Web Press LLC

Printer Has 700 Reasons to Celebrate BEAVERTON, OR—Paramount Graphics' new MAN Roland six-color 700 sheetfed press with an in-line double coating unit was the centerpiece of an open house the printer conducted in September. The event attracted more than 275 print buyers and graphic arts executives. The company demonstrated the new press' capabilities by running a project for telecommunications leader T-Mobile. california IRVINE—Main Graphics has added a Creo Trendsetter 400 Spectrum and an EPSON Stylus Pro 7600. Both items complement a Ryobi 525 press with coater that was added earlier in the year. LOS ANGELES—A new four-color, 181⁄8x22˝ Sakurai 458EII automated press

BY CAROLINE MILLER Faced with dropping readership, falling advertising revenues and more media outlets, newspaper publishers are looking now more than ever to their in-house production facilities to help them meet the challenges of a volatile business environment. Increasingly, newspapers with printing capabilities are interested in the ability to bring in commercial work to help boost their profits, contends Craig Simon, director of web sales administration for MAN Roland. MAN Roland manufactures the four-page Cromoman, the Uniset, the Geoman and its flagship, 16-page newspaper web press—the Colorman—which was shown at IPEX in a 24-page version. Its top speed ranges to 86,000 copies per hour.

BY MARK SMITH It's the nature of the business for newspaper editorial departments to move from one crisis to the next. Unfortunately, market factors in recent years have forced their back offices to regularly function in crisis management mode, as well. Declining readership, drops in advertising revenues, the Internet threat (or opportunity), industry consolidation, volatility in newsprint prices, and more have made it a challenging business environment. The one bright spot has been the ability to maintain healthy profit margins. These business pressures have translated into an ever-greater need for flexibility on the production side. Newspaper plants can provide a competitive edge by

Digital output devices didn't capture all the headlines. Manufacturers of traditional sheetfed and web presses also demonstrated cutting-edge models. BY MARK MICHELSON Even the12,000 gallons of flame-retardant water, which came gushing down from sprinklers onto a MAN Roland web press in the 250,000-square-foot PrintCity hall the afternoon before the exhibition was to open, couldn't dampen the DRUPA spirits of this press manufacturer. The flooding resulted from a pipe burst, and MAN technicians had to work through the night to ready the press for opening day. And, while other printing press exhibitors didn't have to face such an 11th-hour, potential disaster, their enthusiasm was

Digital output devices didn't capture all the headlines. Manufacturers of traditional sheetfed and web presses also demonstrated cutting-edge models. BY MARK MICHELSON Even the12,000 gallons of flame-retardant water, which came gushing down from sprinklers onto a MAN Roland web press in the 250,000-square-foot PrintCity hall the afternoon before the exhibition was to open, couldn't dampen the DRUPA spirits of this press manufacturer. The flooding resulted from a pipe burst, and MAN technicians had to work through the night to ready the press for opening day. And, while other printing press exhibitors didn't have to face such an 11th-hour, potential disaster, their enthusiasm was

BY ERIK CAGLE Shorter runs, longer runs, less waste, reduced makeready time, skilled labor shortages, increased automation—some of the biggest issues facing the commercial printers who use heatset web offset presses are also some of the oldest issues. They are issues constantly being addressed. It is a flourishing market, as some of the open web industry's manufacturing stalwarts now offer enhanced commercial models or are breaking into the heatset specialty for the first time. That gives the printer more variety of choices in both the quantity and quality departments. For the manufacturers already entrenched in the heatset web market, the quest is to answer