There have been other ventures using digital print for newspaper printing, for start up projects or as satellite operations, but the Walliser Bote (Valley Messenger) is the first regional newspaper in the world to pull the plug on its offset press and to switch completely to digital printing.
That newspaper is the Walliser Bote, a 175-year-old title published from Visp in south western Switzerland. Its 22,000 copies are distributed the length of a 220km-long valley carved by an ancient glacier.
The company’s Wifag OF7 newspaper machine still resides in the plant, but every night for the last nine months it has been silent. Instead the tabloid paper has been printed on an HP PageWide T410 inkjet web press with a Manroland Web Systems Foldline unit inline with the press and a Muller Martini Alphaliner inserter after it.
The inkjet press is considerably smaller than the offset press it has replaced, as is the folding and collecting unit. The digital machine sits on the floor of the main production hall alongside Manroland and Heidelberg sheetfed presses, a number of sheet folders and guillotines.
This set up, familiar to a commercial printer, is one key to the installation. The other is the independence that family owned Mengis Druck cherishes.
Even by Swiss standards the canton in south west of the country is isolated. It is surrounded by 45 mountains above 4,000 metres high, but lacks the ski resorts that more accessible parts of the country enjoy. There are 800,000 inhabitants, those in the Lower Valais closer to Geneva speaking French, those in the Upper Valais speaking German.
“We are a small publisher compared to Tamedia,” says managing director Nicolas Mengis, naming one of the largest Swiss newspaper groups, “and we value our independence. We did not want to lose control of our destiny.”
The question came up when looking to replace the ageing Wifag machine. The company might have outsourced production to a company like Tamedia located two hours away in Berne. But the company was not comfortable at ceding this level of control, let alone what might happen when the contract period came to an end.
Equally it did not want to invest in a like for like press replacement. Circulation and advertising have both dropped steeply since 2008, ruling out investment in a web offset press.
This dichotomy was solved in conversations with potential suppliers, one being Manroland Web Systems, which became co-ordinator for the project. The solution would be a set up that could meet the needs of nightly newspaper production, but which could also run during the day on commercial print jobs. The versatility of the Manroland Foldline unit became key to enabling this.
Alwin Stadler, Manroland Web Systems vice president digital systems, says: “We are using our expertise to come up with solutions for the new business of newspaper printing, via strategic alliances.”
One of these is with HP where the decision in favour of the HP PageWide T400 became almost inevitable. Mengis Druck would have needed two inkjet lines from other suppliers to match the ability of the 1 metre-wide press to print the entire run of a 32pp tabloid paper within the five-hour production window.
“The first digital newspapers were based on an island model to print international papers in difficult to reach places, but because they needed special papers they were too expensive for normal production. But now presses can reach 300m/minute and can use standard offset papers and print quality is much improved. As a result newspaper printers like Mengis Druck can use digital to compete with short runs. This is the zonal production model.
“The printer will need to create more products to justify the investment and to make better use of the equipment, perhaps localising newspaper products still further and looking at new models for advertising.”
Mengis has yet to do this, preferring to concentrate on ensuring production was rock solid first. It is now at the point where it can start to look at split runs for ads, to adjust the artwork according to distribution and to create completely new inserts.
This it has done, producing a supplement for children personalised to the children of the newspaper’s subscriber. It hopes that by appealing to young readers it is growing the next generation of subscribers.
Mengis has also started to produce commercial jobs on the inkjet press, initially books with a regional distribution, but planned to encompass other products. Mengis reckons that 20-30% of company turnover now printed on the sheetfed presses can transition to the inkjet technology.
Making this a reality depends on achieving production efficiencies. The Foldline is an inline unit. “Because we prefer to focus on inline production connected to the print engine which is the best set up for automated production” says Stadler. “The future for digital printing is inline.”
The unit will automatically eject blank pages due to the print heads rising to allow the splice from the Megtec reel stand to pass beneath. It would also monitor variable data printing as this is printed.
The unit is managed through the MasterQ control software which controls impositions, including the length of paper ahead of the fold and cross cutter to cope with different formats of book or stitched product. Changes to format can be made on the fly using the Bridge which acts as the interface between the print engine and the finishing unit.
For a site which is producing only books, Manroland Web Systems has the Formerline unit, which is optimised for book production. Where the flexibility to handle commercial and newspaper printing is needed, the Foldline becomes the answer.
In newspaper mode it will cut, fold and collect pages to deliver a 96pp tabloid or 48pp broadsheet. In magazines, it will produce 16pp or 8pp A4 sections. For a tabloid like Walliser Bote, pagination rises in eight-page sections, which is one area where the digital answer is less flexible than offset. The analogue technology allowed four or even two page pagination increments.
Another change is to imposition which is determined by the final product rather than a template set by plate sizes. The imposition is then used to move the settings of the Foldline through the Bridge.
The print network Bridge automates set up of the finishing unit for the next job. According to Manroland, a site running 25 jobs a day could save four hours a day through automating set up and on the run adjustments, more than enough to justify the cost of the unit.
End to end production time for the newspaper is around five hours, twice the running time of the offset job. However, it has maintained the 11pm off stone time thanks to removing the plate making step. This has also taken away the need for staff in this area.
Indeed the whole digital line can run with what appears to be a skeleton crew, operator for the press, hands to move strapped bundles and operator on the finishing unit. The labour saving in high people cost Switzerland will shorten the ROI of the investment.
To compensate the paper is printed in distribution sequence and shipment from Visp to other parts of the distribution area, including some that reach subscribers in Switzerland’s major cities via Swisspost, is staggered to take benefit of this.
In any case this is likely to become less of a problem should HP offer an increase in printing speeds above the 183m/minute is currently achieves.
The quality is perfectly acceptable for newspaper printing. With ink levels set to maximise the production effectiveness of the press, the print can look a little washed out compared to litho, but this is when there is a side by side comparison.
To the reader the quality is no different to the months leading up to the switch over. The advertiser needs to pay attention to the final result, images of cheese for Switzerland’s major supermarket can lack contrast, but the benefits that digital brings will outweigh these concerns, Mengis believes.
The ink levels can be adjusted for the types of paper used for commercial printing and Mengis is happy that it can migrate sheetfed offset work to the inkjet press. The first application is book printing, where the majority of pages are mono.
The Foldline can cope with folding and delivering different format signatures into a Rima stacker ready for perfect binding. The conveyor will switch between deliver to the Rima or to a Muller Martini conveyor and Alphaliner inserter.
The books it is printing are local interest titles, either for the Valais populace or for the tourism market. As Mengis Druck becomes more comfortable with the colour output, it will be happy to transition other brochures and similar products to the HP press.
Because Mengis Druck has a foot in both commercial and newspaper camps, it is comfortable selling commercial printing.
Its success with this and with the newspaper will be keenly watched by newspapers and others looking at the potential for industrial scale inkjet printing.
Next up for Manroland Web Systems is France where a Foldline is part of the installation of a Kodak Prosper 6000 for newspaper and magazine printing at Sogemedia. Mengis Druck will not be lonely for long.
The Manroland Foldline automates finishing of the newspaper and can cope with speeds to 300m/min.
