Analysis

With the UK newspaper industry's billion pound in­­­­­­vest­­­­­ment in web offset printing presses, one would assume that the future of the newspaper sector lies purely in conventional printing.

However, recent advances in digital technology have allowed newspaper publishers to consider the digital business model and the signs suggest that digital technology will play a key part in the evolution of the industry.

Last month in PrintWeek, News International’s managing director of operations Ian McDonald said that, while planning his company’s £650m upgrade, which included the construction of the mega-site at Broxbourne, he had considered the possibility of digitally printing newspapers. His idea was that this would lead to a more efficient service for remote rural markets.

Getting closer
According to McDonald, the technology is not there yet, but it is not far away.

One model being considered would involve News International buying a digital press and installing it at a jobbing printer somewhere, for example, in the vicinity of John O’Groats. The printer would produce The Times and The Sun for this relatively isolated area and do it for a low unit price. During the day, the printer could then use the press to produce whatever it liked.

It is a format where everybody wins. The printer gets bought a new press, while the publisher saves on the cost of distributing a few thousand newspapers to the tip of the country.

Internationally, publishers are already beginning to harness the potential of digital print. Newsworld Corporation announced this year that it had signed a deal with Associated Newspapers to produce the Daily Mail in New York.

Newsworld will manage the contract and has invested in a new Screen Truepress Jet520, which Screen has increased in speed to 128 metres per minute in order to service the newspaper industry. The press has been  installed at New York printer Alpha Graphics.

Speed increase
Previously, the Jet520 could only run at around 32 pages per minute, which was not fast enough for newspaper production.

The company says that its machine can now produce around 1,200 48-page tabloids per hour. A much more competitive and appealing run speed.

With one newspaper under its belt, Newsworld is now looking to convince more UK publishers that they can print abroad on a fairly large scale. But could the system work for the UK?

Different option
Brian Filler, managing director at Screen, believes that, rather than the publisher, or even a local printer, setting up a local print site, it is the newspaper distributor that stands to gain the most from investing in digital kit.

He says: “I would imagine a distributor would be more likely to look into printing a small number of copies. If he could get a few thousand copies from a few publishers it would make sense.

“He would be shoring up the distribution contract and it would save the cost of trans­porting a few newspapers a very long way. The only issue would be ensuring enough publishers were on board to warrant the investment.”

Digital press manufacturer Kodak is also offering its kit for printing newspapers and, along with Screen, it sees distributors as the people that will invest in digital kit.

Rinus Hoebeke, segment marketing manager at Kodak, points to several cases in mainland Europe of distributors buying digital presses and printing copies of a publication themselves.

He says: “What are you going to do, drive lorries all over the place or just get the files sent over? I see digital presses being installed in the UK for newspapers in the very near future. But it is not the publisher that will be doing this. The distributors will be doing it and not for one newspaper, but for several. This way they can set up a regional distribution site.

“The technology is there and it makes sense. It just needs people to be open-minded to the idea.”

One distributor in Portugal has already installed a press and Hoebeke says that Kodak is in the process of another European installation.

Not ready yet?
Having just spent more than £1bn on new kit, it still seems a stretch that UK newspaper publishers will be rushing to  invest in digital presses.

However, Express News­­papers still hasn’t revealed its hand in terms of future investment. Perhaps, after being criticised for being the last major publisher to go through with a press upgrade, Richard Desmond could be the first to make regional ‘mini-hubs’ work.

With newspapers desperately seeking to keep their place at the top of information dispersal, it is likely that someone  will take a risk on digital newspapers. It is simply a case of how long before somebody steps up to open the floodgates.