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January 2012Yes, digital publishing is here to stayTablets might still be a niche market in India, but they are a rapidly growing and promising new media channel for newspaper publishers. Digital publishing to tablets is another step in the ongoing evolution of the media industry. This change forces publishers to define an effective multi-channel publishing strategy, enabling them to effortlessly address any channel and to monetise new channels such as tablets successfully. A special report by Stefan Horst. An analysis of press articles, statements made by research companies and vendor press releases about tablet sales in India in 2011 leaves you with no clear answers when it comes to data. The figures vary from below one, up to several tens of millions. However, the tenor of all these publications is the same: the tablet market in India will flourish in the coming years. The availability of affordable readers such as the Kindle Fire and low-cost tablet devices such as the Aakash are expected to further spur the market. Thus, it is time for publishers to prepare to integrate tablets into their portfolio of supported media channels. The benefits tablets offer for publishers are manifold – they are the first mobile device that enables publishers to extend their existing publication brands to the digital world. With reader-attractive tablet editions of their titles, publishers are able to increase the reach of their publications and to tap new revenue sources. Dinamalar surges forward on the new media frontA 60-year-old newspaper has adapted and moved with the times, and moved quickly. Its Web site attracts more than two million unique visitors and more than 190 million page views a month; its iPhone, iPod and iPad applications have recorded a substantial number of downloads and page views, with various apps being made available on the Android platform as well. All run and managed by a small team that is highly focused on delivering value to users as well as clients, and it has paid off well. Sashi Nair reports on the Dinamalar new media success story.
Balasubramanian refers to dinamalar. com as India’s No. 1 publication portal, with 2.05 million unique visitors and more than 20.43 million visitors a month, more than 192 million page views a month, with about 47 per cent of users in the 25-35-year age group. It’s been quite a remarkable success story, which Balasubramanian in his presentation pointed out was because of innovative content for mobile platforms, dedicated teams for photo and video galleries, dedicated content, technical and marketing teams for the iPhone, iPad and Newshunt mobile site, and special content for the global Cutting down on waste, the right way to optimise productionLean process is a management philosophy focusing on reduction of common wastes to improve overall value, says R.D. Bhatnagar, chief technology officer, DB Corp Ltd. He refers to eight areas where wastage can be reduced and outlines some of the most popular tools used for lean processes. From the Dainik Bhaskar newspaper production workflow, it is clear that each element needs to be seamlessly linked to another and unless there is a harmonious blend, consistency and quality will suffer.
Click for more details ...A printing plant must be designed to cope with extraordinary situationsThe decision to set up a printing plant is a crucial step in the newspaper business. Especially today, when the future of the print industry is facing challenges from many quarters and when media owners need to analyse where future growth markets lie. Setting up a new project has a long-term impact on business. It calls for investing in smart ways and investing right. Selecting the right site is as important as getting expert opinion from engineers and studying all available information. In his presentation made at the WAN-IFRA 2011 Conference, Thomas Wiederkehr, managing director, IE Graphic Engineering, Germany, elaborates on some critical points. Nidhi Adlakha reports No one will doubt the need for understanding the engineering involved in installing presses to cope with natural disasters and challenging economical situations. Throwing some light on aspects that are hardly discussed or considered important was Thomas Wiederkehr, managing director, IE Graphic Engineering, Germany. Addressing delegates at the WAN-IFRA 2011 Conference Print Summit, he stressed the need for engaging technologies that required low maintenance and were sustainable, economical and safe.“There are numerous decisions that a publisher needs to take before finalising a production site. For instance, whether he should own it or outsource the task, adopt expansion measures and a multiple smaller decentralised philosophy of operation instead,” he said. Dwelling on the requirements of a new plant, Wiederkehr said the requirements must be analysed from the point of view of editors, publishers, advertisers and operations managers. The site must offer high product flexibility, adapt to last-minute changes, allow for late editorial closure deadlines and also adapt to market requirements, special sections, new products etc. “The future production site must allow for increased colour capacity for each page, offer high product design flexibility, ensure state-of-the-art production quality and secure the ability to realise new special product effects,” Wiederkehr pointed out. Factors such as increased staff efficiency, shorter production time frames, cost reductions, easy product distribution and delivering quality content rest with the publishers. Optimising the process in newspaper print production
Objective Input Processing ‘Concentrate on making images that reflect your passion’Ross Taylor is an award-winning photojournalist of The Virginian-Pilot in Virginia, the US. His style of photography strives to reveal images which convey a lot more than words. He is currently the mentorship chairman of the National Press Photographers Association in the US. Taylor is grateful for the time he recently spent in India. He has travelled a great deal but India remains his favorite country, the one that has had the most impact on him. He says he feels continually drawn to India and will be "coming back".“It's a country and a people that I hold dearly with a lot of respect and admiration,” says Taylor. Here are his responses to questions posed by Sashi Nair
Do the reader’s eyes usually travel to headlines first or to pictures? December 2011A library helps create a permanent recordFor the sake of posterity at least, shouldn’t publishers be considering getting copies of old newspapers and magazines microfilmed and digitised a priority? Showing the way is Chennai’s Roja Muthiah Research Library, a resource and research hub for south Indian studies. Widely recognised as a model library in India, the library’s core is its eclectic collection of a wide range ofTamil printed material – handbills, invitations, letters to newspapers, magazines and books – that Roja Muthiah Chettiar had preserved over four decades. It now has an impressive collection of 300000 items. Sashi Nair reports.. “We would like to work with institutions to set up archives,” says G. Sundar, director, RMRL. “We have suggested that institutes must set up archives and, taking our cue, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, has. The Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, is in the process of doing so.” Archiving by newspapers, Sundar feels, is extremely important. “We need to take stock of at least our own state (Tamil Nadu) since we are dealing with regional language publications and material in English associated with the state. It is quite depressing. No single library has the entire run of titles produced in the state, not even theTN StateArchives,” he says, adding, “For example, if you were to take The Mail or Swadesamitran, no library has the entire collection, or even 50 per cent of it. Evolving newspaper formats and innovations – are we technically ready?Snehasis C. Roy The writer is associate vice president - technical, ABP Pvt Ltd. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology, USA, and an MBA from theUniversityofMumbai. He acquired his skills working in various capacities the past 23 years – with Time Magazine, the Times of India Group, the DB-DNA Group and the ABP Group of publications. He has academic as well as practical exposure to the entire print manufacturing. Evolution makes a species (or a product) stronger and immune to the irreversible changes in nature (or in a business environment). In a detailed study in 2007-08, experts from all disciplines of human society agreed that some form of the printed newspaper was there to stay for years to come. What would the printed dailies in 2025 look like? It was a million dollar question (or business opportunity) that had no immediate answer (we shall of course wait and see!). Some experts compared the advantages of digital pads with that of printed newspapers. Newspapers emerged with high scores on: serene reading experience, recyclable nature, portability and, most importantly, on the trust factor. Bulky size and formats were the negative point earners. One of the experts was quoted to have said: “Forget the Internet. It’s not the enemy (indeed, the Internet might ultimately save the newspaper). Readers don’t read newspapers because they get news online, but because they find them boring. There are major societal changes involved. Journalists are still working in a tradition that began with the young democracy.” (Ref: Roger Black, CEO, R B Inc. Design, WAN Report N1 Vol. 7.) Major newspapers in the US and in the European Union have started experimenting with compact editions. Tabloid redesign projects have been taken up with vigour. However, simply folding the broadsheet in half (odd length-width ratio) and reorganising the columns and text sizes did not do much good to the popular broadsheets in the US. In the UK, the results were mixed. The connotations of ‘tab’ did not help either. The realisation came hard and fast that redesign for success was far from a simple folding of the broadsheet. That was way too easy to match the societal change and expectations. The redesign team went back to the drawing board and the technical team started having nightmares as they had no answers to a request for a different size that was neither broadsheet not a tabloid, but something in between. Follow the right path, and more productivity is assuredK. Nandakumar The writer superannuated from The New Indian Express as vice president (technical) after having
INTEGRATION OR INDEPENDENCE MARKETING Leveraging the creative power of youth to excel, stand outWith its main newspaper edition in Surabaya,12 regional editions across East Java, Central Java, Jogjakarta and Bali, and with 199 newspapers, tabloids and magazines in its basket, Indonesia’s Jawa Pos Group is a significant media player in the country. But what sets it apart is not its size or range of products. It is its steadfast focus on youth, using exclusive youth power to run its editions. The stories are all based on what interests GenNext. When newspapers the world over are desperately trying to attract the young reader, Jaw Pos seems to have already been there, done that. This report by Nidhi Adlaka is based on a case study of the Jawa Pos Group presented by the group’s director, Azrul Ananda, at the WAN-IFRA 2011 Conference in Chennai If there’s one thing that sets apart the Jawa Pos newspaper from most of the others in the world, it is its high degree of innovation and youth-oriented strategy. Another significant thing is that the average employee age is only 20. Indeed, the astonishing success of Jawa Pos has been in large measure due to its well thought-out strategy of utilising the power of the youth. “We have a strong belief that new people always bring in new ideas and we have ensured none of our chief personnel are above the age of 40. We rope in young college students to run the youth edition and the focus lies on fresh news,” said Azrul Ananda, the group’s director, himself young and dapper, addressing delegates at the Newsroom Summit of the WAN IFRA 2011 Conference in Chennai. According to an Enciety and Nielsen Media Research study conducted in 2010, more than 51 per cent of Jawa Pos readers are under the age of 30. The first newspaper in Indonesia, perhaps even in the world, to have special pages dedicated to the youth everyday, Jawa Pos launched the DetEksi section in 2000. Ever since, the three-page youth section is a daily feature. “The average age of the DetEksi crew is 20 years. From reporters, photographers, and designers, to finance manager and editor, the entire edition is run by youngsters, mostly college students who work part-time,” Ananda added. The reportage of the entire section is based on surveys and their findings. A range of topics that interest the youth are analysed and the stories are based on the same. Reinvention is a prime philosophy of the organisation, and its slogan ‘Selalu ada yang baru’, meaning,‘We always have something new’, is apt. A new section in the paper is launched every year and it runs for a year, till another new one takes over. It has given people something new to look forward to each year, and with the sections dedicated to a particular segment of the population, readership is guaranteed. For instance, editions launched with a focus on young families, or the elderly, have been popular in the region. Another success has been Jawa Pos – for Her, a section dedicated to women. “As more than 50 per cent of the population is women, we needed to create a shift in the thinking process and treat women as a majority, not a minority. All employees are encouraged to attend women-oriented seminars,” Ananda pointed out. Ensuring there is a picture of a woman, with at least one story on each page of the edition, is a strategy the group has adopted, and it has helped increase readership. Ink rub-off: Is it really a concern while printing newspapers?
The range of rub reduction obtained from all of the samples was determined and is plotted in Figure 1. The upper line represents the best of the samples measured and the lower line the poorest. Obviously, the wide variation between the poorest and best suggests that several parameters influence the rub-off levels in a newspaper. 1. Type of formulations Currently US Ink offers three general types of low-rub ink formulations. They are Super Standard, Low Rub, and Rub Proof. Now it’s the presses that make the track go roundS. Muthiah The writer has been in journalism for more than 60 years. He is editor, Madras Musings, and author of several books on Chennai as well as biographies, including those on companies and institutions. His eekly column, Madras Miscellany, has been running in The Hindu Metro Plus for over ten years. He has taught journalism and print production at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Anna University and the University of Madras. He helped found India’s first degree course in printing technology at Anna University in 1980. He has been an office bearer of the Madras Printers’ and Lithographers’ Association, and the All Indian Federation of Master Printers. In March 2002, he was awarded the MBE by the Queen of England for his work on heritage and environment conservation in Chennai. Forgive me for continuing from where I left off last month. But I can’t help but return to the subject of the luxuries the Media focuses on in a country where the majority of people struggle to make ends meet and a few hundred million are downright poor, for in the couple of weeks that followed my sounding off last month all that the Media was inundated with, and which rather overwhelmed me, was Formula One motor racing coming to India and the Rs.20,000 million track built for it. And to think that the track was built in, if I am not mistaken, the name of Lord Buddha, the Lord of Humility! Now I have nothing against Formula One motor racing if that is your sport. Nor do I have anything against one of its so-called races being held in India. But I do have much against the way the organisers hosted it and the way the Media played up to them, particularly the Press. Firstly, imagine accepting advertising that read “Today with the blessings of God, the dream of 1.2 billion Indians has been realised with the successful hosting of the first Indian Grand Prix”! No doubt those 1200000000 included the 95000 affluent who watched the race live and the 2 or 3000000 who were among the worldwide audience of 525 million that saw the race on television. Does this advertiser really want us to believe that all the other hundreds of million who call India home, all those other zeroes, were really dreaming of the Buddh International Circuit and the one race it was built for ?! Only the conscienceless would produce such advertising and feature it, sparing not a single thought for all those dreaming of food, clothing, shelter and infrastructure. Secondly, even if it was felt a worldwide audience of a few hundred million would benefit India– and let me assure you that none of that audience will contribute towards ameliorating conditions in India unless there is something in it for them – was it necessary to provide 600000 litres of subsidised petrol, consider waiving of sales and entertainment taxes, allow 12000000 cubic metres of earth to be moved to Heaven only knows where – no doubt at a hefty profit for some concerned– and block traffic for miles inconveniencing thousands more than those who made it to the track?! And if this is justified by the thought that it will help India’s growing automobile industry mushroom even further – which it won’t, given the chasm existing between the world of Ferraris and what have you and the world of Marutis and Nanos – who will it benefit but the multinationals – the New East India Company – who have been given every concession and more to put up their automobile plants?! Was there anyone in the media who raised their voices against this expansiveness, not to mention extravagance? Single- or double-width presses? The choice is not quite easyThe choice of press is getting more and more complicated. How do you go about deciding the right press for the job? K. Krishnan, vice president (technical), The Hindu, in a presentation made at the WAN- IFRA 2011 Conference, makes it clear that the choice ultimately rests with the individual publisher, based on what the requirements are. If the print order is more than 100000 copies and there are a number of inserts, he recommends a double-width press; and for small print-runs, single-width. Sashi Nair reports Indeed, Krishnan’s very first slide, ‘Based on individual requirements’ seemed to suggest the answer at the outset.The mechanical engineering graduate from the College of Engineering Guindy, Anna University, went on to explain that such discussions could all be based on experience and opinion, but, finally, “you have to apply your mind and see what is suitable for your requirements”. He listed out some factors to be considered: print order, time, cost, space, quality, wastage, growth, traditions, and market conditions. The foremost consideration, according to Krishnan, was the print order. And he provided an example. In 2006, when The Hindu moved from a single-width to a double-width press in its Hyderabad Branch, about 140000 copies were being produced, with the edition getting over around 6am. “We had to improve the situation and there were so many options available at that time. One was whether to buy one more machine of the same kind with a higher speed,” he said. The Hindu opted for a double-width press. By the time the project was completed, the print order went up to 200000 copies, and the finishing time was 5.30 am. “If the print order is above 100000 copies, it is better to go for a double-width press,” he stressed. The next consideration, Krishnan pointed out, was how many copies were required to be printed, adding that output, down time, make ready time, and “fallback considerations” were the related factors to be noted, irrespective of whether there were two machines or just one machine with higher capacity. “In India, the general idea is that if you have two machines there is one to fall back on; but modern machines are well built with more reliability, so no spare machine is really needed,” he said. Except in Chennai, which is The Hindu’s major printing hub, the group has only one press in all the other printing centres. November 2011UV curing in newspaper printing
UV printing is becoming more and more popular within our industry. Numerous printers are now investing into this technology for various reasons: to produce their current customers’ products more efficiently and effectively; to separate themselves from their competition; or may be just to become that “greener printer.” It could even be all of the above. A correctly configured UV printing press could enhance the current business along with creating many new opportunities that were never possible with a conventional machine. Many figure out quickly that the rewards are well worth the investment when approached and executed properly. UV has something to offer for everyone willing to take that plunge. Currently cold-set presses can be easily upgraded with a compact UV curing system to enable production of high quality work on both coated and uncoated papers. Printing can be either UV or a combination of cold- set and UV. This enables the printing presses’ capacity to be expanded and more efficiently used in the newsprint area, allowing the glossy supplements to be printed during the day when the press would normally be standing idle. Several UV drying systems are now installed in newspaper printing presses
World press trends: Newspapers still reach more than Internet Newspaper circulation declined in print world-wide last year but was more than made up by an increase in digital audiences, the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) said in its annual update of world press trends. “Circulation is like the sun. It continues to rise in the East and decline in the West,” The survey found: Mr Riess’s presentation focused on six key areas: the media consumption shift; economic developments; newspaper circulation and number of titles; advertising expenditure by media; newspaper revenue; and internet versus mobile. This represented a significant shift from past versions of the world press trends survey, which WAN-IFRA has been carrying out since 1988. Long a statistical compendium of information from more than 200 countries, the 2011 report focuses on the 69 countries that account for 90 percent of global industry value in terms of circulation and advertising revenue. “We’re concentrating on value rather than volume, focusing on key numbers in key markets,” said Mr Riess. “Our approach puts a premium on insight over numbers.”This reflects feedback from industry stakeholders, as part of the new WAN/IFRA review. But the survey will continue to monitor all countries. When measured in minutes per day, media consumption patterns vary widely. For example, television dominates in the United States, internet accounts for one-third of media time in Austria, and digital gets just a fraction of consumption time in Russia. Vital decisions for profitability In part I & II of this series we discussed on Vital Decisions in selecting the right machineries. For understanding the specific technical compliances related to acceptance of web-offset machines, the readers may please study IFRA Special updated report of the Special Report 3.16.3, publication dated 01.2008. In this part III we shall look into the various considerations involved in the employment of the right people.
At the grassroot and clerical levels, the technological developments, seem to have taken away the need for human deployment. Automations are becoming the order of the day. The machineries and systems are replacing human deployment. Further, automations benefit the enterprises by ensuring higher speeds, productivity and guarantee results with better accuracies. Automation has also obviated the need for human intelligence for measurements, correction and supervision. However it is interesting to note that these great technological opportunities have not reduced the gross cost towards the labor. The availability of workmen / trademen, like mechanics, plumbers, electricians etc. is becoming scarce due to various reasons. The educated class prefers white collard jobs and shy away from trade related work. Hence the irony is that, while there is substantial strength reduction on core production area (achieved at grassroot levels), the fact is added to the middle and top slots. The grassroot level labor is being replaced by highly paid supervisory and middle / top management (though less in numbers). The trademen are replaced by executives, supervisors by engineers and managers by leaders (!). The management is satisfied that the total staff strength is reduced. The satisfaction is imaginary because such exercises always result in the payroll being drastically increased. Moreover it is difficult to handle and retain the high profiled staffs as their satiation levels are high. Click for more details ...News channels vs. newspapers Reading habits are going down as people are very casual in understanding the essence of importance of print and its values Mohammad Shamim Afzal, Prof. Assistant, Centre for Dalit & Minorities Studies,
Editorials: Newspapers have the so called ‘soul’ of the paper, the editorial giving opinion on the very important issue of the day. TV channels do not have such pieces. Sometimes CNNIBN gives an opinion (editor’s take) on an issue.l Letters: Newspapers publish letters sent by the readers on various issues published in the paper or something important in the public interest in the form of complaints, grievances etc. TV Channels invites viewers feedback only during some live debates / discussions like Muqabala, We the People, Hum Log, Left Right and Centre etc on NDTV. Feedback: The Hindu very often publishes a correction for any omissions or errors in the very next day of the edition. But in TV channels there are numerous errors and omissions which are never corrected and improved even though there are agencies to nab the channels for surrogate advertisements. Tangible: Newspapers are tangible. You can read at your ease, leisure and convenience unlike TV channels. Back Issues: Newspapers can be accessed even after days and years, but TV channels’ programmes can never be. Some newspapers have even started archiving the e-papers on their websites. Interestingly newspapers are printed as well as electronically displayed on the websites. At the same time whole content is archived. But the electronic media have only one medium of communication i.e. electronic which comprises both the TV and internet.Advertising makes the presses run It was not name- dropping or featuring a face for the sake of featuring it, but fashion reporting of the highest order. And in a Westernised social set that took fashion seriously, it was a full page that made waves, set standards in the fashion world, and left the opposition standing S.Muthiah Author, editor, printer and a journalist for over sixty years
The opposition had a superb management team that spent its money wisely on all that it takes to push circulation. And that is not merely content. It has much more to do with getting the paper to readers first, even in the remotest corners of the Island. And that handsome edge over us in circulation ensured winning, by a distance, the race for what makes a newspaper not only go round but also become a major success. And that is ADVERTISING. A winning circulation ensures increasing numbers of `Smalls’ or `Classifieds’ as well as `Notices’ of all sorts. And both are in many ways more important than news content for circulation. After all, they provide information that more readers want than what happens in Sirte or Timbuktu! And as they push up circulation, they ensure that more and more display advertising comes in from the big boys. With our inability to reach the newspaper to the reader, we were nowhere in this race to make money – and found ourselves never able to catch up in this vicious circle that the newspaper industry is in. And make no mistake about it; it is an industry, and, like any other industry, is in the business to make profits, not for any deeply felt altruism towards society. I ride this favourite hobbyhorse of mine again because during the last few weeks, whenever I went out to get my favourite newspapers and opened them to look at the headlines, all I was confronted with was pictures of cars hardly any readers of these newspapers could afford to buy, gold jewellery a few more would buy whether they could afford it or not, and glitzy sarees that yet a few more could afford to buy. Of what was happening in the world, there was nothing to be seen on the front pages – and back pages – except cars, gold jewellery or sarees. Talk of conspicuous consumption and Marie Antoinette, our dailies appear to be in full flow encouraging them.A drive for power conservation in printing presses The growth of printing industries in Indian market is rapidly increasing and therefore the demand of electrical energy is growing and it is directly consuming natural resource which is depleting fast. Thus there is need to conserve energy, particularly in print industry. Kapil K.Mathur Power is consumed in various ways across all the sector of Indian industries and homes. It is observed that in an organization like printing industry normally no one is directly responsible for the monitoring, control and waste of power. Each company has its own characteristic on need based monitoring and targeting system to meet its own requirements, but the energy is a recurring direct cost to the company and for the nation too. The availability of energy for industrial infrastructure on sustainable basis is important and must be ensured. The growth of printing industries in Indian market is rapidly increasing and therefore the demand of electrical energy is growing and it is directly consuming natural resource which is depleting fast. Thus there is need to conserve energy, particularly in print industry. It is strongly felt that the energy cost takes up substantial share in the overall cost structure of the operation. This economic condition should be viewed urgently to take initiative and promote the conservative drive among print industries.Into the digital era Over the past few years, newspapers have broken barriers of being a traditional news medium and have transformed not only their look but the news dissemination process as well. Nidhi Adlakha Introduction A web first newsroom Explaining their web first newsroom, he said, “A radical structural change that involved the creation of a universal news desk with elements of all three mediums - print, digital and mobile, was undertaken. The focus was to create a faster, more interactive medium.” They also invested in Cross-Media Platform (CMS) that merged features of the print edition, introduced video, audio and other interactive forms of news distribution that helped streamline the workflow and relatively reduced processing time. With the new integrated newsroom functioning throughout the day, many changes were brought about that scaled the Post to newer heights. While earlier we had people who were dedicated reporters and editors, we felt the need for having people with strong social media and mobile skills, as part of the team. To evaluate our progress, daily and mid-day evaluation reports are formulated. They help access the completion of tasks assigned,” he added. A metrics driven culture was created – hourly reports, mid-day performance alerts and real-time reports.Mass media as an arbiter? T.G. Venkatnarayanan If one were to appraise the basis of democracy, liberty, equality and fraternity all these three core values will occupy the top slot of this magnificent edifice called democracy, an ideal form of government that a state will cherish to adopt to govern its people by themselves. India is not new to democracy and right from Vedic times we have had democratic form of government but now more believed to have been conceptualized and created by the West. Liberty, equality and fraternity are the fundamental core values of democracy. To find out how true a government is democratic, any appraiser will first have to carry out a microscopic analysis governing these fundamental values enumerated in the Constitution of any democratic country which has accepted a democratic form of government. Once the mandate of the people has been obtained and they are enshrined in the Constitution of the country adopting it, the appraiser will probe to find out how best they have been implemented. He will first examine whether the freedom is actually enjoyed by all the people and is within its ambit and true meaning; whether it has been well understood by all; whether the laws framed are without any discrimination; and check if the true meaning of equality before law is common for all besides if there is real brotherhood and peaceful co-existence in that democratic country, etc. as they are essential features for effective, impartial and smooth functioning of any democratic government. It is for this purpose that we have a watchful judiciary after legislature and the executive. Along with judiciary we have the fourth estate which is universally acknowledged as an additional pillar of democracy. These two institutions viz. the judiciary and the fourth estate in the current scenario have become the main pillars of any democracy.How postpress processing changed the newspaper Since the early days at the end of the 1950s, postpress processing has brought lasting change to the look of the newspaper. And thanks to its groundbreaking developments, Ferag AG can lay claim to a large share of the progress and success.
The turning point Over the next 20 years, new developments were mostly associated with bundling. The first two memory programming enabled the automatic production of layers and bundles with a variable copy count. And with the construction of the first inserting machine, business with advertising supplements was just around the corner and set to become an important source of revenue for newspaper publishers in the following decades. October 2011Vital decisions for profitability - PART 2 K. Nandakumar Started as a lecturer in the academic field and served The Printers House,New Delhi. Until recently he was Vice President – Technical, The New Indian Express group and after superannuation is now an Associate of Vibes Academy, Chennai imparting training on technical,managerial and personality development. Having seen the various cost factors to be considered in selecting the Capital equipments in Part 1, let us focus on the choices available with regard to the design,specifications and other aspects in selecting machineries in this issue. The first and foremost decision is on the cut - off in the case of web printing machines and the maximum / minimum sheet size in the case of sheet - feds. In sheet - fed there is flexibility and a range in the printable sheet sizes the machine can handle. With regard to web printing, in the absence of such flexibility, the choice of cut - off is a crucial decision. In web once a cut - off is decided we are stuck with that! The book printers are to choose the cut - off based on the final trimmed size of the books. If the magazine is published by the printer himself, the magazine’s final size can be decided keeping in consideration the paper saving. That is, the printer cum publisher is at liberty to choose the cut - off or the magazine size to ensure that minimum waste is generated through trimming. Normally higher trimming is required to trim away the folder pin marks. This leads to the compulsion to go for ‘A step larger’ cut - off. There are pin less folders available in the Indian market and may be considered. Also there are provisions in the folders to get lap-fold on the third fold. By setting the required lap-fold the trim margin can be reduced. This enables us to choose ‘A step lower’ cut - off suitable for the same book size and shall save considerable paper cost. In the newspaper industry both the width of the paper (web roll width) and height of the paper (Cut- off) are gradually getting smaller and smaller. The high cost content, in newspaper, being the cost of newsprint, reductions in the newspaper size have, we may even say, is keeping the industry financially viable. The web width from the initial 813 mm. is gradually reduced, step by step, to the current 700 mm. With regard to the height of the paper the size is reduced from 578mm to 560mm and currently is at 546 mm. Further the width is moving towards compact paper (Berliner size). Europe and USA are standardizing on 628 mm. In India few of the newspaper has gone already for both the main section and for the supplements to 533mm and further a few supplements are in 508mm. An outlook on industrial- scale commercial web offset printingThomas Hauser, Vice President Corporate Marketing & Communication and Press Officer, at manroland Developments in commercial web offset printing in recent years started with 32-page presslines, moving through 64 and 80 pages to a 96-page printing system. Through ongoing product evolution resulting in ever higher productivity with the same printing quality, commercial web offset printing grew its market share. Why are high volume web presses and especially the new 96-page generation a logical consequence of this development?
The Times of India, Ahmedabad, bags technotrans Green Printer AwardShashi Nair, Editor, Vidura and Grassroots Going green has really not caught the imagination of the printing industry at large. Isolated printers are doing their bit for the environment but that is not enough. The onus is on the entire industry to come up with creative solutions to be not only the most efficient but also the greenest printers in the world. The Green Printer Award, a first in the Indian offset printing industry (including newspaper) according to ST Sunil Mathew, general manager, technotrans, is the company’s way of honouring a printer who respects the environment, is a corporate citizen and is socially responsible about preserving the environment for the future generations. Speaking at the awards ceremony, Mathew said that the response from the industry was bad. “I feel sad about it. We received only nine entries despite massive marketing campaigns across India, promotions and advertising – and only one from the sheet-fed segment. It’s a sad number, but this is the just the beginning. Environmental awareness is catching up fast in India because it is a question of our survival on earth. It is time for every individual to behave responsibly towards the environment.” According to Mathew, The Times of India did not take any major step to protect the environment but “small creative steps” to save energy and reduce paper wastage made the team a winner. Referring to applications received, Mathew said that one applicant had mentioned 27 trees being saved if one tonne of newsprint was saved: Click for more details ...Advertising strategies- need of the hourDr.L.Ramesh, M.Com., MPhil.,Ph.D, Assistant Professor, Bharathiyar University Arts and Science College,Valparai Mrs.S.Sridevi, M.Com., MPhil.,Research Scholar in Ph.D, Bharathiyar University Arts and Science College,Valparai Advertising has got the fancy of all professionals as modern day marketers consider it as integral component of all communications taking place between the company and its customers. The modern approaches to advertising adopted by companies have undergone a paradigm shift in the last few years, thanks to the emergence of new technology and globalization. Introduction Nothing sells these days without proper advertisement and strategic marketing. Along with the growth of high tech modern industries, high tech modern advertisement also kept equal stride to make the business world highly competitive and result oriented. Although advertisement is not the only factor that contributes to sales, it plays a major role in the process of sales resulting in huge profits. Besides the concrete result of creating profits, advertisement produces the non-concrete, non- financial contributory factors to sales such as brand loyalty, recall measures, competitive edge over other products, price preference etc. In fact non- financial benefit of advertisements is as important as financial benefits. Advertising may have both a direct impact on product performance and an indirect one mediated by its influence on product coverage in the media. The total effect of advertising on sales may be much larger than the direct effect, if the indirect effect through coverage is included and if coverage has a significant effect on sales. Advertising has got the fancy of all professionals as modern day marketers consider it as integral component of all communications taking place between the company and its customers. The modern approaches to advertising adopted by companies have undergone a paradigm shift in the last few years, thanks to the emergence of new technology and globalization. Advertisements reflect the society at large and the gradual changes in its culture, traditional and mindsets. Understanding the target audience inside out and grabbing their mind space right on is the crux of it.Press Simulator. State-of- the-art training facility at WAN-IFRA RMTCAnand Srinivasan Research Engineer WAN-IFRA South Asia Chennai. AN-IFRA Research and Material Testing Centre (RMTC) hosts the first “Simulated Press Training Facility” in South Asia for training newspaper web offset personnel. Why do we need a simulator? September 2011Importance of Grey Balance in printing Manoj Mathew Why Grey Balance? A step at a time to press reliability: A case study
A complete retrofit of the ten year old presses was initially proposed, but this would have meant taking the presses out of service, which was not an option, and the St. Galler Tagblatt was in any case looking for a more gradual investment in the reliability of their presses. However, Hansjürg Stihl could see that doing nothing was also not an option – the positioning systems on his presses are not being developed any further. This is when he turned to ABB. Damian Staedeli, Head of Service at ABB’s center of excellence for printing, recognized what was required and started development of a new ABB positioning system – APOS – based on widely used standard industrial components. Multi protocol label switching virtual private network (MPLS VPN) When a company wants to connect its geographically different sites they do not have to purchase a Frame Relay circuit, or purchase an ATM circuit, or lease a dedicated telecommunication line. They can now go to their Internet service provider and purchase a MPLS VPN to connect their geographically different sites. Rajesh Vaidya, Manager Electronics (Operations), Lokmat Media Ltd., Nagpur
Media companies’ main operations involve transmission of information from various points of coverage spread Media companies also want their communication links to be monitored proactively and this serves Possible challenges on existing Wide area network: Possible business challenges: Advantages of MPLS VPN Vital decisions for profitability K. Nandakumar Started as a lecturer in the academic field and served The Printers House, New Delhi. Until recently he was Vice President – Technical, The New Indian Express group and after superannuation is now an Associate of Vibes Academy, Chennai imparting training on technical, managerial and personality development.
Through a series of articles, we shall explore the decision options on various such portfolios, though it is • Right Business models The purchase decisions are to be predominantly on technical considerations and not on commercial convenience. The decision is to be through a panel and not by any individual, however high his position is in the hierarchy of the company. Invariably the buyer is attracted by lower cost offers and more so by attractive (!) discounts. All manufacturers initially peg up the price and later offer discounts, in stages of negotiations, just to satisfy the ego of the procurement head. Nothing is free in this commercial world. Either you pay now or end paying heavily later, for the quality and performance or the lack of them, respectively. Modern newsroom S.Sridhar, Senior Manager, Production & Engineering, The Times of India, Chennai
Interestingly, an article recently published in Forbes India says “India’s Newspaper biz’s not disappeared yet”, weighing viewership vs. readership. The article further says “Welcome to the capital of the world’s free (and growing) press. Newspapers sell twice as many copies in India as they do in the United States, and much more than they do in Japan. Unlike those markets, the newspaper business in India is also growing - more titles, more copies sold, more journalists hired”. Technology transition The headaches headlines cause A few issues ago I had written how the doing away with sub- editors or downgrading the Let me consider a few examples. Example 1: The headline read ‘Jerome, Mariah guilty in Grover Murder Case’. The story said that “Holding Emile Jerome Mathew guilty of homicide, Sessions Judge M.W.Chandwani ruled it did not amount to murder.” Mathew was found guilty of ‘culpable homicide’, a case of killing rather different from ‘premeditated murder’. And as for Mariah she was found responsible only for destroying evidence and not for killing anyone! The way my generation was taught we would have at worst, if constrained for space, headlined the story ‘Mathew guilty in Grover killing’ and had a supplementary headline (as there was in this instance) stating ‘Mariah guilty of destroying evidence’. It should be remembered that in the world view a person killing in anger is a far cry from a cold-blooded murderer. Example 2: The headline read, ‘Swann taunts Sachin, predicts 7 months more for 100th ton’. The story read, “…On the verge of his 100th hundred… `hopefully he’ll have to wait six or seven months for that, because we don’t want him to get one in England’.” Now I see neither taunt nor prediction in that. All the story is about is England wanting to prevent Sachin scoring his 100th hundred in England. Wouldn’t a more accurate, editorialising-free headline have been, ‘England hopes to stop Sachin scoring Example 3: This headline was serious enough to cause concern up to the highest echelons in the country. Example 4: ‘Sinhalese might have originated from Kerala’, read the headline of a story so badly reported August 2011Future of Ctp plates: Green prepress BY Tapan Paul In theory thermal plates using heat are more consistent in their exposure but with modern controlled violet systems there is really no difference in the results of using light or heat for exposure >Many people have wrong perception of Indian newspaper printers that they are not environment conscious. This might be true on or before 2010 as far as ctp plates are concerned in India. But with the easy availability of Green Violet plates (chemistry free or no chemistry) from Technova in India it will be very easy for all Indian newspaper printers to think green now. In this article I have tried to share with you about our experience of Green plates trial at our newspaper production. Before going into details of chemistry free plates let us have an understanding of the printing plates first. What is printing plate?
When the plate has been imaged, either conventionally using a UV light source in a contact frame, or with a CtP plate using a laser, the non- imaged areas have to be removed and the plate stabilized for printing. This is done through the developing process in a plate processor using special chemistry and wash solutions. Typically the developing process will first have a heating stage where heat is absorbed by the plate coating to create a stronger image to be durable for long press runs. The final washing and development stages remove the non-image areas and prepare the plate for running on the press. Web break prevention and diagnosis in web-fed offset presses By Anjan Kumar Baral A delay is not the make-ready or dead time in between the job change- over. Delays are those periods when productive work is stopped for reasons not related to the normal operation of the press Printing adds color to our life and we cannot think of our day to day activities without the help and use of printing technology. Introduction of electronic media has certainly complimented the traditional form of different printing techniques and day by day print media is growing towards serving the society in a better way. Offset form of printing is one of the major forms of printing and roughly it occupies 40 percent of the total print market. Sheet fed and webfed offset presses are the two options under offset printing technique and they have their own printing segments.Web fed offset presses are designed for the publication related works. Paper enters into a printing press as a raw material and exits as physically finished or semi finished printed matter and a carrier of information. Paper is undoubtedly the most important and high cost material in printing. Performance of paper in the printing press is the major issue for the printers and it essentially depends upon these factors;
One of the major concerns in web fed offset press environment is reducing delay time and as per the research finding, the delay factor in most of the web fed offset presses is around 30 per cent. This is certainly a big number and it means that almost one third of the available press time is lost for nothing. A delay is not the make-ready or dead time in between the job change- over. Delays are those periods when productive work is stopped for reasons not related to the normal operation of the press. The second big delay factor as per the research data is running web breaks. Automated prepress workflowThere are several ways to perform ink optimizations, and some of the very simple solutions use just slightly modified settings for TAC and GCR. Other solutions analyze the existing ICC profile, and replace it with a similar, but less ink-hungry one.
BY Mrs. Mangai The First rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to any efficient operation will magnify efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify inefficiency - Bill Gates
The pre-flight process checks for:
There are a number of preflight solutions available in the market.
Lowering energy costs while raising awareness High energy consumption in production constitutes an enormous cost factor for newspaper-owned and independent printing operations, and it is a topic that is being paid increasing attention, also as regards the environmental aspects By Charlotte Janischewski, within the WAN-IFRA editorial team
The general principle in printing operations should be to pay special attention to preventing surplus production and lowering waste levels. Press presetting and precisely adjusted start-up curves to match the paper that is used can be an important precondition for limiting start-up waste. Automatic control systems in the press can stabilise printing quality to a large degree. It is important also that personnel in all areas of the operation are made aware of the situation and act responsibly of their own accord. Not only the printer at the control desk but also the forklift driver who is responsible for reel management and the person who prepares the reels for production should proceed with care because every web break costs unnecessary production time, energy and money. The Law of Color Part 2BY K. Panthala Selvan Printing Consultant Color theory
The color theory starts with the concept of color wheel. The color wheel is derived by joining the ends of the visible spectrum namely the ends of violet and red are joined to form a circle. One can notice the blending of the colors from violet color to the other in a uniform gradation. Color wheel is very important for a designer. For example, when a designer wants to choose a color combination for a design, the choice of color depends upon the appeal the design needs to exhibit. If the brand color needs to exhibit well, then the background color should be in contrast to the brand color. If a smooth appeal is expected, then the nearest colors can be chosen. These are further classified into three major categories.
Color Separations
Media at a cross-road?Freedom of press is perhaps becoming more and more irritant and unbearable to our government. The main perpetrators of media attack are the police because they do not like the scribes highlighting their negative roles BY T.G. Venkatnarayanan The author has long work experience in the print industry and was actively involved in the purchase of capital goods and raw materials while in service with TheTimes of India
It goes without saying therefore that since emerging economies have a stake in each and every institution of the country where public is its ultimate owner, credibility and transparency of governance is the need of the hour. Independent India has never seen such a strong and virulent attack by the media for the governments inept handling of its multifarious functions these last few years. The masses feel the corrupt bureaucracy and politicians should be closely watched and exposed from time to time. Media is meant for that as otherwise the Hydra will raise its heads again! Media, our ox-Populi: From the various TV Channels and the innumerable newspapers in Engl ish and local languages available today, the public is well informed what is going on in the country. The relentless pursuit by the media to bring a story to its logical end has been the bane of this profession. Sometimes there has been backlash from the opponents and only last month there has been a brutal attack on the Fourth Estate. Everyone is in the know how it happened and unfortunately there has been a cold blooded murder of a senior journalist of repute in Mumbai, recently. Besides the death and risk involved in todays media profession, there are also incidents of bullying and incarceration on frivolous grounds. The same Mumbai tabloid publication, which lost its veteran investigative editor last month, earlier had the ignominy of facing the wrath of one of the so- called security agencies in Mumbai while exposing some administrativeirregularity. The treatment meted out to a media representative at times by our law enforcing agencies is prosecutorial and always accusatory! Why it is so is anybodys guess. Perhaps by wielding such an authoritative power someone may be drawing morbid pleasure out of it! Local hoodlums, underground dons and politicians have their own areas of operation well demarcated and tracing any crime is a taboo to these people. Exposure of any such incident will be nothing sort of inviting trouble! The old adage that truth is most unpalatable when mentioned in public is now more dangerous if it is written in print media or beamed through the TV channels! The recent Mumbai incidents are most condemnable and most unhealthy to say the least for the media and needs a thorough re-look by the authorities concerned. June 2011Color appearance and psychophysics Swati Bandyopadhyay
For example, it is desired that the color of the image in a monitor will look same as when it is printed on hard copy. It is expected that if the XYZ values of these two devices are same, this will ensure a visual match. However, it may look very different for a human observer as these two values match for an average observer, under a specified viewing condition. So it is required that the color appearance of the two samples should be identical for the two images. It is very important to know the scene in which a stimulus is viewed. The scene is known as the viewing field or condition. It has a profound effect on the color perception. There are four elements inside it which are as follows: The inner circle is the stimulus, from which the tristimulus values should be measured in CIE XYZ using the 2 standard observer. The intermediate circle is the proximal field, extending out another 2. The outer circle is the background, reaching out to 10, from which the relative luminance need to be measured. Beyond the circles the entire fields the surround field which can be considered to be the entire room. The totality of the proximal field, background, and surround is called the adapting field. Print Process Control: Bring in the ROI with Automation Snehasis C. Roy Part II
We continue from the May, 2011 issue of RIND Survey and briefly cover remaining four focus areas to be discussed. This write-up only touches upon some of the exclusive technologies, reminding (the more serious readers) that each of the sub-topics are subjects by themselves and must be studied in depth before considering any decision for investment. Focus area III: Press operations Plate loading and unloading: We continue our discussion where we left at the plate transportation to the printing cylinders in focus area I. Once received at the plate hangers/ carriage, the relevant automation focus is loading of the plates on the cylinder and unloading after the edition is printed. Two levels of automation are available here.Of Pollsters & Hucksters The vast majority of voters are not the intellectuals or so-called educated leadership in the country. It is the vote of the person in the street or the field that decides elections S. Muthiah
The 24X7 news channels and the media were no better than we three ‘well-informed’ persons. Even Headlines Today-ORG, which got it all wrong, predicted only a wafer-thin victory for the DMK. In other words, almost everyone thought it was a close contest. How did they fail to see a landslide? How did they fail to see that Alagiri in his Madurai stronghold would not win a single seat? Most intriguing of all, as far as the pollsters are concerned, were two curious presentations. One was a blatant bit of huckstering by CNN-IBN loudly proclaiming that it had predicted an AIADMK victory, despite being so wrong about the margin with which that was achieved. And the other was another TV channel survey which had earlier predicted an AIADMK victory by a slight margin and then, when nothing could have changed in the voting, predicted the same sort of edge for the DMK.
Electronic and Print Media We have now seen youngsters of today are not much serious about reading and understanding news in its entirety. Understanding what has happened, where it has happened and how it has happened are more important and enough for them T.G. Venkatnarayanan The author has long work experience in the print industry and was actively involved in the purchase of capital goods and raw materials while in service with The Times of India
PControl of “Web Tension” is one of the Crucial Points in Web-Printing AR. Narayanan L.P.T. F.T.C (London) D.P.T (Germany)“Web Tension” – Its Meaning
Control of dot gain for optimizing reproduction quality Press problems can contribute to dot gain. A press in bad condition can make matters worse. Improper press packing can make these normal gains greater, and press feed problems, like slur can make dot gains grow excessively Manoj Mathew Head of Department,Assistant General Manager (Technical) The New Indian Express Chennai Dot gain is an unpleasant fact of life nevertheless we can't wish it away, but we can control its effects and predictability. Every stage of the process-from film, through platemaking, to the several stages of printing the final image-contributes to dot gain. Dot gain is the effect of halftone dots growing in area between the original film and the printed sheet. Most printers treat dot gain as an evil demon that acts to deny them of their sleep. Yet, dot gain is a measurable, predictable and controllable effect of the printing process. May 2011Print Process Control: Bring in the ROI with automation Snehasis C. Roy Economic downtrend came and went like the forgotten drought during the good monsoon days. Print media professionals and press managers learnt a lifetime lesson on optimisation of resources. “One penny saved is five penny worth of revenue earned”, said a respected pro in our core group. Production directors in our nation, however, did not see any sea change in circulation demand during the bad days. Paginations were cut down for a few months but came back with a vigour not perceived by many. All shelved project papers came back to drawing board and project managers went back to doing pending projects to meet urgent business demand. Handling reels of paper R. Narayanan Paper is the most important raw material for the various printing processes and usually represents substantial portion of the final cost of the printed product. Printing from the reel is the exclusive prerogative of newspaper and magazine printers. But there has been a growing use of reel-fed machines in the past few years. Business form manufacturers and label printers also use narrow-width reel-fed printing presses. Therefore a good many printers will have to face the problem of handling reels of paper- and paper makers and their agents of delivering them. Strangely enough not all paper-makers are perfect, when it comes to handling reels, and as a good deal of the trouble a printer may experience when printing reels may have been caused before he even laid hands on the paper. What makes a newspaper sell? S. Muthiah
Today’s musings arise from two recent approaches to better sell a couple of local newspapers. In one instance, there’s been a total change in lay-out and design and an even further character change in the Sunday magazine. In the other case – as well as in the case of other local dailies – there’s been a total going overboard on the IPL, that cricketing extravaganza, with a particular focus on the Chennai Super Kings in the case of the daily that’s “the other case”. Does a change in design and lay-out, no matter how excellent, improve circulation? I’ve never known it to, but perhaps others do, particular those who write boxes about the change not to the general public but to those who are already readers of the paper! As far as I’m concerned, two things sell newspapers. One is content, the other, and the more important factor, is better managements. Enabling High Quality T. Srirengan
With the advent of CtP, a first-generation image-setting technology, an image – a complete form of four or eight or sixteen pages – can be transferred from a computer directly to the plates, bypassing a medium called film. However, the first generation systems had the facility of film and plate outputting. Productivity maintenance for web offset printers Anjan Kumar Baral Lithographic printing process occupies more than 40 per cent of the total print market and the picture is true in Indian as well as the worldwide market. The success of lithographic form of printing lies on its ability to produce high quality text and graphics on a wide range of paper substrates. This particular printing process is justified for varying amounts of print runs also. The lithographic form of printing is further divided into three distinct categories; sheet fed offset, heat set web offset and non-heat set web offset. In the sheet fed offset process, paper is fed into the machine in the form of sheets and in the later two cases, paper is fed into the machine in roll form. The web offset presses are so named because of their use of roll of paper which is continuously fed into the press. Only a few lithographers use the web offset process of printing. This type of printing has the distinct characteristics of volume printing and is hence popular in publication houses. April 2011March 2011Fire hazards in newspaper printing T.G. Venkatnarayanan
Many newspapers even today are being printed in the heart of the cities! In India this is more in evidence. Since cities and large towns are the source and focal points for news from where it emanates by the hour, establishing a newspaper press was perhaps not considered as an obstacle in the growing cities and towns in the past. However, with the rapid technological strides made by the newspaper printing presses world over which has transformed the whole printing process, modern newspaper presses should be ideally located at far off suburbs. The suggestion for alternative location at a distant place from the city has become a necessity today due to various factors but more so because of the congestion and the traffic bottlenecks on our roads. Press Materials Management - Newsprint S. Madhavan The first process in materials management is related to consumable materials. A detailed business process is required to determine the order point for the consumables, identify the ideal quantity to order, process receipt of the consumables, and then make sure they are in the correct place. Consumables are integral to the continuing operation of production. Poor management of this process can cause downtime and loss of production. Materials management is part of logistics and refers to the location and movement of the physical items. Materials management is important in large manufacturing and distribution environments. A large component of materials management is ensuring that materials used are met with the minimum requirements. Controlled Water Quality, pH and Conductivity are keys to fountain solution performance Manoj Mathew During the last 30 years offset printing developed into the most important printing process. The key for this success is and always has been the high productivity and quality as well as the relatively easy production of the printing forme. While Flexographic, gravure printing and screen printing base on physical principles, Senefelder already defined his printing procedure â lithography (the precursor of offset printing) â as "chemical printing process". Printing and non-printing areas are not separated by differences in height, but by varying wetting behaviours of the printing forme towards water and oil. UV Technology In today context, to discover the cause of various printing problems, we must go back to the basics - the basics of utilizing pH and conductivity measurements to monitor fountain solution performance to avoid generating host of production problems that disrupt the quality on press. These basics are important to understand the importance of dampening solution strength and its consistency. Thus water quality, pH and conductivity measurements and control is essential. In web-offset printing, fountain solution is prone to variation. While the cause and nature of these variations seem complicated, controlling them is relatively simple. Importance of Green Printing Anjan Kumar Baral The main advantage that green printing brings along with it is that it uses recycled material and thus the effect of the process on the atmosphere is at its bare minimumâÂÂ. Global warming is considered to be the major issue for almost all business houses in the globe and effective ways are being searched to take care of this issue. Green printing is also popularly known as the eco-friendly printing. There is a widespread misconception regarding to the green printing. It is its high cost factor, but in reality the extra bit of cost associated to the green printing is much more negligible to the bundles of potential benefits resulted by adopting green printing into our everyday lives. February 2011Invisible pics hit newspapers Prof. Dr. Rajendrakumar Anayath Principal Author Double Image Design in Newspaper Production Infrared design uses properties of dyes, which occur with programmed mixing in the range of 400-1000 nm. Fortunately, our eyes detect only the first half of wavelengths, while for the other, we use an instrument. Art is familiar with the technology of video, film and television, which enables visualization through instruments. The infrared camera is also an instrument that shows the image produced from the NIR wavelength. Since we do not see the NIR wavelength, an image is programmed that has colors pressed simultaneously with colors visible in the VS. (Žiljak, V. et al, 2009a).Computers in Newspaper Operations – Cloud Computing Sethu Subramanian Ultra Violet curing for inks Manoj Mathew UV Technology UV technology is nothing but ultraviolet curing (commonly known as UV curing). It is a photochemical process in which high-intensity ultraviolet light is used to instantly cure or “dry” inks. It offers many advantages over traditional drying methods. UV curing has been shown to increase production speed, reduce reject rates, improve scratch and solvent resistance and facilitate superior bonding. Since UV inks are dried or cured with ultraviolet light, drying time is eliminated. Unlike conventional oil-based inks, UV dries instantly, as soon as the web passes under the light. At that time it turns from liquid to solid. UV inks are not absorbed into the stocks, which means the ink film remains on top of the substrate.The News Paper Story S. Anantharaman January 2011The influence of paper properties on Color Management System The gamut of colors visualized in a monitor is normally larger than the gamut of a printer. The effect is that the same image looks different when it is viewed on a monitor and when it is printed on a paper. Dr Swati Bandyopadhyay
Sustainable environment through clean energy technology This is a quite innovative technology as you always have to ensure that the humidity in the hot waste air is low enough so that it does not effect the drying when it is reused. The result is impressive with a maximum power of the dryer is only needed in the first minutes of operation Prof. Dr. Rajendrakumar Anayath
Industry Needs Leaders – Not Bosses Nilanjan Roy
Adventures in a Print Shop And so I discovered the blue (cyan), red (magenta), yellow and black sequence was not sacrosanct, that if you had a greenish picture it might be better to run the blue and yellow as the last two colours. Nowadays, with multicolour offset machines this kind of experimenting is so much easier and the results so much the better for it. But when I suggested such a dominant-colour-based printing sequence at a large offset press in Madras that I helped to start, there was horror. S. Muthiah
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It was at the WAN-IFRA Conference in Chennai in September last year that S. Balasubramanian, head-marketing, New Media, Dinamalar, presented a case study of how readers could be attracted to consume news on the mobile platform, and how opportunities could be created for generating new revenue. Dinamalar, printed in ten cities across Tamil Nadu, is a 60-year-old newspaper that sells about 0.9 million copies a day. “It is known in the market for editorial standards, providing innovative content and quality readership. It was the first to launch an educational programme for students,” Balasubramanian says to me later when I meet him in his office in Egmore.
Improvement usually means something we have never done before.” It was this statement by Shigeo Shingo, a Japanese industrial engineer and an expert on manufacturing practices and the Toyota Production System, one of the structured and lean manufacturing processes in the world, that R.D. Bhatnagar, chief technology officer, DB Corp Ltd used to kick-start his presentation at the WAN- IFRA Conference on lean production techniques and an optimised workflow.
Process optimisation is the discipline of adjusting a process so as to optimise some specified set of parameters without violating a constraint. The most common goals are minimising cost, maximising throughput and/or efficiency. This is applied in most of the automobile and engineering industries in general, and our focus is how we can use this important Statistical Process Control tool in newspaper printing industries. 
How important is visual imagery for a newspaper or an Internet site?
Archiving as such in India normally takes a back seat and hardly gets the support it deserves. Even top institutions think of the archives only when there is a silver or golden jubilee function coming up. And after the function, all is forgotten. There are very few institutions that have sound archives. With its collection of nearly 300000 paper-based items, 400000 images on microfilm reels, gramophone records and organised information for the items, the Roja Muthiah Research Library (RMRL) in Chennai has demonstrated how invaluable archiving is. Today, the library, set in a salubrious area in Taramani, is an ideal place for researchers and academics who are interested in the social and cultural history of south India.
Having selected the right machineries and placing the right people in the right positions, if the operations are not synergised by adopting the right systems (structures), then profitability will remain only a dream. The entire investment on machineries, materials and men will be a waste in the absence of the support of effective management systems. The right systems obviate the need for the human intervention at every stage of routine activity. Implementation of the right systems results in greater productivity. The right systems integrate the efforts of all the individual departments and channelise them in the right way.
If you were to ask any printer the question (is ink rub-off really a concern while printing newspapers), the answer would be a big ‘Yes’. Indeed, ink rub-off affects printing quality – once transferred to fingers, invariably the fingers would touch the printed portion and smudge it. Of course, it is not desirable, and you may need to understand the real cause and the factors that lead to this sort of a thing happening, and the measures to control the effect.
In the end, it turned out to be quite a succinct presentation by K. Krishnan, vice president (production), The Hindu. There was no clear-cut answer as to whether a single-width press or a double-width press was better. However, based on his more than 30 years of experience in newspaper and commercial press production, Krishnan provided a bird’s eye view, his opinion more than anything else, and the audience listening to him at the WAN-IFRA 2011 Conference seemed to have gleaned the answer.
Traditionally, newspapers have been produced with un-coated paper and printed with cold- set inks that dry by absorption into the substrate. The demand in recent years has changed newspapers to print in combination with colourful supplementary sections and direct advertising printed on gloss-coated material. This type of work would normally require separate investment in a dedicated heat-set press and / or the installation of a large and expensive drying oven.
Beside these installations there is upcoming interest for UV solutions in numerous newspaper and cold-set companies. The technical reasons are mainly:
It is debatable whether the human element, in industrial operations, is an asset or a liability! The 5 Vital M’s, the essential elements of any enterprise, are Men, Machine, Material, Method and Money. Any one of them can prove to be an asset or liability. It differs from case to case, based on the said management’s capability to make the best use of the said element. Among them the human factor, in an enterprise, is the most crucial resource. The decisions with regard to employment of people and the processes to get the optimum out of them are the most vital ones, for every industry.
We often find debate over existence of print media against the growing reach of the electronic media. There is an apprehension that print will disappear as more and more readers are converted to audience and want to remain silent spectators at the press of the remote control. Reading habits are going down as people are very casual in understanding the essence of importance of print and its values. Here are some commonly appearing features which compares the print as well as the electronic media.
Many decades ago, I was in charge of a Sunday newspaper in Ceylon. I like to think that
The foundations of the era of the automated mailroom were laid in the mid-fifties when engineer Walter Reist – who went on to found Ferag AG – developed a conveyor system that could take newspapers directly off the press folder and transport the copy stream – smudge-free – to the mailroom. Well-known newspaper publishers in Switzerland and abroad were quick to recognize the huge efficiency potential of this invention and equipped their production technology with the new conveyor system. Among these first users were the Tages-Anzeiger in Zurich (Switzerland) and the Augsburger Allgemeine in Augsburg (Germany).
Most of the factors are common, relevant to any new venture or an existing operation.
A look at the print and advertising market
The Times of India, Ahmedabad is the first winner of the Green Printer Award instituted by technotrans India. At an evening function in Chennai held recently at Hotel Radha Regent, which was a mixture of style and substance, Pradip Das, deputy general manager, Production Department, The Times of India, Ahmedabad, and Tushar Bakhda, senior manager, received the award as well as a cheque for Rs one lakh from SM Begaraaj, proprietor, Aadhithiya’s Constructions, Chennai.
Advertising is the quickest, least expensive and most effective medium for communicating with the people. It helps to find quickly what they want to buy, where to buy and how to buy and buy them easily.It also educates people to make effective use of the product. Advertising is a dynamic activity and is constantly changing in response to changes in the world of business.
The state-of-the-art training facility offers training on three press configurations – 2x1, 4x1 and 4x2, both broadsheet and tabloid. The Simulator, from Sinapse Print, France, includes a library of almost all the problems that can happen in the newspaper production environment to simulate different press situations.
Introduction 
What is the best strategy to keep the presses running reliably in future? This question confronts all production managers, and Hansjürg Stihl at the print center of the St. Galler Tagblatt in St. Gallen, Switzerland, is no exception. His responsibilities include theTagblatt’s twoWifag OF470 presses and, in response to his management’s questions about future support and the availability of spare parts, he performed a thorough review of the options available. 
Today every industry wants redundancy in their communication network to overcome huge cable costs that they were experiencing in the past. Also the alternative to leased line to connect remote centers and the high uptimes and more productive work hours.
It is generally said that in a democracy the people get the government they deserve. This is equally true that the ultimate success or failure of a business venture is the own making of the respective managements. It is the management’s capability to make right decisions on right time that prefixes the said enterprise’s success. Like the people, lured by immediate gains, making wrong choices and suffering later, the enterprises that hasten and make wrong choices on their investment portfolios, based on short term benefits, suffer and fail in the long run. 
In the fast moving world, there has always been a high debate going on whether newspaper industry
Before looking at the subject of no chemistry or chemistry free printing plates, the first thing to look
at is the printing plate itself to assess what chemistry plates are trying to achieve. Put in very basic
terms, most all printing plates are the same. All such plates have a base level that is a grained
aluminum onto which a coating is added. This coating will be imaged by a light or heat source and
this will cause exposure but with modern controlled violet systems there is really no difference
in the results of using light or heat for exposure. That is apart from the fact thermal plates need a
huge amount more imaging power than violet plates. To prepare the plate for printing on a press the
non-imaged areas will need to be removed from the plate to expose the underlying grained aluminum.
The hardened or linked areas of emulsion then become the areas that take the ink and the grained
aluminum will carry the water from the presss dampening system to stop ink going to the non-imaged
areas.
Gone are the days, when one had to wait till the ripping stage to find out errors in editorial PDF pages
or when the printer is left with no other option than to print an advertisement with a TAC more
than 240-280 resulting in set-off / smearing. Software for pre-flighting, automatic image processing
and ink optimizing have created a breakthrough in prepress workflow and it is worth to consider these
options for a highly productive and efficient workflow in newspaper industry.
Energy is a valuable resource that should be used sparingly. It is valuable not only because the non-
renewable resources are becoming more scarce but also because the prices for energy are increasing
continuously. Consequently, the first rule must be to avoid all types of waste, as every minute of
production time consumes unnecessary energy and resources.
Every color in the spectrum has a relationship between each other. To understand the relationship we
need to arrange them in order. Here the spectrum color (VIBGYOR) is taken in straight line. The violet
and red are connected together and brought them under a circle.
These colors provide the in-depth details of how colors are formed by different combinations. The
primary colors discussed are the traditional Red, Blue and Yellow.These are placed in right angles to
each other and now we get a triangle shaped structure. The secondary colors are obtained by the
combination of the primary colors, the combination of Red + Blue = Violet, Red + Yellow = Orange and
Blue + Yellow = Green.The tertiary colors are obtained by the different combination of primary and
secondary colors. This provides more information and relationship between colors, Monochromatic,
Analogous, Complimentary, Split complimentary, Triadic, and Tetradic.
Our original is a continuous tone image which has a smooth gradation of colors. This gradation is to
be reproduced in the print in the same smooth manner, but the practical difficulty in doing so is
the limitation of the printing machine in which the roller is uniform in length and circumference,
supplies equal quantity of ink. So the plate or the image carrier has to be designed in such a way
it should define the quantity of ink which is required to reproduce those smooth gradations of the
original image. In order to do that the image is broken or separated (half tone image) into dots of four
basic colors (cyan, magenta, yellow and black) and is then printed on the paper, provided the size of
the dot, the angle in which it should be placed, shape of the dot, number of dots in a particular area,
dot generation type are to be clearly defined.This involves in the entry of new concepts, Screen Angle,
Screen Ruling, Dot shape, Screen type.
In my previous article the existence of stiff competition between electronic and print media
was highlighted. It was also further highlighted that both the electronic and print media are
simultaneously and tirelessly making all out efforts to educate and inform the people by creating an
awareness of the environment in which they have been living. Viewers and readers will be convinced
that because of this healthy element of competition and the responsibility resting on the media, an
environment conducive for all the players to play a fair game is being created by the fourth estate.
Introduction
Color appearance is the study how a given color stimulus is perceived by a human observer. It is a function of many variables starting from the spectral properties of the stimulus and the lightsource in which it is viewed, the size, shape and the spatial properties, the background, surround, observer experience and the adapted state of the observer.
The competition is heating up and the newspapers for future must continually improve to keep its share in media planning. The new business model for newspaper print operations, therefore, must offer best quality, higher productivity, lower cost and lower waste and more innovative ideas in the look and feel of the product.
It was four days before the polls’ results were to be announced and I was with a couple of friends in a small rural town in the deep south of Tamil Nadu. Their guest was the area Superintendent of Police and, as the evening wore on, the talk naturally turned to what the election results were likely to be. The Police officer was categorical; Amma would get 120 seats and form the government on her own. We others disagreed; we didn’t think that she’d get over 80 to 100 seats, but would form the government with around 40 seats her allies would give her. He, however, was adamant. And he was right about her being able to form the government on her own. But even he didn’t estimate her winning 146 seats on her own (four others were won by other parties contesting under the AIADMK symbol).
The stiff competition between the electronic and print media is quite amazing. Each tries to be one step ahead of the other but in the final analysis the former scores remarkably higher due to its reach in a fraction of a second. It is like a lightning flash. The news readers capture the viewer’s mind and also simultaneously flash out the visuals in their news channels: 24x7x365 pattern. It is like first come first served basis – I mean the story gets beamed first through electronic medium then through print medium. The recent Abbottabad incident is an example where TIMES NOW flashed out visuals along with the narration of their correspondent stationed there. Thus print media gets secondary slot as it comes out with the same story after a certain time gap. The March 11, 2011 catastrophe in Japan flashed by the TV media showing the massive devastation caused by the double blows of tsunami and earthquake were indeed quite mind boggling, is another example of News Flash over electronic medium.
Paper-Web is pulled through the Web-printing units, which creates a force in the web known as “Web Tension”.
The obituary of the daily newspaper has been written more often than that of any other printed matter. Indeed, large publishers in the USA have predicted the trusted newspaper’s demise often enough for it to almost become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Yet the oldest and most familiar of all printed matter is also one of the most durable in our changing times.
If anyone knew the answer to that, they’d be billionaires. Many people, including this writer, have, however, what they think are the right answers, but not having become even millionaires, it’s obvious the last word eludes them. But they keep trying – like I have in these columns in the past and am doing so again today. 
From a mere installation of 50 systems across the globe in 1996, the CtP industry has come a long way. It is expected that now there are 42,000 CtP systems installed all over the western market, BRIC countries and Asia. This fillip was not a sudden one. It was an evolution – an evolution of technologies and processes over two decades. Meanwhile, many old names disappeared, and new ones emerged. Of late, the Chinese vendors arrived, pushing many strong brands to the corner.
Printing is one of the finest inventions to the mankind and it adds colour to our life. Modern society cannot think of its existence without printing. There are various printing techniques and moreover their role and importance also varies considerably, so as to accommodate a wide array of end-users. There are more than 150000 registered printing presses in India and still quite good numbers are not included in this list. Interestingly, more than 95 percent of these printing presses are either small or medium in nature.
Newspaper printing establishments are vulnerable to fire hazards because of the consumption of basic raw materials like newsprint and ink which are ready fodders for fire. Larger the volume more is the fire hazard. This aspect has, however, not received much importance although some preventive steps are in place. The age old practice of printing newspapers in big metropolitan cities and large towns still continues. 
In press we consume many materials like Newsprint, ink, plate, blanket, fount and chemicals. It is much more important to know about material management and then we can dwell in depth of newsprint management. Newsprint is the most consumable and more cost oriented material in the press.
As per Finn Orfano in his famous article âÂÂGuide to Green Printing and its Benefitsâ on May 6, 2010, âÂÂthe printing industry ranks fourth in consuming energy and poses as a mounting threat against the existence of human beings and wildlife. It is because of this daunting truth that green printing is gaining popularity all across the globe. And yes, green printing is not about printing with green ink as many people conceive.
Management of visible and near infrared is posted with process colors for color setting configured for conventional newspaper print. The place of imprint that has delimited information in Visible Spectrum (VS) and Near Infrared is called “print with an infrared effect,” or conditionally “print with infrared colors.” Daily newspapers, as massive carriers of information made by printing techniques, are getting a new form of presentation: printed image with built-in invisible image. 
With the rise of the Internet and 24/7 news channels, we might be tempted into thinking that newspapers are a dying medium. However, a recent study by the Scarborough Research and Newspaper National Network shows that the number of readers per copy has actually increased over the last few years. And in India, where Internet penetration is still low, newspapers continue to have a significant percentage of market-share. Still, with fierce competition in the industry, newspapers need to think of ways to cut costs, increase readership, which in turn will help improve advertising revenue and streamline processes.
UV printing is becoming more and more popular within the industry and is attracting renewed attention as newspapers examine ways to tap into new revenue streams. Numerous publishing houses are now seriously thinking of implementing this technology for various reasons. One is to make some of their current products more efficiently and effectively in coated and uncoated paper. 
Not having been formally educated as a journalist, my entry into a newspaper office was studded with notions that bore little relation to reality. My ideas of journalism were highly colored by the adventures of the hero of the Frederick Forsyth novel “The Odessa File”. In that the hero Peter Miller drives a Jaguar, has a bootilicious girl friend and hunts Nazi criminals and unmasks great industrialists in post-war Germany. These industrialists had been active in the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Belsen. He never toiled at a desk amidst reams of flagging newspapers, an ink-soaked printing press or got his tunic smudged with black dye from the galleys.
What is a Color Management System
All of us, irrespective of our profession, shall certainly agree on a point that, there is only one popular topic to discuss today “ Environmental Protection,Global Warming and Climate Change“. Understanding and doing whatever possible in this topic is the order of the day. If we read the recent news headlines from the popular international print magazines we will see few common headlines as below: 
Leadership is, after all, largely an issue of people and their ability to communicate effectively with one another. There is no one who cannot greatly improve their leadership through a little extra thought and practice.
