programme began its sixth year in Africa, bringing together middle and senior managers from newspapers in Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
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KBA to relocate Compacta
618 in Italian expansion
Publishing firm Azienda Commerciale Meridionale in Torre Del Greco already further has a 16-page Compacta 215 press, but the company has contacted KBA to move its brand new Compacta 618 from a different site. In this, KBA-Digital & Web division will look after relocation, installation and commissioning. The press is scheduled to enter production at the end of 2016 at Azienda Commerciale Meridionale. Incepted more than 50 years ago, Azienda Commerciale Meridionale is a third-generation family business known widely for high-quality print products tailored innovatively.
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ppi Media enters into
partnership with OwnLocal
A new development at ppi Media is its partnership with the Texas-based OwnLocal to help introduce their platform to the market. OwnLocal automatically turns traditional print ads into sophisticated online campaigns giving news media companies a fast and cost-efficient way to create new ad revenues. OwnLocal has so far entered several new markets, including the UK, Austria, and Mexico, partnering with more than 2,600 publications, and powered digital advertising for more than 100,000 local advertisers.
OwnLocal’s platform transforms print advertisements into elaborate digital marketing campaigns by automatically providing them SEO value. This creates a cost-effective digital presence for local advertisers and boosts their rankings in online search results. OwnLocal’s media company partners are able to generate automatic brand new digital revenue from print sales they have already made. The company has been working with more than 2,600 newspaper publishers, including Gannett, GateHouse, Digital First Media, among others.
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Newsquest Media Group
asks readers to write news
Newsquest Media Group, second largest newspaper publisher with 205 brands of local newspapers in the UK, has asked readers of its south London titles to write news themselves and publish it online as part of a ‘simplified process’ for sharing their stories. Editor Andy Parkes has announced it in the latest editions of its 11 south London titles. He stated in a piece of news story titled ‘Simplified process to ensure your great news published’ that the endeavour is to get even more news stories on their websites written by their readers.
