He told the Pira Digital and On Demand Newspapers conference that the FT would seriously consider placing digital equipment in some overseas print sites after the success of its digital operation in South Africa.

I would love to see a digital machine viable at 400 to 10,000 copies per hour and not have to invest in expensive offset kit every few years. If the costs of digital printing halved we would probably open 10 new sites tomorrow, said Boulton.

He said the FTs remote printing site in South Africa, which produces 4,000 copies a day, was being pushed to its production limit and that he would like to see digital challenge offset. Id expect digitals cost-curve to drop in the next three to five years, to close the gap, he added.

The FT has printed daily editions in South Africa on an Oc DemandStreamsince the start of the year, in a similar set-up to Stroma in London (PrintWeek, 18 May 2001).

Ifra executive director Mike Fairhead said newspapers would increasingly be produced at localised sites as digital ink-jet became more cost effective.

A network of around 3,000 neighbourhood plants would spell the end for centralised newspaper production and also give papers the ability to compete with television and radio on temporal terms, he added.

Story by John Davies