Visit DRUPA to see innovation and the future... and in the case of the newspaper (newsmedia) industry, that has to be digital printing.

Thus for a few days in Düsseldorf, you may see running not just the biggest and fastest inkjet web presses in the world, but also the finishing kit on which might be built a 24/7 business model.

Wherein lies a conundrum: the more a system costs, the more important it is that it is fully-employed, one of the reasons why book printers have been doing better with inkjet from "the big end of town". Another of course, is that they will frequently settle for less than four-colour printing, which - with the apparent exception of parts of the North American industry - is no longer an option for newspapers.

So the fastest and widest presses - also the most expensive - are the hungriest for work. manroland web has wisely moved into this ground with two digital finishing systems which are uniquely able to keep pace with today's 300 metres/minute presses, and provide for the likelihood that the pace will hot up. Based on reorientated but tried technology from the company's heatset web folders, the pin-type FoldLine seen at DRUPA can produce tabloid and broadsheet newspapers with up to a dozen sections or 96 pages, as well as stitched booklets and book signatures, with the ability to change pagination and book structure "on the fly".

This is the course chosen by the HP-equipped Walliser Bote in Switzerland, and Sogemedia in France and Dubai's Masar Printing & Publishing with their Kodak Prosper 6000 presses. An alternative is the FormerLine which folds the web longitudinally before cross-cutting and collation into book blocks. Tolerans have developed stitching for the newspaper products, and glueing is also available.

DRUPA was the place to see these running, with Prosper 6000C systems on both the Kodak and manroland stands with rewinders for offline production, plus a variety of other finishing options. In the show's largest single stand, HP's PageWide inkjet presses have also been running a variety of work, mostly to rewinders, and including a demonstration of a new press intended for postprint corrugated.

These racehorses were also accompanied by a variety of usually slower and narrower presses from makers such as Canon, Screen - with a new ink claimed to print on coated papers without priming or post treatment - Xerox, Ricoh and Konica Minolta.

Typically here, the newspaper finishing option has been Hunkeler's CombiLine - five of which are running newspapers offline with two Kodak Prosper webs at Jersey joint venture KP Services - with automatic changeovers, dynamic glueing and the capacity for newspapers up to 140 pages broadsheet.

A variety of other components to be seen around the show prompt thoughts on other options. At the Müller Martini stand, a hybrid based on Hunkeler unwind and variable sheeter, Heidelberg buckle folder and MM's Presto saddle stitcher was interfaced by a neat Müller Martini module which collated alternate consecutively-printed products. The company's Presto II digital saddlestitchers - each with Hunkeler unwinding and cross cutting, and Heidelberg pocket fold unit were also on the stands of Canon and Xerox. Canon Océ's Colorstream was teamed with Hunkeler transpromo finishing on the Mondi stand, and Horizon was finishing brochures and books offline. Ricoh's VC60000 and Xerox's Impika eVoloution were both inline to CombiLines.

So much for finishing the digitally-printed web, on or offline. In addition to combining digitally and offset printed products as above or in an inserter, two other options at the show are worthy of attention.

A "simplex" version of Kodak's Prosper shown at manroland provides a scaleable option to integrate the 6000S into a web-offset press on a greater scale than the current S series heads used to imprint such things as unique barcodes, lottery numbers and advertiser promotions. Kodak also provided a technology demonstration of its "next generation" Ultrastream inkjet technology, seen running high quality glossy samples on a variety of substrates with 600 x 1800dpi resolution at 150 metres/minute, with the suggestion that it would print lower resolutions faster. Or wider: Kodak quotes a range of widths for its modular printhead from the 203 mm shown up to 2464 mm and says it can match the speed of the offset line.

Several press manufacturers have floated the concept of integrating such a platform into their newspaper lines.

As it does, DRUPA also delivered another interesting possibility: Like the man behind the famous Remington shavers, Deirdre Ryder liked the Vits product so much she bought the company. At DRUPA she recalled getting the "thumbs up" when she turned up for an interview in a miniskirt, later earning her place in the American management team of what was then a multinational company. After several restructures, she led the recapitalization of what is now Vits International - the European sheeter business is now owned by Goss - and was in Düsseldorf to spruik their latest product and major partnerships.

One system synchronises and merges reeled webs from offset and digital presses, cutting and collating the product for further processing (see our March story), and customers already include inkjet pioneer O'Neill (which has HP PageWide systems).

When you've seen all that, all you have to do is pick the winner that suits your situation (or situations) and go home to write up the business case. Not easy, because there are so many ways in which digital print can change the newsmedia business - "extend the runway" as they were saying at the INMA World Congress the previous week - but an exciting "tipping point" time nonetheless.

Peter Coleman