Print Production & Technology
The regional press has always been at the forefront of
technological innovation. The move from hot metal
typesetting to highly sophisticated computerised systems and the
first multi-colour producing presses are two examples of the
pioneering nature of the industry. One of the latest regional press
innovation is AdFast, the fastest-growing internet delivery system
in the UK (see separate AdFast area of NS web site).
Regional newspapers were printing colour long before
their national counterparts and continue to lead the way with
quality and availability. Following the exodus from Fleet
Street, there was an increasing trend for national newspapers to
print a large percentage of their copies on regional
publisher-owned presses.
Publishers have invested millions in new printing presses and
production technology - the last few years has seen the 20-year
printing press investment cycle return with confidence levels high
in the future of the printed word. The coming 12 months will
see the culmination of a one
billion pounds spend on high speed, full colour presses, for
both regional and national press titles - a huge commitment to the
future of traditional newspapers in a multimedia era.
The production process
The web offset printing process has enabled newspapers, since
the mid-80s, to move from departmentalised, foundry-type operations
into integrated, computerised businesses, using printing plates
produced by direct exposure from a film negative, offering far
better quality and a more compatible photographic-style of printing
plate production than was previously achievable.
This process has been simplified still further over the past
decade, with direct imaging of the printing plate itself, cutting
out the film stage. In 1997, just one newspaper group - Newsquest's
(the Southern Newspapers) Southampton-based Redbridge printing
plant, had live production on this new computer to plate (CTP)
technology. Today, virtually all pre-press plants operate computer
to plate systems.
Presses produce newspapers at ever-increasing speeds (86,000
copies per hour for the largest machines). The introduction of new
technology into the production process streamlined and speeded the
operation and opened doors to a vast increase in added value
marketing and publishing activity through editionising, special
targeted supplements and new titles.
Increasingly, we are seeing traditional newspapers stitched
(stapled) and trimmed, and with an array of other added value
publications, all delivered to the door sealed in plastic film or
poly bags.
The Newspaper
Society also publishes
Production Journal, a monthly
magazine on newspaper production and technology issues.