Yellow Press Is Mark Of Pride p.66

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By: MARK FITZGERALD FOR MORE THAN a quarter of a century, one of the landmarks in downtown Columbus, Ind., has been the Goss Urbanite press ? painted a brilliant yellow ? that sits in the modern glass headquarters of the Republic.
"When [architect] Myron Goldsmith was designing the building, he conceived of the Urbanite not only as a press ? but a kind of sculpture," recalled Republic vice president Jeffrey N. Brown. "So we had to paint it something, and yellow seemed like a pretty color."
Now that the Republic is constructing a $9 million production plant in an industrial park out by
I-65, the new press will sit under glass facing the interstate ? and it will be yellow as well.
"Of course, our production folks don't like it because it shows ink a lot," Brown said with a laugh.
And this newest yellow press should make quite an impression: It will be almost twice as big as the one downtown. The Republic is replacing its old press with a 12-unit Dauphin Graphic Machines DGM-850 press, which is similar to a Goss Urbanite.
With a press speed of 50,000 copies per hour and with its folders located in the center of the press configuration, the Dauphin can be fed webs from both ends of the press.
In addition, the Republic is adding a flying paster, from Jardis Industries, that will eliminate the present need to stop the press to change rolls twice during runs. The daily press run should be cut from 110 minutes now to about 50, according to production director Neil Thompson.
Doubling the number of folders to two will also allow the paper to do more commercial jobs completely in house, Thompson said. In addition to the daily, the plant will print approximately 50 special publications and a variety of commercial jobs. Perhaps most important, the new press is adding color capacity, said publisher Don Bucknam.
"The newspaper industry has changed dramatically in the 26 years our current press has been in operation," he said. "While we have always been a pacesetter in color quality, the demand for color is much greater today for both our newspaper advertisers and our commercial customers."
With the new press, the Republic has the capacity to print a 24-page broadsheet newspaper with process color on each page, while the current press is limited to four-color on eight pages and spot color on another 16 pages.
Brown ? a great-grandson of Isaac T. Brown, who founded the Republic as a weekly 125 years ago last April 26 ? said the paper also chose Dauphin because it was pleased with its service over the years as a rebuilder of Goss parts.
With the new press, too, comes the automation developed over the past 26 years. The Republic's new quiet room will have color-corrected lighting for better color evaluation, and the conveyors from both folders will come out of the floor in the quiet room to allow quick inspection of copies.
"There are doors placed so [press crew workers] can immediately get to the folder, but with all the automated controls there really is no reason to leave the quiet room," said Brown, who is project manager for development of the new production plant.
Production director Thompson estimates that the automation will reduce paper waste by 2.5% annually.
An off-line, 13-pocket Sheridan inserter will be installed in the mailroom.
This will be the fifth new plant in the history of the newspaper, which is now owned by Home News Enterprises, though the Brown family remains active in its management.
The downtown Republic building, designed by Goldsmith and the famous Chicago firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, is the high point on area architectural tours.
To design the new plant the Republic chose two firms with their own kind of fame in newspaper architecture: Gilberti Spittler International (GSI) of Cleveland and Middough Associates Inc.
Among the group's projects are the Cleveland Plain Dealer's remote plant in Brooklyn, the Columbus Dispatch and the Canton Repository, all in Canton, Ohio.
In an article by Republic editor John Harmon, Pete Spittler of GSI said the firm took many of its design ideas from the big yellow press.
The building is circular, for instance, in a way that suggests press cylinders and newsprint rolls, Spittler said.
Located on an 81/2-acre lot in the Woodside South Industrial Park, the 35,000-square-foot building sets aside a considerable amount of its space for roll storage. The newspaper plans to keep on hand about 300 rolls, a six-week supply for the 23,000-circulation morning paper.
At the downtown facility there is only room for about two days' worth of newsprint.
Delivery of the new press is expected to begin Aug. 1 and the first salable copies should come off the press in November, project manager Brown said.
?(Republic's new building and bigger yellow press will preserve the look of its existing glass-enclosed pressroom.) [Photo & Caption]

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