Why should a newspaper publisher or printer consider investing in digital printing today?

Much as offset slowly replaced letterpress, digital printing will also replace offset in years to come. It will not happen overnight, but it will occur. Factors such as speed and consumable cost are not at offset levels yet.  You might say the consumable cost portion is now due to less digital presses installed and consumable vendors to choose from.  Speed increases will come in time.  Digital printing is more cost effective for smaller runs (less than 5,000) and that tipping point will always be increasing as speeds become higher. Some of the reasons for ink jet printing efficiency are:

• Little setup time required (no plates, less manning)
• More pages, sections and color with less equipment
• Less power used

Digital printing (with TKS) obviously gives you the capability of:

• Variable data printing
• Finished product produced in line. 5 sections 72 pages maximum.
• No setup time needed for making press ready. So you can operate on tighter turnaround times.
• Color on every page
• Up to 5 broadsheet sections produced in line
• Very environmentally friendly. No plates, blankets, fountain solution and uses less electricity
• Building footprint much less than traditional offset facilities
• Less manning

  What is your business vision for digital printing in the newspaper sector?

Digital is not meant to replace offset in the near future, but to supplement an offset operation. Newspapers can utilize their dominant local marketing positions for tailoring both news and advertising to specific clients. This is such an important asset the newspaper has and in most cases is not being taken advantage of. It’s being done in the mailbox, why not the driveway or doorstep? One size fits all does not work anymore. The technology to differentiate each person’s newspaper product is here today, but distribution is more of the logistics issue.

In the past newspapers would also print newspapers for remote areas and transport to the location. With the declines in circulation and advertising that became less cost effective and many newspaper companies stopped sending their product to these remote locations. Now with digital printing it make sense to install ink jet presses in these same areas. Whether it be a company owned site or a partner printer and have up to date news and advertising for that area. Also the ability to print other commercial products  that may normally have been farmed out. Items such as direct mail, book and catalogs can also bring in new revenue streams.

The ability to print many different titles, both domestic and international in smaller runs for each market that in the past did not make economical sense to print on offset.

What is your target market a) geographically and b) regarding potential clients: newspaper companies, independent newspaper printers, distributors?

Currently the markets showing the most interest are the same markets that have most enjoyed the internet revolution and all that came with. Countries like the United States, Europe and some countries in Asia have seen a lot of customers now get their news from online web sites. This has also made it easier for advertisers to target their audience and then aggregate the results. Using that data base knowledge for printed product and online merges the best of both worlds and media companies in the United States,Europeand some countries in Asiaare fine tuning and implementing this business model. Other countries that are not so hooked up to the internet still rely more on printed product to get the news and advertising out.

In our case we are dealing mostly with the newspaper or printer. Distributors are an integral part of how they get product to various locations, but our experience is they are not the buyer.

What are your requirements with regard to inks and paper? Is it possible to use consumables from different suppliers?

TKS has an open source policy. We do not require the buyer to purchase their ink and paper through us and we do not have any click charge policy. We ask that the buyer only buy the inks that have been pre qualified. Once the ink is qualified on the heads in terms of causing no damage, we then test to make sure the ink has the proper print quality and performance over long runs. That is why we have a qualification process.

Can standard newsprint be used or inkjet paper only?

We can run on ground wood paper from 45 gsm to 130 gsm. At Newsweb in Chicago they are using both ink jet and the same regular 30# (48,8 gsm) offset paper that the customer uses on their single wide press.

What is the print head technology?

TKS uses drop on demand piezo heads.