The New York Times Company Completes Installation of Nationwide Arkitex System

MORTSEL, BELGIUM—10 July 2007—Agfa Graphics today announced that as part of its five-year strategic alliance with The New York Times Company it has completed the installation of Arkitex Courier and Arkitex Director. Together, Arkitex Courier and Director operate as an automated, single transmission and printing solution giving The New York Times newspaper a seamless workflow between its newsroom operations and printing facilities across the United States.

Arkitex Courier, which is installed in the Times Square location, transmits all of The New York Times’ pages to 22 of its national print sites. A full disaster recovery system is installed at The Boston Globe, owned by the Times Company, which receives real-time data on a continuous basis.

Arkitex Director is installed at the 22 print sites giving each site complete control over production, including all aspects of workflow management and the tracking and control of all imaging processes. Director also provides tracking information back through the Courier system.

The Times Company has also invested in six high-performance violet CtP systems (four Polaris XTVs and two Polaris XCVs) for its College Point, NY, printing facility. This is in addition to the 17 :Advantage CtP imaging units purchased as part of the five-year strategic alliance that began in 2005. The Polaris systems will run Agfa’s N91v plates.

The College Point installation also includes Arkitex AutoPlan, which automatically sets-up editions, page counts, colours and plate position; and Arkitex Afirma process control software which monitors all vital production parameters within the CtP system, processor and punch bender resulting in total quality assurance and keeping remakes down. Afirma enables The New York Times to move into a lights out operation.

The five-year alliance made Agfa the preferred supplier of complete workflow software solutions and violet CtP products to the Times Company.

“We had conducted a comprehensive review of the available technologies, and it became clear to us that Agfa’s Arkitex Courier and Director offered the most intelligent, advanced and reliable solution,” said Joan Netsky, director of output systems, The New York Times. “The installation went very smoothly and we have effectively created a fail-safe system due to the built-in redundancies.”

“Our strategic agreement with Agfa continues to bring us significant improvements in quality and productivity,” said David Thurm, chief information officer, the Times Company. “The addition of Agfa’s :Polaris imaging systems will give a tremendous boost to our publishing needs, where gains in production capabilities are always a plus in the high-speed daily newspaper industry.”

The Polaris XTV and XCV image up to 200 plates per hour. The XTV (trolley version) holds 1000 single- or 500 panorama plates, while the XCV (cassette version) has fully-automated plate-size switching within a single production run.

“With our Arkitex workflow technology, we are delivering solutions that help the Times Company meet its demanding production needs and challenges,” said Agfa’s Peter Wilkens, vice president of sales and marketing, United States. “We feel that this alliance will help The Times meet its changing technology requirements in the short- and long-term.”

About The New York Times Company
The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT), a leading media company with 2006 revenues of $3.3 billion, includes The New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, The Boston Globe, 15 other daily newspapers, WQXR-FM and more than 30 Web sites, including NYTimes.com, Boston.com and About.com. The Company’s core purpose is to enhance society by creating, collecting and distributing high-quality news, information and entertainment. For more information, please visit www.nytco.com.

About Agfa

The Agfa-Gevaert Group is one of the world’s leading imaging and information technology companies. Agfa develops, manufactures and markets analogue and digital systems for the printing industry (Agfa Graphics), the healthcare sector (Agfa HealthCare) and specific industrial applications (Agfa Materials).

Agfa’s headquarters are in Mortsel, Belgium. The company is present in 40 countries and has agents in another 100 countries throughout the world. The Agfa-Gevaert Group achieved a turnover of 3,401 million euro in 2006.

About Agfa Graphics
Agfa Graphics offers integrated prepress solutions to the printing industry. These solutions comprise consumables, hardware, software and services for production workflow, project and colour management. Computer-to-film, computer-to-plate and digital proofing systems have earned Agfa Graphics a worldwide leadership position in the commercial and package printing and the newspaper publishing markets.

Agfa Graphics is rapidly expanding its offerings in the growing digital inkjet market. Its experience in both imaging and emulsion technology has provided the expertise required for making an assortment of high-quality UV and solvent-based inks. Joint development and manufacturing partnerships with industry leaders expand its technological reach and allow the company to develop comprehensive digital solutions for printing posters, banners, signage, displays, labels and packaging materials.

Product and company information can be found on Agfa’s home page on the World Wide Web at: www.agfa.com.