Houston Chronicle scores after digital upgrade

The Houston Chronicle said it reduced ink waste by 61 percent after upgrading its Goss International Corp. Metro presslines with digital inking.
The ink savings are part of a broader process improvement project The Chronicle launched in 2005. The paper established formal baselines for newsprint and ink waste, productivity averages, press starts and stops and other variables and began tracking them more intensely, according to General Manager Matt Oliver.
Ink waste totals at the newspaper, which averaged more than 12,000 pounds per week, dropped to an average of 4,250 pounds (1,927 kilograms) per week following the conversion to digital inking. Waste reduction rates ranged from 68 percent for black ink to 46 percent for magenta. Press downtime at the paper also decreased by 16 percent as a result of the inking conversion, and the number of paper rolls per web break increased by 23 percent.