World-class print quality has become a ‘must-have’ for newspaper publishers in their struggle for eyeballs and advertising dollars against competition from other media.
It’s become the de facto position that virtually every new press installed can print four-colour process on every page – so only the exceptions are notable – but most sites face the challenge of standardised production with less than optimal equipment.
Competitions such as PANPA’s Newspaper of the Year technical contest this month, and those of the Single Width Users Groups in Australia and New Zealand, provide regional comparison. But global kudos – and the satisfaction of matching up to a standardised international benchmark – comes from admission to the International Newspaper Color Quality Club, organised every two years by WAN-Ifra. This year's Asia Media Awards ‘best in print’ were chosen from members.
It’s some measure of the interest in quality that 26 Asia-Pacific newspapers are among the 109 in 43 countries who made it through to this year’s club (from 162 entrants). Nine of the new members are in South East Asia, 11 in India, three – all within West Australian Newspapers – in Australia and three in Japan. Organisers recently extended the competition from the earlier limit of 50 newspapers, but the requirements remain much the same: Demonstrated capacity to print to ISO standards (including ISO 12647) and reliably reproduce colour images and advertisements consistently, worldwide, and with the intended colour effect.
And even more than in the regional competitions, the emphasis is on the learning process to the extent that newspapers which have “travelled the INCQC journey” do not necessarily enter in every competition.
Manfred Werfel, executive director of newspaper production at WAN-Ifra says the initiative helps ensure that readers receive an attractive, high-quality product and the advertiser an outstanding advertising carrier: “For publishing companies, the competition provides a better understanding of the ISO standards to improve the printing process.”
Entrants have to print a specific test element and submit examples from production runs over four months, delivering samples which reproduce the element within specific tolerances and present good printing quality.
Behind the scenes is a good deal of hand-holding from suppliers, with ink-maker DIC Australia prominent among them. Web technical services manager Steve Packham says that some people view participation as expensive and time-wasting. “Fortunately many sites view the activity as a low cost training discipline that focuses their staff on all aspects of print quality.
“Certainly no print site, whether successful or unsuccessful, can walk away from the competition without admitting they have gained a significant understanding of the print process,” he says.
The competition challenges knowledge of how the inputs of ink and paper interrelate with the press in order to produce predictable output. Concepts such as colour space, dot gain and grey balance must all be in control and for the competition, must be repeated four times. These are key print performance properties that are derived from consistent quality inputs.
“It is an achievement of extraordinary effort that should be truly respected for those who gained INCQC 2010-2012 club membership for newspaper printing in a global competition,” Packham says.
While each site’s ranking is not made public, some clue is provided in the ‘best in print’ winners in the Asia Media Awards.
Packham says DIC has been a strong supporter of the competition for many years, having been first involved with Fairfax’s entry in 2002.Five years later, in 2007 the company ran regional in-house training for its technical staff, with representatives from Japan, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong and Taiwan meeting to improve their newspaper print knowledge and focus products to the ISO print standard. The effort has brought rewards, with DIC being the exclusive ink supplier of 16 of the competition winners in the region, and a co-supplier to three more.
The competition has expanded to cover the broader range that a newspaper now finds itself publishing in. There are four print categories – coldset, heatset, UV and more recently the inclusion of digital. The range of paper substrates has also been increased.
“This year’s quality competition tested many aspect of print,” says Packham. “Print quality was determined by a system of evaluation to defined faults. Some 20 elements were examined from 16 pages. Aside from this a numerical measurement was done to a score system based on the newsprint litho standard ISO 12647-3. Elements of colour space covered, dot gain and dot gain spread, grey balance, paper shade and black shade are all compared to the standard.
“It was not a matter of a test target being achieved but the measurement of a production page on a live edition.”
Manufacturers of press equipment have also been keen to associate themselves with their customers’ successes.
KBA says 30 of its users, with 36 successful newspapers, were among the 109. Among these are DB Corp in Jaipur and Ahmedabad, Diligent Media Corporation in Bangalore, and The Printers (Mysore) in Bangalore, India; West Australian Newspapers in Perth, Australia; and Singapore Press Holdings and Mediacorp Press in Singapore.
Users of its compact Commander CT (New York Daily News) and waterless Cortina (Freiburger Druck und Rheinpfalz) were said to be among the topmost rankings.
manroland says 38 of the 109 successful newspapers are printed on its presses, with three production sites of Bennett, Coleman & Co, publisher of the ‘Times of India’ – Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi – admitted. Among other sites are Singapore Press Holdings in Singapore; HT Media Limited in Greater Noida, India; and Utusan Melayu (Malaysia) in Malaysia.
Apple Daily in Hong Kong and Taiwan, Sin Chew Media Corporation in Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore Press Holdings are among Goss users in the winners list, although no specific statement has been made about the presses used.
Peter Coleman
