Cincy Enquirer mulling 15” cutoff

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Cincinnati Enquirer is considering whether or not to dramatically shorten its cutoff to approximately 15 inches and further narrow its web width in a bid to save on consumables.

Speaking at last week’s Great Lakes/Midstates Newspaper Production Conference, Enquirer Vice President of Operations Dave Preisser said the Gannett Co. Inc.-owned daily has already printed prototypes and conducted focus groups to gauge reader acceptance of the possible new format.

Preisser said the paper is evaluating proposals from both Pressline Services Inc. and Goss International Corp. to perform the work necessary to permit the change in format.

Both firms in the past six months rolled out press cutoff modification services based on a cylinder engineered to print three, rather than two, sheets in a single revolution.

The retrofit shortens existing cutoffs by 33 percent and can also boost press output and color placement, the vendors say (see News&Tech, September 2008 and December 2008).

If execs elect to make the move to change The Enquirer’s format, the paper would transform itself from a 22.75-inch by 11-inch broadsheet into one measuring approximately 15 inches by 10.5 inches. Sectioning would remain the same.

Preisser said focus groups “loved” the new format and that they particularly liked the additional use of color.

He said Gannett hopes to make a decision fairly soon but that no timetable has been set. The Enquirer is printed on 30-year-old Goss Metro presses.

News&Tech will have more information about The Enquirer’s project in the May issue.

Scripps, Gannett regionalizing ops

E.W. Scripps Co. announced plans to regionalize copy-editing and page design for four Texas newspapers at its Caller-Times of Corpus Christi. The copy editing and page design desk center is responsible for the final editing, headlines and visual appearance of the Caller-Times, the Wichita Falls Times-Record News, the Abilene Reporter-News and the San Angelo Standard Times and will be staffed by members from all four newspapers, Scripps said.

“Our watchdog role remains vital, as does generating local content readers can’t get anywhere else online or in print,” said Caller-Times Vice President and Editor Shane Fitzgerald. “With those goals in mind, such ideas as streamlining the copy editing and design in one central place make a lot of sense.”

The reorganization will include 19 layoffs at The Caller-Times, and the publisher also announced that The Business Journal of Corpus Christi and The Business Times of the Rio Grande Valley will close at the end of the month, resulting in seven layoffs.

Meantime, Gannett Co. Inc. announced plans to create a regional news and sports copy desk and page production operation to serve four of its six New Jersey papers.

Those operations will be housed at the Asbury Park Press.

“We believe this regional copy editing operation will make us more efficient and enable us to improve quality control by concentrating more copy-editing firepower in one location,” said Tom Donovan, president and publisher of the Press

Pensacola, Wilmington, N.C., papers to outsource printing

The Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal and Wilmington (N.C.) Star-News both said they would shut their production plants and outsource printing and packaging to rival newspapers.

The News Journal will be printed at the Press-Register in Mobile, Ala., beginning in June while the Star-News is shifting production to the Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer, effective May 11.

The News Journal said 84 full-time and part-time employees will lose their jobs while the News-Star will shed 37 full-time and part-time workers.

With the switch, the News-Star will undergo a redesign that conforms with the Observer’s 46-inch web width, said Robert J. Gruber, publisher. It will also migrate to modular ad sizes.

Press-Register Publisher Howard Bronson said printing the Gannett Co. Inc.-owned News Journal “is especially important during these difficult economic times because it creates a substantial new revenue stream for the Press-Register,” the newspaper reported.

The Press-Register will also print other News Journal publications, which include a TMC, a business paper and other periodicals.

For a comprehensive list of newspaper plant closures, tallied by News&Tech, click here.

AP sets plan to protect online content

The Associated Press board of directors said it would roll out a plan to ensure that its Web content isn’t being used without authorization.

AP Chairman Dean Singleton said the news cooperative would work with portals and other partners who properly license content and would pursue legal and legislative actions against those who don‘t.

“We can no longer stand by and watch others walk off with our work under misguided legal theories,“ Singleton said at the AP annual meeting, in San Diego.

An AP spokesman said further details about the initiative would be released later today. The news service is already using software from Attributor Corp. to track content. (See News&Tech, January 2008).

AP also announced a new pricing plan that would include a $35 million reduction in rate assessments and provide a limited service to newspapers with minimal world and national coverage needs.

Zillow.com launches newspaper initiative

Zillow.com last week launched co-branded real estate Web sites with 180 newspapers nationwide, including those published by Media General Inc. and Community Newspaper Holdings Inc.

Papers including The Tampa (Fla.) Tribune now include search functions and other features provided by Zillow, the firm said.

In the coming months, additional Media General papers, including the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch and Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal will also launch co-branded sites.

The launch extends services and features developed through the Zillow Newspaper Consortium, which was formed in late 2007 with 11 newspaper publishers.

Fla. daily reaping ink savings

The (Jacksonville) Florida Times-Union implemented OnColor Eco ink optimization software from ProImage.

“We are seeing a 20-percent reduction in color ink usage per page,” said Robert Todd, the Times-Union’s vice president of operations. “We track color impressions and color ink used per metric ton every month, so our numbers accounted for an overall reduction in color ink per page count.”

Todd said the paper achieved ROI in approximately five months.

OnColor Eco analyzes PDF files and determines the amount of ink needed to produce the best quality.

The Times-Union also uses ProImage’s NewsWay workflow software.

Agfa shows new CTP in Hershey

Agfa Graphics is unveiling its newest computer-to-plate unit for newspapers, the Advantage N-SL, at America East in Hershey, Pa., this week.

The Union in Grass Valley, Calif., is the first paper to install the machine (see Dateline, March 16, 2009).

"While the larger newspapers are seeing their print editions lose readership to the Internet, smaller local newspapers have content and information unique to them, and as such both their Web sites and print products are not only co-existing, they are thriving," said Jim Hemig, chief information officer of The Union’s parent company, Swift Communications. "People still read newspapers, if the content is important, helpful and relevant to them. Agfa has found a way for the smaller and mid-size papers to benefit from a better return on their investment."

The third-generation Advantage N-SL can image up to 100 plates per hour with automatic plate loading from a 100-plate stack loader with on-line processing. The platesetter is also more affordable than previous generations, Agfa said.

The Advantage N-SL can image Agfa’s N91-V and its new chemistry-free N92-VCF plate. 

Advance details further Mich. consolidation

Advance Publications Inc., which owns several newspapers in Michigan, said it would consolidate editing and ad production work at The Jackson Citizen Patriot, The Kalamazoo Gazette and The Muskegon Chronicle at The Grand Rapids Press, effective this summer.

Additionally, Advance said The Citizen Patriot will handle copy-editing, page design and ad production for the forthcoming AnnArbor.com two-day-a-week print newspaper that will replace The Ann Arbor News when it ceases operation this summer.

MMMS cancels users conference

Muller Martini Mailroom Systems Inc. said its users conference, scheduled for mid-May in Mobile, Ala., has been postponed until 2010.

The decision follows similar moves by ING and the manroland Users Group to postpone their 2009 meetings. Tight travel budgets and the recession were cited as reasons for the reschedulings.

Pa. papers to combine operations

The Intelligencer Journal and Lancaster New Era in Lancaster, Pa., will consolidate operations and publish a combined edition beginning this summer.

The combined paper will begin publishing a single morning edition, effective June 29.

Lancaster Newspapers, which owns the papers, has published both the Intelligencer Journal and New Era with separate editorial staffs.

The Intelligencer Journal, a morning paper, reaches about 46,000 readers while the New Era, an afternoon daily, is read by about 39,000.

The papers have published a combined edition on Saturdays and Sundays for the past 13 months.

An undetermined number of employees will lose their jobs as a result of the consolidation, the publisher said.

Herald-Standard taps CommunitySportsDesk

The Uniontown (Pa.) Herald-Standard selected CommunitySportsDesk to collect, organize and present local sports and recreation content for its online product, heraldstandard.com.

“CommunitySportsDesk offers an opportunity to strengthen our connection with an active and vibrant part of our market,” said Herald-Standard Publisher Val Laub.

CSD was developed by Media Innovations LLC, a unit of United Communications Corp., which publishes the Kenosha (Wis.) News.

NYT threatens Globe shutdown; Hearst wants to cut costs 20%

The New York Times Co. said it would close The Boston Globe if it couldn’t get $20 million in concessions, according to a story posted on The Globe’s Web site April 3.

The paper said The Times made its demands in a meeting with The Globe’s 13 unions.

The Globe reported that Times officials said the Boston paper will lose more than $80 million in 2009.

Meantime, Hearst Corp. wants to reduce expenses at its newspapers by 20 percent annually.

Steve Swartz, president of Hearst’s newspaper division, told New York analysts that the publisher has to significantly cut costs in order to compensate for plunging revenues, Bloomberg reported.

The publisher has already cut staff at The Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News, and is negotiating for concessions at the Times-Union in Albany, N.Y., to reduce expenses.

It also shuttered the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, converting it into a Web-only news organization, and has threatened to close the San Francisco Chronicle unless workers agree to wage and benefit cuts.

Obituary: Eugene Falk

Eugene Falk, a former operations and production executive with the Los Angeles Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Wichita (Kan.) Eagle, passed away in early February. He was 65.

Obituary: Steven Jay Brown, KBA

Steven Jay Brown, Western sales manager at Koenig & Bauer AG’s North America unit, passed away suddenly last week. He was 60.

Mr. Brown, a former Navy Seal, spent more than 30 years in newspaper sales, and was named Western sales manager in 2007.

In brief 

Pressline Services Inc. named Harry Kokolus director of sales and marketing.

Gannett Co. Inc. announced that USA Today Publisher Craig Moon will retire on April 17. He had been with the paper for more than 20 years.

No replacement was named.

Meantime, Gannett named Tara Connell vice president and Jennifer Carroll vice president and senior editor of ContentOne.

Screen released Riteapprove SE 4.0, online automation software for Trueflow SE. Screen said the software is designed for users of Screen's PDF- and JDF-based Trueflow SE workflow system, including newspaper users, who want to add online job submission, proofing and approval to their Web-to-print operation.

www.screenusa.com

Quark Inc. said it integrated its XML Author app with IBM’s FileNet Content Manager software to permit Content Manager users working in Microsoft Word to create content that can be distributed via multiple channels.

www.quark.com

AdSend said its IQ Chaser Web-based ad delivery system is now in production.

www.adsend.com

The Kenosha (Wis.) News said it has partnered with Local-I-Dos.com, a wedding planning site. The site was developed for The Sun Chronicle in Attleboro, Mass.

www.local-i-dos.com

TownNews.com said it sold its recently introduced Blox content management software to four papers, including the Quad City Times in Davenport, Iowa; the Daily Register in Portage, Wis.; the Walla-Walla (Wash.) Union-Bulletin and the Press of Atlantic City, N.J.

www.townnews.com
 

Bliss Communications sold the Daily Globe in Ironwood, Mich., to Stevenson Newspapers. Joe Karius will remain publisher.

No financial terms were disclosed.

The PAGE Cooperative celebrated 25 years of service to the newspaper industry on April 1. The group started with a goal of attracting 10 members and today counts over 1,700 publications, including 590 daily newspapers and 271 newspaper corporations among its members.

PAGE members pool purchases to earn significant discounts and rebates from more than 100 suppliers.

www.pagecooperative.com