N&T Dateline: May 4, 2009

Boston Globe avoids shutdown, for now
The Boston Globe said it reached agreements with six of seven unions representing its workers and will not file a 60-day shutdown notice.
The New York Times Co. had threatened to close the paper unless unions agreed to $20 million in cuts.
In a statement released earlier today, The Globe said it had successfully renegotiated contracts with the drivers, mailers, press operators, electricians, machinists and technical services group.
But the paper said it still hadn’t been able to reach an agreement with the Newspaper Guild, which represents some 700 editorial, advertising and business employees.
“We are very pleased to have reached agreements with six of the seven unions that were involved in recent negotiations,” The Globe said in a statement. “As a result of these agreements, which are subject to ratification by union members, we expect to achieve both the workplace flexibility and the financial savings that we sought from these unions.”
The Globe said it will now pursue other options with the Guild “to achieve as quickly as possible the workplace flexibility and remaining cost-savings we need to put The Globe on sound financial footing.”

NAA cuts staff, folds Presstime
The Newspaper Association of America last week cut staff and said it would no longer print copies of its magazine, Presstime.
NAA President and Chief Executive Officer John Sturm said in a memo that the group will now focus on three major areas of business: public policy, advocating newspaper advertising growth and outreach. Sturm said the NAA’s staff is now about a third of what it was a year ago; according to an article posted by Poynter, NAA now employs about 43 people.
Meantime, NAA said planning for mediaXchange 2010 remains under way and that the group expects to announce where the event will be held by month’s end. The show is slated to be held in Orlando, Fla.

Print 09 backers offering vendors ‘stimulus’
Graphic Arts Show Co., the firm behind Print 09, said it will offer vendors credits to offset the costs associated with installing machinery and other equipment at its upcoming show.
GASC said exhibitors can choose between two subsidy plans: one, geared to those companies with heavy machinery that occupies a large percentage of their booth space, allows for unlimited machinery material handling at the show site. The second option features limited material handling, but covers both machinery and non-machinery.
Altogether, GASC expects to offer up to $3 million in credit through the plan, with average exhibitor savings ranging from $550 to $165,000, depending on the size of exhibitors’ booth space.
“In these troubled times, we can’t settle for business as usual,” said Ralph Nappi, GASC president. “That is why GASC has stepped forward with the subsidy plan to support the companies that provide equipment, products and services to the graphic communications industry.”
The show, scheduled for Sept. 11-16, will be held at McCormick Place in Chicago.
News & Tech is offering a free exhibits-only pass to attend Print ’09. For more information, see the banner below.

RJI picks vendors for Digital Newsbooks
The Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute is making its Digital Newsbooks available through two new partner sites, the organization plans to announce at its Digital Publishing Alliance meeting.
RJI said the Newsbooks will be accessible through eReader Outfitters (www.ereaderoutfitters.com) in Pleasanton, Calif., and MBS Direct (www.mbsdirect.net/newsbooks) in Columbia, Mo. The DPA begins its annual meeting tomorrow.
RJI launched its Newsbooks initiative last year. RJI produces the content free of charge for DPA members. The books are customized for downloading and easy reading on e-readers and other mobile display devices.
The New York Times has been selling Digital Newsbooks produced by RJI on its own Web site since fall 2008.
RJI said DPA members, hosting services and RJI will share revenues stemming from the sale of the Newsbooks.
For more information about the project visit www.rjionline.org

2 more publishers file for bankruptcy protection
American Community Newspapers Inc.’s bankruptcy could cost Gannett Co. Inc. hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Gannett’s printing group, owed $273,000 was listed as ACN’s largest unsecured creditor, according to the filing.
ACN filed for bankruptcy protection April 28, citing a weak advertising market, according to Gene Carr, ACN’s chairman and chief executive officer.
The Dallas-based publisher prints more than 80 newspapers — primarily weeklies — in four markets: Dallas, northern Virginia, Minneapolis-St. Paul and Columbus, Ohio.
The firm said it had obtained $5 million in debtor-in-possession financing. The publisher listed assets in the range of $50 million to $100 million and debts of about $107 million.
Meantime, the family-owned Columbian Publishing Co. in Vancouver, Wash., filed for bankruptcy protection in order to address credit issues with the Bank of America. The company borrowed money from the bank to finance a new building in downtown Vancouver.
According to filings, CPC owes $17 million to BofA as well as other unsecured creditors.
CAN and CPC are sixth and seventh newspaper publishers to file for bankruptcy protection, following Tribune Co., Philadelphia Newspapers LLC, the (Minneapolis) Star-Tribune, Journal Register Co. and the Sun-Times Media Group.

Schur rolling out new inserter
Schur Packaging Systems Inc. is rolling out a new inserter that’s based on inserting and gripping technology it obtained as a result of its purchase of IdabWamac.
The new system, the 1455, has a rated capacity of 45,000 packages per hour, said Dan Kemper, president.
The inserter capitalizes on IdabWamac’s integral gripper design, in which product is transported — from buffer to stacker — by a single gripper. Other inserting systems rely on multiple gripper systems to convey the same product.
“The biggest advantage is that the paper can maintain and manage the integrity of the product,” Kemper said.
The 1455, available now, uses Schur’s 1055 hoppers to create a system with a lower profile and smaller footprint, Kemper said. As a result, hoppers are positioned on the floor rather than on top of the machine, as IdabWamac had designed them.

Triblocal expands print editions to North Shore
The Chicago Tribune expanded its TribLocal community journalism initiative with three weekly print editions and associated Web sites focused on high-income North Shore suburbs.
The first editions, published last week, cover the communities of Wilmette, Kenilworth, Winnetka, Northfield, Glencoe, Highland Park, Deerfield, Highwood, Lake Forest, Lake Bluff, Northbrook, Glenview and Golf.
Triblocal was introduced in 2007 and now reaches 65 Chicago suburbs in print and online (see News & Tech, May 2007.

PressTerra expands digital distribution
PressTerra said it partnered with Ontime Transport & Logistics to distribute newspaper titles to expatriates and tourists in Spain. Many of the titles, which will begin to be distributed around the Iberian Peninsula today, were not previously available in Spain, or were only available the day after publication.
The papers will be printed at Madrid-based Imcodavila, which went on-edition with its Océ JetStream 2200 digital press May 1.
The company now prints 6,000, 80-page broadsheet papers — a mixture of dailies, weeklies and monthlies — in full color each day (see News & Tech, April 2009).
Titles to be distributed by Ontime include El Mercurio from Chile, El Colombiano from Colombia, Diario Hoy from Ecuador, La Jornada from Mexico and El Comercio and El Correo from Peru. Miami-based El Nuevo Herald will also be printed at Imcodavila, as well as a number of additional titles that PressTerra also publishes at its VASP print partner site in Lisbon, Portugal, which operates an Agfa DGNews digital press.
Meantime, PressTerra announced other partnerships in Portugal and Spain, including those to print the New York Post, Tages Anzeiger of Switzerland; Romania Libera of Romania, and Dagens Nyheter and Goteborgs Posten of Sweden.

Hearst live with Jazbox in Conn.
MediaSpan said Hearst’s Connecticut Media Group is fully live on Jazbox. Hearst deployed the app to consolidate resources and offer its Connecticut papers the ability to produce print and online content simultaneously, MediaSpan said.
More than 175 seats of Jazbox are now deployed in a consolidated server located at The Connecticut Post in Bridgeport. Ten Hearst titles, including The Post, The Danbury News-Times, The Advocate in Stamford, Greenwich Times and six Brooks weekly publications are using the system.

KBA expresses cautious outlook
Koenig & Bauer AG, even as it posted a 2008 loss of $134 million and projected an additional 20 percent drop in sales this year, said it expects its 2009 financial performance to stabilize, provided demand doesn’t deteriorate further.
The vendor said much of the loss was fueled by restructuring charges in addition to a sharp drop in sheetfed press sales. Sales of web and specialty presses partially offset the downturn, the company said.. All told, KBA said revenues fell 10 percent to $1.9 billion in 2008, with sheetfed sales dropping more than 22 percent.
The vendor said it continued to ship presses worldwide, although the percentage of machines sent to the United States dropped to 9.4 percent. KBA attributed the decrease to U.S. printers’ “continued reluctance to invest” in new machinery.
For 2009, KBA projects an additional 20 percent drop in sales, but expects that it will be able to get its expenses in line and avoid any further losses.

Goss making heat recovery system available worldwide
Goss International Corp. said its Ecobox thermal energy recovery system is now available worldwide.
The system is compatible with heatset dryers equipped with integrated afterburners. Water circulating through Ecobox is heated by exhaust air from the dryer. The heated water can either be used or converted to replace or supplement the energy required for HVAC or other systems within the production facility, Goss said.
Goss has installed Ecobox throughout Europe. The company is now making it available to other countries, including those in North America.

Colo. publisher to kick off new press May 19
Lehman Communications Corp., which prints several northern Colorado newspapers including the Daily Times-Call in Longmont, will go on-edition with its new press May 19.
The company purchased a Uniset press from manroland in 2007 to anchor a $20 million, 60,000-square-foot plant. Lehman also prints the Loveland Reporter-Herald as well as a number of other weekly newspapers and commercial accounts.

AJC debuts 44-inch size
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution last week introduced a redesigned and more colorful paper, produced on a 44-inch-wide web.
The paper in 2007 tapped TKS (USA) to add six ColorTop 7000 H-style color towers to its existing pressline to boost color and print quality.
The towers were equipped with press control upgrades from ABB and also include color registration controls from Q.I. Press Controls.
Journal-Constitution mechanics and engineers oversaw the web-width reduction project while Britton Services Inc. oversaw the tower installation.

Study: online newspaper reading time increases
Internet users are spending more time reading online newspapers but are also more likely to drop their print subscriptions as they migrate from newsprint to electronic distribution.
Research conducted by the Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communications said that Internet users read online newspapers 53 minutes a week, the highest level thus far in the 8-year-old study.
In 2007, users spent about 41 minutes reading online newspapers.
The survey also found that 22 percent of users said they stopped their print subscriptions to a newspaper or magazine because they could access the same content online.
“The most significant trend about how Americans are changing their news reading habits may be found in comparing the use of online media by light users vs. heavy users,” said Center Director Jeffrey I. Cole. “Heavy Internet users spend 65 more minutes per week reading online newspapers than do light users.”
The World Internet Project, created by the Center for the Digital Future, also conducts studies of the impact of online technology in 23 partner countries. And every partner found the same trend in its country: When Internet use reaches 30 percent of the population, print newspaper consumption begins to decline.

Study: Local online advertising continues to grow
Newspapers continued to make strides in attracting local advertisers to their Web sites, according to a study released last week by Borrell Associates.
In 2008 newspapers saw a 6 percent increase in local ad revenues to $3.4 billion, the study said. Borrell said it expects total revenues for local advertising to increase another 6 percent this year.
The report analyzed Web revenues for over 4,300 local media properties representing 6,000 Web sites in the U.S. and Canada.

Gatehouse to kick-off seasonal Cape Cod pub
GateHouse Media New England said it will launch a free seasonal daily covering Cape Cod beginning next month.
The new publication, Cape Cod Day, will publish Tuesday through Saturday, beginning June 23 and ending after the Labor Day weekend.
GateHouse said the paper will have a print run of approximately 25,000. It will be produced in Orleans, Mass., where GateHouse’s Cape Codder and Harwich Oracle newspapers are published.
The publisher said it has already booked front-page ads from local businesses for the entire 11-week print run.

Obituary: Don Kay
Don Kay, who retired as vice president of operations at The Sun in San Bernardino, Calif., passed away suddenly April 30. He was 62. Services are pending.

In Brief

Gannett Co. Inc. appointed Susie Ellwood chief executive officer of the Detroit Media Partnership, succeeding David Hunke, who was named publisher of USA Today.
DMP also named Paul Anger editor and publisher of the Detroit Free Press and Joyce Jenereaux executive vice president.

USA Today named John Hilkirk editor. He formerly served as executive editor.

Gannett Co. Inc. shareholders re-elected Craig A. Dubow chairman, president and chief executive officer. They also re-elected Howard D. Elias, Marjorie Magner, Scott K. McCune, Duncan M. McFarland, Donna E. Shalala, Neal Shapiro and Karen Hastie Williams to the board of directors.
Meantime, Gannett named Todd A. Mayman senior vice president, general counsel and secretary. He succeeds Kurt Wimmer, who will become a partner at the law firm of Covington & Burling LLP.

The San Francisco Chronicle named Jeff Bergin vice president of advertising.

The Record in Stockton, Calif., said press operator Bert Sampson retired after a 40-year career at the paper. He joined the newspaper in 1969 after working at the Lodi (Calif.) News-Sentinel and served as lead operator and press mechanic on the Record’s letterpress, which was decommissioned in 2004.

PressTerra appointed Ralph Vooys president and chief executive officer and Marta Bohoyo as vice president of marketing. Karina Tettero and Anitra Vooys will remain as director of customer services and Presstige business unit director, respectively.

WRH Marketing AG appointed Marko Roini as managing director at Ferag Suomi.

Eastman Kodak Co named Dave Wigfield worldwide sales and operations director, workflow, business solutions and services group

French daily Paris-Normandie completed the successful rollout of the first installation of Atex AdBaseE in France.
The group selected the Atex AdBaseE as a foundation to allow self-service advertising.
www.atex.com

Tensor Group Inc. added a 10-minute informational video on its Web site. The video showcases Tensor’s manufacturing facility and features a demonstration of its presses in action in Turkey.
www.tensorgroup.com

Harland Simon upgraded drive controls at U.K. publisher Polestar Chantry, swapping out obsolete electronics with a Siemens DC drive unit. Harland Simon performed the conversion on PC’s Baker Perkins G14 press.
www.harlandsimon.com

Atex and Chyron announced the integration of the Atex Polopoly Content Manager and Polopoly Relationship Manager with Chyron's Axis Web-based content creation services.
www.atex.com

Aspermont Ltd. deployed WoodWing’s Enterprise content publishing platform at its publications in Europe and Australia.
www.woodwing.com

Digital Technology International launched a new Web site based on its DTI Lightning content management app.
www.dtint.com

Reuters.com rolled out software from Apture to allow its reporters to add multimedia element to their blogs.
www.apture.com

Controls Group Inc. will convert 18 couples of a manroland Uniman press from open fountain to digital injection at Swiss newspaper printer Centre d’Impression des Ronquoz. The digital inkers will integrate with the press’ existing ABB control software, and operational in September.
www.controlsgroupinc.com

U.K. newspaper publisher GMG Regional Media will install Miles 33’s Workflow CMS across all of its newspaper properties. The deployment is scheduled for completion by this fall, Miles 33 said.
www.miles33.com

New Jersey online-only hyperlocal daily newspaper TheAlternativePress.com said it is expanding to Westfield, its eighth community.
www.thealternativepress.com

Clarity Media selected Clickability Inc. to underpin its Examiner.com Web sites. The app will allow writers and editors to more easily post content.
www.clickability.com

The Silverton (Colo.) Standard & the Miner will now be operated as a non-profit newspaper after the weekly’s owner donated it to the local historical society. Thirteenth Street Media Inc. made the move after determining it could no longer profitably operate the 1,000-subscriber Standard. Silverton, a former mining town, is located in the southwest corner of the state.

The Reading (Pa.) Eagle, which earlier this year opened its $33 million production facility, last week laid off about 12 percent of its staff because of declining revenues.

The Wilson (N.C.) Daily Times is moving to morning distribution, effective May 5. The family-owned paper began publishing in 1896.

The (New York) Daily News launched a social network for small businesses. The service, Daily News SmallBiz, is based on software from SaleSpider.com.

Amazon said it will hold a press conference May 6 to unveil a Kindle that’s outfitted with a larger-diameter screen tailored for newspaper distribution.
www.amazon.com

The Denver Post will eliminate daily distribution and home delivery of the paper to Colorado towns and counties located more than 100 miles from the Mile High City, effective July 12.
The Post will continue to deliver its Sunday edition but customers now receiving seven-day-a-week home delivery of the paper will have to convert to electronic distribution, The Denver Newspaper Agency said.
www.denverpost.com

Ifra said papers can begin registering for the International Newspaper Color Quality Club 2010-2012 competition.
For the first time, Ifra is opening the competition to all newspapers, and membership will not be limited to 50 newspapers, as in prior INCQC competitions.
Papers registering by Oct. 16, 2009, can request a free test evaluation, Ifra said.
Interested newspapers can obtain information, including registration forms, at www.colorqualityclub.org.