Remote newspaper digital printing

In theory, digital printing on remote newspapers is entirely possible, but there are certain difficulties in technical implementation.

There is no doubt that digital printing has a place in the commercial printing market, but it is still relatively subtle for newspaper printing. Some companies are full of praise for the remote printing newspaper digital printing equipment used by their own companies, but from the perspective of a publisher, the production capacity of these equipment is far from meeting the requirements.

Today's digital network technology is playing a major role in today's digital remote newspaper printing can not get the proper development is very worth thinking. And the idea of ​​long-range newspaper printing is not new. The current digital workflow has also supported the remote output of various products worldwide, including remote output film or remote direct output printing plates. Can't develop it all the time?
As the distribution and printing of newspapers has been established early, the leap to direct digital printing is not a difficult task. The distribution of electronic pages has existed for several decades. It can extend the deadline for submission and shorten the time to market, while also reducing the cost of distribution.

The advantages of digital printing The nature of digital printing has brought great possibilities for on-demand printing of personalized publications. It enhances the service to readers and provides opportunities to enter new markets.
This kind of bright future has inspired many output device manufacturers to develop corresponding products. They think this is a potential market space, but whether this kind of thinking is a vision or a momentary impulse, only the market can answer.

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

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

In the UK, the Financial Times newspaper may be the best newspaper for remote printing.

The Financial Times printed on 19 rotary presses printed in newspapers in the world, and recently began printing South African newspapers using Océ's Newspress (aka DemandStream) 8000 press. The presses were installed at the Ince company in Johannesburg and printed approximately 3,600 copies of the same 32- to 48-page newspapers. These newspapers will be issued by subscription.

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

The first company to develop a remote digital newspaper printing service was Presspoint, which was founded in 1995 and is a subsidiary company of Scitex Corporation for the design and establishment of a distributed printing system. This idea uses a global network and the Xerox digital press to provide a standard remote newspaper transmission that has been working so far. Presspoint connects the shared newspapers with remote output service providers and digital printing plants via satellite transmission.

At the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996, Aftonbladet, a Swiss newspaper, not only provided readers with local print versions of newspapers, but also localized their news. Of the 13 newspapers, Aftonbladet was the most popular, perhaps because the newspaper was the only newspaper that provided a special feature for Swiss readers in Atlanta.

The Presspoint model does not personalize newspapers but plans to place local advertisements and eventually become local newspapers. The initial failure was due to insufficient revenue from royalties, local sales of versions, and advertising. Influenced by many factors, it was not a technical failure but the development of market conditions at the time was not fast enough.

But the market is constantly changing, and this is one of the reasons why many companies have gradually started investing in digital projects since last year’s Ifra exhibition. No one is very mature, but the number and variety of methods that may be implemented bodes well for this market.

Blatant intent Océ announced its goals at Newstec last year and is now working with a number of newspapers including the Swiss state-owned Neue Züricher Zeitung, German Børsen Zeitung, and Danish Børsen. Océ hopes to benefit from the sale and service of the renamed DemandStream 8000 series monochrome digital printing equipment.

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

In the United Kingdom, Océ’s customer Stroma (a subsidiary of Creative Print Group) is printing the first Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport published in the UK, as well as Neue Züricher Zeitung, Børsen Zeitung and Børsen. In addition to installing Océ's equipment in London, Océ also collaborated with the Xerographics Copy Center to open two printing points in New York to print Süddeutsche Zeitung.

In terms of global printing sites, Océ expects to have 30-50 print sites globally. This year it is expected to be in Singapore, Hong Kong, Miami, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago, Toronto, Vancouver, Madrid, Milan, Frankfurt, Berlin, Copenhagen, Create print locations in Paris and Brussels.

The company also announced that it will cooperate with Higgs International to develop an international data distribution (IDD) network. Although the details of the cooperation are still unclear, Higgs will work with Océ's 400 target sites to support newspaper printing and provide "supply and management support." The IDD will provide shared eligibility and asset management distribution for the destination network center.

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

The company plans to begin printing in the near future, working with the leading publishers of International Press Distribution in Denmark, and working with Pitney Bowes Management Services on printing operations throughout Europe. IBM is working with about 150 newspaper media to transfer PDF files to network data centers.

The publisher submits the amount of each media required, then processes and implements it at the remote printing point, and outputs it on a 495mm wide format press. The publisher is ready to collect.

Integrated distribution companies currently provide services only in Scandinavia, and they hope to further develop integrated distribution and printing operations, and IBM provides data processing to generate revenue. The company will monitor the current situation and come up with a stronger plan later this year.

Xerox is unique in providing digital printing services, providing equipment for printing color pages. The company cooperated with a local printing company in Ifra to print five newspapers, including Süddeutsche Zeitung, The Independent, The Times of India, Il Giornale and La Stampa. Xerox is a service provider that profits directly from print and consumables and connects publishers with the most appropriate primary partners through cross-matching. Xerox's primary partners are those who have at least two monochrome machines and a color machine.

A survey that is currently being conducted to determine the accuracy of discriminating shows that it is more accurate to determine what newspaper publishers are looking to profit from digital printing and related technologies. The survey was conducted mainly through senior executives from state-owned weekly and daily newspapers throughout Europe (including the UK) and Scandinavia.

Digital Newsprint for Roaming Readers evaluates the need to manage remote digital printing and remote advertising models. It is mainly aimed at the survivability of current newspaper digital printing technology, its possible benefits for advertisers, and the technology it needs.

It also focuses on how newspaper publishers serve idle customers and how digital printing can help network investment for remote market development.

Digital press manufacturers are actively promoting the market for remote on-demand newspaper printing. The problem is that most newspapers are not yet ready to make such fundamental changes in business models. Publishers expect not only convenience from digital printing: this model needs to undergo serious business adjustments to be strengthened.

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