Inkjet's Age, a print supplement to Quick Printing, is a business and technology brand dedicated to corporate and senior management and focusing on issues surrounding inkjet printing technology in all its forms. Inkjet's Age covers the industry news,
Issue link: https://quickprinting.epubxp.com/i/268657
nates show-through so the press can be used for newsprint as well as heavier coated stocks," De Cian continued. "It also means that we can switch between offset and ink- jet production without readers noticing." The digital capability makes printing lo- cal versions, supplements, special editions, and specialist publications possible, open- ing another new market opportunity. In June, CSQ printed a special Cannes Film Festival edition of the Parisian maga- zine La Paulette. La Gazette Paulette was written in Cannes and the PDFs were sent to CSQ. They were printed and delivered to Cannes with the other foreign newspa- pers and distributed during the festival. "We've done work for other events, too," De Cian explained. "For example, a big concert might have an eight-page supple- ment in one of our offset newspapers. We can use the same PDF files—resizing them if necessary—and re-print the supplement on better quality paper on the HP T230 Color Inkjet Web Press and use them as independent promotional materials to be distributed through tourist offices, hotels and restaurants." While the HP press has enabled CSQ to develop the foreign newspaper market and other shorter-run publications, De Cian pointed out that run length is not the sole criterion for printing a job digitally. "There are a number of other variables," he said. "While run length is an indicator, pagination is another. The amount of time it takes to print a job is a big factor, too. Printing 500 copies of an 80- or 96-page publication with offset can be viable based on time, as can digitally printing 5,000 cop- ies with a low pagination. As a result, the cross-over point can be different each day." Introducing Digital Printing to Newspaper Markets The challenges faced by CSQ in the newspaper sector are essentially the same as those that were faced by the early adopters of commercial digital printing. "We're offset printers," De Cian said. "At present, only a very small percentage of our work is printed digitally. We're also very new at this." Introducing a new publishing concept— at a time when newspaper circulations are contracting and revenues falling—requires special strategies and an imaginative ap- proach to business growth. "Advertising revenues have contracted 25 percent this year, and 25 percent last year," said De Cian. "At the same time, circula- tions are falling. Our production volumes have fallen 20 percent in the last five years. We've also seen the disappearance of free newspapers in this region—they simply cannot attract the revenue." These conditions make selling advertising and print extremely difficult. As was the case in the early days of commercial digital printing, selling digital print is different to selling conventional print. "The idea that you can produce local- ized supplements, tailoring advertising to specific locations, and attract a whole new class of advertisers through digital print is a very attractive proposition," said De Cian. "It opens the market to hundreds of potential advertisers. The challenge is that you need to sell many of these lower value advertisements to earn the revenue of one big one. That takes resources, which most publishers currently do not have." De Cian said the same applies to local- ized versions of editorial: "More versions mean more editorial, but at present, titles are laying off journalists, not hiring them," he said. "The production part is easy; the editorial is the hard part." Digitally printed newspapers require another mind-shift on the part of publish- ers. As in the commercial market, the old minimum order (unit cost) concept no longer applies. "When printing conventionally, many newspaper printers would have a minimum order of, say 5,000 copies, even though on- ly 1,000 were needed," De Cian explained. "These extra copies would be collected by distributors only to be returned for recy- cling. This is expensive and wasteful. With digital printing, you print only what you need, so the impact on printing and distri- bution costs is considerable. "The HP Press also allows ink densities to be addressed," De Cian continued. "By reducing the ink density on some publica- tions where print quality is less critical, cost-savings can be achieved. It is also pos- sible to choose not to use the HP Bonding Agent at lower densities, which can also have an impact on price. Having these options adds flexibility, is attractive to cus- tomers, and a good sales tool." Another part of CSQ's offering is that all its presses use VOC-free inks. "This not only makes the press room a more pleasant place to work, but appeals to our environmentally aware customers," said De Cian. "The HP T230 Color Inkjet Web Press uses water-based ink, so we were able to install it alongside our conventional presses and continue our VOC-free policy." Investment and Strategy Despite the challenges within the indus- try as a whole, De Cian remains positive. "Ultimately, to survive, companies need to continue to invest; you cannot be left behind," he said. "We are lucky at CSQ be- cause our owners continue to invest in new technology every year: a press, a finishing unit, a new software system. You need to keep up and remain competitive. "The HP press's capabilities are real; the technology is real," De Cian concluded. "This digital printing capability for news- papers is a valuable tool in helping us offer customers a uniquely competitive, flexible service model with options and products that enable us to help them address some of the issues in the market." ✚ www.MyPRINTResource.com MARCH 2014 • INKJET'S AGE 23 "HP BONDING AGENT TECHNOLOGY eliminates show-through so the press can be used for newsprint as well as heavier coated stocks," said De Cian. QPsupp_22-23_0314 CS CSQ.indd 23 2/18/14 11:45 AM