17.12.12 - The Mittelrhein-Verlag has invested 42 million euros in a new printing centre in Koblenz. The new technology will allow the publisher to get even more out of its local news coverage while offering readers and advertising customers topical, high-quality products.

With a circulation of 200,000 copies, the Rhein-Zeitung is one of Germany’s biggest regional newspapers. The title appears in 15 regional editions throughout the greater Koblenz area and on weekdays reaches 640,000 readers. With the two new triple-width Commander CT 6/2 presses from KBA, each hour it’s possible to print 90,000 four-colour newspapers of up to 48 pages. In addition to the Rhein-Zeitung, production on the press includes advertising freesheets, supplements and outside jobs, with a weekly print run of some 1.9million copies. When designing the mailroom, process optimization, productivity and a reduction in day-to-day costs took pride of place. Here, Ferag’s professionalism has been truly convincing, not only during evaluation of the individual components but also on the overall solution and project management side.

To develop the production of semi-commercials, the mailroom’s functionality has also been extended. Accordingly, units for trimming and stitching have been integrated into one of the two Ferag mailroom lines. Products can now be upgraded with a cover and stitched as commercial products – tasks that the SNT-U trimming drum and StreamStitch stitching system accomplish inline, enabling efficient production.  

In addition, two MultiSertDrum inserting drums and RollStream precollecting systems in Koblenz mean that the basic requirements for further zoning of the Rhein-Zeitung are in place. In all, two preprints and up to six supplements can be inserted into the Rhein-Zeitung. In Koblenz, they are very taken with 40,000 cph net output of the inserting drum. Installation of the Navigator control is planned for the mailroom in the autumn of 2012 By visualizing processes with the Navigator, they expect to see ever more complex processes become noticeably easier for staff along with improved utilization of resources.