MAN 4x1 and Add-On Sales

By: E&P Staff In addition to announcing the first U.S. sale of a Geoman press configured for the Berliner format, MAN Roland used the occasion of the annual Nexpo trade show earlier this week to mark two recent sales: another Regioman press and another color-tower expansion project.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale will more than double its Goss Colorliner presses' color capabilities by adding MAN Roland Colorman towers. MAN will replace two units on four of the five presses with two Colorman towers and add a third-high former on each expanded press.

The goal was to be able to offer "increased color opportunities" for advertisers, according to Sun-Sentinel Vice President and Operations Director Bob Christie. The paper's Deerfield Beach plant also prints various community newspapers.

The Sun-Sentinel is the third Tribune Co. site to upgrade Goss presses with MAN add-on towers (E&P, Feb. 2004; E&P Online, April 29).

When The Advocate, Baton Rouge, La., converts from letterpress to offset, it will print on a four-page-across, one-page-around MAN Roland Regioman press, centerpiece of a $40 million, plant to be built later this year (E&P, Nov. 2004). To be in production in September 2006, the new press will print cleanly, with more color and about four times faster.

In moving from mechanical letterpress to computerized offset, the Advocate wil rely on what MAN called "a beefed-up training regimen."

The Advocate's seven-footprint, 48-couple Regioman will have a 21-inch cutoff, a 50-inch web width and be able to deliver a 64-page newspaper. Its eight reel stands will have automatic roll loading capabilities. MAN's PECOM control and automation system is part of the package.

Operations Director Kirk Fisher said the 4-by-1 cylinder size suits the 87,026-circulation (115,442 Sundays) paper. In this week's Nexpo announcement of the already-selected press, he said the Advocate "wanted to ... achieve great color flexibility and not be bound by the limitations of a collect press. That's the way the industry is going."

The new press will double Advocate color capacity to 40 pages, satisfying advertisers and the company's drive for commercial work. Said Fisher: "Margins are slim, but we're going to entertain outside business. The biggest opportunity at the commercial end is putting out alternative niche products of our own." For such products, the Advocate shopped at Nexpo for a stitcher-trimmer.

With new technology, from computer-to-plate workflow to new post-press equipment and distribution centers, "we're updating every aspect of our workflow to increase our throughput," said Fisher.

The new press' speed, said Advocate Publisher and COO Douglas Manship Jr., "will enable us to produce new editions for our readers, as well as new products that will benefit both our readers and our advertisers." Four regional editions of the Advocate are planned.