ProImage NewsWay Automates 'Star-Ledger' Workflow

By: E&P Staff The Star-Ledger, Newark, N.J., has installed the NewsWay browser-based workflow automation and transmission management software from ProImage America Inc., Princeton, N.J. It is the eighth NewsWay implemenation in the Advance Newspapers group.

Selection was based on the ability to handle a large throughput of pages, configurability to meet the papers' needs, and ease-of-use. The system is configured to import a text file from Layout 8000 to automatically create edition plans with support for multiple zones and provide edition planning and tracking.

NewsWay manages the entire print production workflow for The Star-Ledger and The Times, Trenton, N.J., together with their Piscataway and Montville print sites. The software increases efficiency by monitoring page production from front-end systems through imposition, RIPs and Kodak computer-to-plate output to delivery drop-off in the pressroom, and it reports on end-to-end progress. NewsWay also tracks plates locally, in Newark, where previously it was necessary to rely on plate staff at remote sites to account for what was used or missing.

Also automated are softviewing, annotation, conferencing, event notification, furniture and text burning on plates, deadline monitoring, priority scheduling, production reporting (including special reports created by the newspaper's staff) plate editor and pasteboard and TCP/IP transmission.

At the remote print sites, NewsWay provides imposition, page pairing, rotation, cropping and color locking, ensuring that plates for the same page are sent to the same platesetter for maximum color quality while load-balancing the CTP machines. It then burns on barcodes for plate sorting purposes and interfaces to the barcode reader to obtain plate status information from the plate bender.

NewsWay also will automatically calculate ink coverage by column for each page, printing out the computed results. Input manually, the values can be transmitted automatically to upgraded press controls increase throughput efficiency.

The browser-based technology enables those authorized to use the software to check on progress from anywhere, without a need for additional user licenses.