New Berliner Coming from Rome

By: E&P Staff Italian publisher Societ? Editrice Il Tempo has installed a Goss Universal press at its Rome printing facility, changing its flagship title, Il Tempo, from broadsheet to Berliner format in full color. The change is part of a wide-ranging editorial review of the national daily, resulting in higher reader and advertiser interest and lower production costs, according to Goss International.

The singlewide, double-circumference Universal, specified with a 24.8-inch cut-off and configured as four four-high towers, prints up to 32 full-color pages in straight mode or 64 pages collect at up to 75,000 copies per hour. The publisher reported significantly reduced start-up waste.

With Internet and television news availability contributing to the trend towards smaller-format newspapers, Il Tempo Managing Director Carlo Angeletti said in a statement: "Users prefer a brief, high-impact style and, most importantly, they want added value from the commentary. Il Tempo's editorial style was revamped in response to these market forces, and it was important that the physical product should also reflect the changes. So, we decided to move to the more user-friendly Berliner format."

The Universal is used exclusively to print Il Tempo newspaper, which runs from 56 to 64 pages. Production consists of the full national edition and localized editions for the regions of northern Lazio, Abruzzi and Molise, and the towns of Latina and Frosinone, in most cases with including an additional 16-page section.