New manroland Press for Very Old Newspaper (and maybe for Dow Jones, too?)

Manroland won a contract to replace presses at a plant in Sweden and, if rumors earlier this week are confirmed, to add color capacity to Dow Jones plants in this country.

Pressgrannar AB, Norrköping, Sweden, has ordered a Regioman press for installation in its $26 million Linköping plant by the end of 2011.

To replace older presses, the 75,000-copy-per-hour Regioman will consist of six towers and six reel splicers and will have two folders. Besides several Swedish dailies and the International Herald Tribune, the new press will print freesheets and commercial tabloids.

Part of the growing Norrköpings Tidningars Media (NTM), which owns several newspapers and radio and TV stations throughout Sweden, Pressgrannar was created in 2004 by consolidating printing of Norrköpings Tidningar and Östgöta Correspondenten, two large morning dailies in southeast Sweden. Founded in 1758, Norrköpings Tidningar is Sweden's oldest paper still in publication and among the world's 10 oldest newspapers.

"Our goal is to offer our advertising customers a full range of media - newspaper, television, Internet, mobile, radio and more, a mix that has already proved very successful," NTM CEO Lennart Foss said in a statement.

"We believe strongly in the future of the printed newspaper and will continue to offer efficient solutions for our customers," added Pressgrannar Managing Director Olof Z. Haeggström.

Dow Jones and manroland executives declined comment on the addition of color towers to some or all U.S. sites printing The Wall Street Journal and Barron's. Although Dow Jones significantly boosted color capacity at all its TKS- and Goss-equipped plants before closing several in a wave of consolidation and outsourcing, competitive efforts under new owner News Corp. to produce local editions in some cities may be driving the presumed additional capacity.