Printing newspaper: kit to buy

ppi Media

The editorial solution of ppi media, Content-X, will be one of the highlights at the company Booth 208 in Hall 5. “The editorial system is made for multi-channel publishing. The content is stored in a media-neutral format until it is published automatically on different channels, as required. Content, which has been created once, is never lost and can be used any number of times,” says Gerhard Raab, senior vice-president, international sales, ppi Media.
 

The company is targeting not just newspaper and magazine publishers, but also media companies, printers, corporate publishers and SMEs. “We regard India as a strong market. Especially since the Parliament elections, there has not only been new mood of invigoration in the country, but also, there have been clear signs that publishers in India are becoming more active and entering a renewed period of growth,” Raab explains. “Early this year, we managed to attain an important new customer in Jagran Prakashan. They want to increase their growth with us. The large-scale project has already started and is working out accordingly. The Go-Live project will start in the first quarter of 2016.”

Raab says Wan-Ifra is important for the company as it provides the opportunity to discuss and listen to interesting perspectives of the latest trends. “India has become the second most important market for us after Germany, and so, the conference and expo is one of the most important and interesting events for us. And of course, we are looking forward to meeting ‘good old acquaintances’ as well as making new contacts,” he adds.

 

Fujifilm India

The company is launching Luxel News VMAX series CTPS for newspaper segment in India. It is also introducing Brillia PRO-VN environment-friendly plates to counter vio-green plates from competitors.

According to Harshad Borude of Fujifilm India, the Luxel News VMAX is a third generation violet CTP system developed to meet the rigorous demands of newspaper printing. Combining high quality plate production with a modular design, the system is scalable so that it can be upgraded and expanded. “And with a small footprint and a ‘plug and play’ design, it is easy to integrate into existing prepress environments. The main benefit of the system, however, is its incredible speed,” says Borude. “The Luxel News VMAX is available in semi-automatic and fully automatic versions. Both are easy to operate, can handle a number of different plate formats, and can be installed online to a processor.”

 

Borude says the newspapers across India are in a transitional phase today. On one hand, they are facing tough competition from other dailies and on the other, the digital media is growing rapidly. “Still, print is the most preferred channel for advertisers, due to its reach. The leading dailies are enhancing their print capacities to print more colour pages, replacing old machines with new ones, and setting up new facilities,” he says.

 

Newstech

Newstech is launching two new machines, the NTPJ 100, supplement / insert jogger and the NTCS-205, cross strapper for newspaper bundles. Any newspaper house is the potential target for the company, which offers systems, equipment and consumables, from editorial to delivery of the newspaper to the readers, customers who are planning investments in Q3 & Q4 of this fiscal.

 

Concerning newspapers, Roy Alex of Newstech says, “Circulation growths are good. There are investment potentials. However, ad revenue seems to be going down or slowing, making the stakeholders pause on investments, unless absolutely essential.”

At the show, the company wants to create awareness of its product portfolio and pick up specific enquiries from one or more of verticals it offer. “It is an important show for us, both Wan-Ifra India and Wan-Ifra Europe, as all our software, hardware, and services are targeted at newspaper production,” Alex concludes.

 

Prakash Offset

The company will be displaying it SG 50 auto-paster at the show. “It is a fully automatic flying paster with state-of-the-art features. Rated for 50,000 cph, this product is for newspapers, textbook publisher and any printer using rolls,” says Saurabh Gupta of Prakash Offset.

Gupta believes the current market is still not at its full potential, but it is certainly better than last year. “There are many new projects and customers are planning capital investment in this financial year. We hope the market will continue its positive trend,” he says. The company is hoping to introduce SG 50 to all visitors at the show and display its full capabilities. “Mumbai being a mature market for newspapers, we hope to meet all the big players,” he adds.

 

Manroland

The company will once again highlight its Cromoman 4x1, the press made for India, and the latest order it bagged from Namaste Telangana.

“Also, Manroland ’s digital finishing solutions, both former line and fold line have found global acceptance in a very short time. These finishing solutions are fully industrial in nature and construction and are compatible with any print engine available in the market,” says Rekha Sharma of Manroland  India.

 

Since the company diversified press manufactures for newspaper and commercial printers with added scope in digital finishing solutions, its target customers include newspapers and commercial publishers, digital printers, consultants involved in web offset, digital print solutions and general enthusiast who would like to know the latest advancement in the company’s area of operations.

 

“After nearly three years of low activity in newspaper press buying, we are experiencing buoyancy in the segment. Our customers pan-India are probably looking to plan to invest in short-term and medium-term basis. We expect this investment to be largely focused on regional players, tier-two and tier-three cities, where we feel investment and expansion of newspaper circulation would be much higher,” Sharma said.

 

Technicon India

The company will launch its new and India’s first inserter called TechInsert360. At the expo, Technicon is mainly targeting newspaper mailroom heads. On the current scenario, Rajiv Gandotra of Technicon India says in terms investment potential and growth, the market is opening up.

The Wan-Ifra expo is important for your company because it is a newspaper-centric and it is the target market of the company. “We want to rock the show with our Inserter TechInsert360.” 

 

QI Press Controls

QI Press Controls will present its IDS-3D. According to Vijay Kumar Pandya of QI Press Controls, it is an ‘all-in-one’ fully automatic image-based colour, register measuring, and control system for web offset presses, which also detects failures in print. “The IDS-3D is a unique patented multifunction fully automatic close loop control system with two digital cameras each with build-in microprocessors, providing real-time data processing of the measured data,” he explains.

 

Pandya says all visitors who are or want to be a part of the printing and graphic art industry, are the company’s target. “It seems printers and printing companies are becoming more quality-oriented and are concerned about getting better print quality from their printing equipment.

 

Tendency to invest in new and expensive presses is being replaced by inclination towards more efficient and automation of existing presses. In that sense, investment potential for the products, which can bring better ROI, is increasing and growth of new equipments or capacities are stagnant,” he says, adding that the company wants to establish new contacts for potential business by meeting printing industry people at one platform. It also wants to understand the market trends, especially in newspaper industry and wants to create awareness about the necessity of automation of quality controls among newspaper printers.

 

Wrh Global

Kawal Arora of Wrh Global, the manufacturers of material handling equipment, says the company will showcase its latest conveyor and stacker system – HPC high performance conveyor and HPS high performance stacker at the expo. There will also be inserters, Minisert and Easysert. Gandotra concludes.

 

Zeta Marketing

The first-time participant at the show, Zeta Marketing will be focusing on three products,

Universal File Server UB64, WebShare UB64 and PrintPreview UB64. “WebShare UB64 is a part of Universal File Server, which, like the Swiss penknife, has many features from different software domains (collaboration, SAN, synchronisation, file management, sharepoint) in one product. A great product for ‘virtual’ teamwork with team members working from different places (home, office, on the move), using different operating systems,” says Jatin P Vasandani of Zeta Marketing. “Along with WebShare UB64, PrintPreview UB64 makes interaction with customer or ad agency on checking, correcting and proofing print jobs.”

 

The company is targeting managers from newspapers working with ad agencies, editors working with ‘creative’ or ‘maverick’ reporters and photographers, and IT heads who have to cope with ‘unreasonable’ demands. Vasandani says the market is growing, but with a sense of caution. At the expo, he hopes that at least ten decision-makers will agree to let "their teams try out the product for a month."

 

ABB

Switzerland-based ABB, one of the leading suppliers of automation solutions for the newspaper industry, will focus on two main areas, production management and workflow solutions, and modular press retrofit solutions.

“ABB’s production management and workflow solutions not only make managing and optimising the production process easier, but they also make complex production forms simpler and more economical,” says Steve Kirk of ABB. He adds that the company’s MPS Cockpit, which allows production management across the whole newspaper production process at one or more print sites, will be a particular attraction to Indian newspaper publishers with multiple sites.

“Second, ABB’s latest modular press retrofit solutions can be tailored to almost any press type. These allow the life of a newspaper press to be extended in the most cost-effective way possible and ensure the long-term availability of spare parts. The modular solutions include drives, controls, control console and press management system replacements,” Kirk adds.

 

Memory Repro Systems

The company will display its blanket wash system for web machines and its colour registration system device. There will be video demos for the company’s manual plate punch and plate bender; pneumatic punch and bender; sensor-based punch bender; and video punch bender. Also on the display will be the barred blankets for webs from Slovenia-based Sava.

Bal Krishan Khindria of Memory Repro is expecting to meet a lot of decision-makers from western India, who will visit the show. “I should get the maximum enquiries for the colour registration system and blanket wash,” he says, adding, “The market of newspaper industry today is making their investment on cost-cutting devices. The electronic media is more active and therefore, the newspaper industry is wisely making their investment in expansions.” 

 

The Printers House

At the expo, the company is going to emphasise on some of its projects, which are executed recently. “We are looking forward to meet the top management of most of the top as well as mid-size newspapers in India and neighbouring countries, says Pawan Tyagi of The Printers House.

 

While Tyagi does not expect new newspaper projects to come up in India in the recent future, he believes there will be expansion projects throughout country. “We already have received couple of orders for long presses and many are in the pipeline,” he says. “We expect to meet most of our prestigious customers as well as sub-suppliers at the show. Also, we expect to get updates about newspaper industry and new ideas for future businesses.”

 

CCI

Kim Svendsen of CCI Europe, the software company based in Aarhus, Denmark that publishes newspaper production suites such as CCI Newsdesk, CCI NewsGate, CCI AdDesk Sales and CCI AdDesk Production, says the company is participating at the show, and the focus will be on it digital publishing modules, especially on mobile. 

“With the CCI Digital Publishing Solution, a client can build digital publications for native apps in a matter of hours, which helps to act immediately on business and editorial decisions,” says Svendsen.