Realization of Digital Printing in Remote Newspapers

The digital printing of remote newspapers is theoretically completely feasible, but there are certain difficulties in the technical realization.

Digital printing has a place in the commercial printing market, but the situation is still subtle for newspaper printing. Some companies are full of praise for the remote printing newspaper digital printing equipment used by their own companies, but from the perspective of a publisher, the production capacity of these equipment is far from meeting the requirements.

In today's era of digital network technology, long-distance digital newspaper printing is not worth the people's thinking. And the idea of ​​long-range newspaper printing is not new. The current digital workflow has supported the remote output of various products worldwide, including remote output film or remote direct output printing plates. Can not develop it?

Since the printing and distribution model of newspapers has long been established, the leap to direct digital printing is not a difficult task. The distribution of electronic pages has existed for several decades. It can extend the deadline for submission and shorten the time to market, while also reducing the cost of distribution.

The advantages of digital printing

The nature of digital printing has brought great possibilities for on-demand printing of personalized publications. It enhances the service to readers and provides the opportunity to enter new markets and new fields.

This bright prospect has inspired many output device manufacturers to develop corresponding products. They think this is a potential market space, but whether this kind of thinking is a vision or an impulse, only the market can answer.

Although most remote digital newspaper printing was promoted by suppliers, two publishers still played a very active role. The New York Times recently introduced a digital version of a special type of newspaper, Metropolis, which is only available for sale through the newspaper's website.

The electronic version of the newspaper can be downloaded from the newspaper's newsstand website, which costs 65 cents and the cost of printing the newspapers themselves. This publication is a PDF file that can be searched electronically and linked dynamically.

In the UK, the Financial Times may be the best newspaper for remote printing. The "Financial Times" printed at 19 rotary offset printing sites around the world. Recently, it began printing South African newspapers using the company's NewsPress 8000 digital press. These printers were installed in the Ince company in Johannesburg and printed approximately 3,600 newspapers of the 32 to 48 editions of the same content. These newspapers will be issued by subscription.

Richard Bolton, head of printing services at the Financial Times, said that the project still needs improvement. "I think that technology is still in the process of improvement. It needs to be improved in three areas: output speed, color support, and actual product size." For the "Financial Times", this is only the beginning.

The first company to develop a remote digital newspaper printing service was Presspoint, which was founded in 1995 and is a subsidiary company of Scitex Corporation for the design and establishment of a distributed printing system. Using the Internet and Xerox digital presses, a standard remote newspaper delivery method has been used until now. Presspoint communicates shared newspapers with remote output service providers and digital printing plants via satellite transmission.

But the market is constantly changing, and this is one of the reasons why many companies have gradually started investing in digital printing projects since the Ifra exhibition last year. Although no one is currently very mature, the number and diversity of practicable methods heralds this market to be alive.

Blatant intention

Oce announced its goals at Newstec last year and is now working with a number of newspapers in Switzerland, Germany and Denmark. Oce hopes to profit from the sales and service of the renamed DemandStream 8000 series monochrome digital printing equipment.

The company announced that it has approximately 400 print sites worldwide and is currently able to provide digital printing services for newspapers and more than 10,000 customers who can accept this service. DemandStream 8000 series digital presses have a reporting module that can feed sales data to participating publishers.

In the United Kingdom, Oce's customer Stroma used Oce digital presses to publish Italian newspapers. In addition to installing Oce equipment in London, Oce also cooperated with the Xerographics Copy Center and opened two printing points in New York to print newspapers in European countries.

Global printing site

Overall, Oce expects to have anywhere from 30 to 50 print sites worldwide, in Singapore, Hong Kong SAR, Miami, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago, Toronto, Vancouver, Madrid, Milan, Frankfurt, Berlin, Copenhagen, Paris and Brussels. Create a print shop.

The company also announced that it will cooperate with Higgs International to develop an international data distribution (IDD) network. Although the details of the cooperation are not yet clear, Higgs will jointly develop with 400 target sites of Océ to support newspaper digital printing and provide "supply and management support". The IDD will provide shared eligibility and asset management distribution for the destination network center.

With the continuous deepening of the Oce company's project actions, IBM and Xerox have established a number of project plans for remote digital newspaper printing. All three companies use PDF files and a central server, but their market policy is completely different. IBM placed its strategic center in the Scandinavian market and established a separate receiving server to provide network services to three printing plants in Oslo, Copenhagen and Stockholm.

Oce plans to cooperate with major publishers of International Press Distribution in Denmark and cooperate with Pitney Bowes Management Services to handle the entire European printing business. IBM is working with about 150 newspaper media to transfer PDF files to network data centers. The publisher submits the amount of each media required, then processes and implements at a remote printing point, and outputs it on a 495-mm-wide digital press.

Comprehensive distribution distribution

Océ currently provides services only to Scandinavia and hopes to further develop it into a comprehensive distribution distribution and printing, with IBM providing data processing to generate revenue. Oce will monitor the current situation and quickly come up with a stronger plan.

Xerox is unique in its offering of digital printing services: equipment for printing color pages. Xerox cooperates with a local printing company in Ifra to print five kinds of newspapers. Xerox is a service provider that profits directly from print and consumables and connects publishers with the most appropriate primary partners through cross-matching. Xerox's preferred partners are those who have at least two monochromators and a color machine.

Accurate market analysis

A survey is currently being conducted to determine more precisely what newspaper publishers are looking to profit from digital printing and related technologies. The survey was conducted mainly through senior executives from state-owned weekly and daily newspapers throughout Europe (including the UK) and Scandinavia.
Digital Newsprint for Roaming Readers evaluates the need to manage remote digital printing and remote advertising models. It mainly focuses on the survivability of current digital printing technology in newspapers, and it deals with the possible benefits for advertisers and the technology they need.

It also pays attention to how newspaper publishers serve customers and how digital printing can help the network invest in remote market development.

Digital press manufacturers are actively promoting the market for remote on-demand newspaper printing. The problem is that most newspapers are not yet ready to adapt to fundamental changes in the business model. Publishers expect that not only will convenience be obtained from digital printing, but this model will need to undergo rigorous commercial adjustment to be strengthened.

When will become a reality

Newspapers are constantly looking for ways to develop revenue channels, but advertising and related services are still the main source of income for newspapers. Unless digital printing helps attract new advertisers or obtain higher revenue from existing advertisers, it is clearly unlikely that this will happen in the near future. There are too many promises for digital printing, but how the market reacts we will wait and see.

"Printing Technology"