A huge parcel arrived for me last week. I was almost as excited by the contents as if it had contained, say, a diamond-encrusted iPad. But then I do need to get out more.

The box in question arrived from KBA's headquarters in Germany and contains samples of the so-called 'semi-commercial' type of print work being produced by existing KBA customers using its latest newspaper systems.

The reason I'm super-interested in this is of course Richard Desmond's stated aim to print his own magazines at his new newspaper printing plant, which will be equipped with KBA Commander CT press lines. I was intrigued to see what sort of quality he can anticipate, once heatset dryers are added to the lines.

The output samples included magazines and full-colour newspapers on coated stock, as well as the usual newsprint. They were produced, variously, on KBA Cortina waterless presses at Eco Print Center in Belgium and Frederica in Denmark, on a Commander hybrid being deployed by Haberturk in Turkey, and a Comet (not sure where that one is installed).

Anyhow, the results are impressive. Very impressive. Having found a copy of New! on the bus on the way home the other day, I would say the quality is definitely on a par with it and appears likely to be more than adequate for Desmond's needs. What's more, the presses he's buying also have improved inking technology, and the compact towers mean fewer problems with things like fan-out, so the results could be better yet.

Who knows whether ultimately he will choose to go down this route or not - could it all be a ploy? But either way it should make for some interesting conversations with Polestar and Prinovis.