The first of two 24-unit presses at Dallas Morning News is about to go on edition, not much more than seven months after publishers pressed the ‘go’ button.

The publisher is spending an estimated US$8 million (A$12 million) to replace a larger 1980s press with single-width, saving US$5 million a year.

Tom Loesch of supplier ImPressions Worldwide reports the last elements of the lines, totalling 48 Goss SSC units, two N40 folders and 18 splicers, have now made the wintry 3200 km trip to the new Carrollton, Texas, print site, requiring 17 16-metre Conestoga semitrailers (pictured top).

Loesch says the first 24-unit ‘A-Press’ phase is being commissioned, with training underway, and mechanical installation of the second 24-unit ‘B-Press’ underway. ImPressions technicians are working with Dallas Morning News printing staff and DCOS representatives on the project.

Live production is planned by the month’s end. The two presses will each print up to 36 broadsheet pages, producing a combined total of 50,000 copies per hour.

Pictured: ImPressions’ Mike Stallings worked on Christmas Day to prepare equipment for shipping, as did the company’s Burlington, WA, team on New Year’s Eve; (below) the two lines stand back-to-back in Carrollton; with turner-bars to add flexibility