Tuesday April 17, 2012 Nerws Updates
DCOS buys Tensor
Tensor Group Inc. was acquired by Swedish press supplier DCOS Sweden AB and recapitalized as a new company. No financial terms were disclosed.
The new firm, Tensor International LLC, will continue to be based in suburban Chicago and will continue to market and build singlewide presses, according to Michael Pavone, who was named chief operating officer. Mattias Andersson, DCOS' managing director, was named CEO.
"We will be producing the same equipment with the same quality and we are here to support our customers," Pavone told News & Tech.
DCOS, based in Kinna, Sweden, purchased the intellectual property and assets of Tensor, which reportedly became insolvent earlier this year.
MAH Machine, which owned Tensor before the press vendor ran into financial difficulty, will continue to manufacture parts, Pavone said.
In addition to Pavone, who had been with Tensor for almost 20 years, other former Tensor Group managers with roles in the new company are Christopher Dalu, who served as production manager and John Bonk, responsible for field service operations.
In a statement, Andersson said the combination of DCOS and Tensor "will provide extreme benefits to our customers."
Tensor will have information about its services and equipment available at DCOS' booth at next month's drupa 2012 show in Dusseldorf, Germany.
Ga. daily adds tower from IW
The Brunswick (Ga.) News concluded a press expansion project encompassing a new tower, drives and control consoles.
The News tapped Impressions Worldwide to orchestrate the project, which included the installation of a four-high Goss SSC tower, two Martin splicers, two IW consoles, three QTI RMS 2000 motorized register kits and two retooled Fincor drives.
The tower, along with the drive upgrades, will allow The News to print two jobs simultaneously on its two-folder Goss press, IW said.
The News, published Monday through Saturday, also prints a variety of local magazines and other periodicals. The upgrade permits the paper to boost both color and paging across its stable of products, IW said.
Goss sells 1st packaging press
Goss International sold its first Vpak web offset packaging press to a Minnesota-based printer.
Precision Press will place the Sunday Vpak 500 press at its Mankato facility and put it into production later this year, Goss said.
The machine, aimed at the folding carton, flexible packaging, preprint and label markets, is available in two models in web widths of up to 75 inches.
Goss two years ago introduced the Vpak, using technologies from its gapless blanket Sunday commercial press platform.
To accommodate the quick size changes in packaging printing, Goss equipped the press with a quick-change sleeve adapter. The machine also has advanced offset inking, tension management and control systems.
Precision's press will also be equipped with an in-line flexo and coating unit as well as systems for closed-loop color, registration, inspection and UV and EB curing.
Harland Simon gets Colo. upgrade pact
Harland Simon said it is installing new drives at the Daily Sentinel in Grand Junction, Colo. The project, which will begin in June, includes the replacement of obsolete drive components on the Daily Sentinel's Goss International Headliner Offset press. The new Allen-Bradley Powerflex drives will enable the Daily Sentinel to improve print quality and allay concerns about breakdowns and downtime.
The project will conclude in late June.
Five Johnston Press dailies go weekly
Halifax Courier
The Halifax Courier is one of five titles to go weekly in the Johnston Press shakeup
Johnston Press is turning five of its daily newspapers - including the Halifax Courier, Scarborough Evening News and the Northampton Chronicle & Echo - into weeklies, as part of a radical shakeup of the regional publisher by chief executive Ashley Highfield.
The company said in a stock market announcement on Monday that this was the first phase in each of its 170 paid-for newspapers being relaunched by the end of 2012 as part of a move to "platform neutral" publishing.
Five of its daily newspapers - the Halifax Courier, Scarborough Evening News, Northampton Chronicle & Echo, Peterborough Evening Telegraph and the Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph - will be relaunched as weekly titles by the end of May. Johnston Press said it would launch new iPad versions of the titles, as well as 24-hour news coverage online.
The company said that the relaunch of the five daily titles would involve "single-figure" job losses at each of its newspaper operations in Halifax, Kettering, Northampton, Peterborough and Scarborough. The five titles will print "bumper" weekly editions, running to about 150 pages each, by the end of May.
A spokesman for Johnston Press said that the Scotsman and the Yorkshire Post, the publisher's leading daily titles, would not go weekly as part of the shift.
However the company's 12 other regional dailies, including the Sheffield Star, the News in Portsmouth and the Lancashire Evening Post, are all understood to be at risk.
The move is the latest part of a major publishing shakeup by Johnston Press and follows last week's culling of three long-serving editors and an editor-in-chief on its daily titles in Yorkshire, Lancashire and Edinburgh.
Highfield, who took over as chief executive of Johnston Press last year, said in the statement: "In my first few months at Johnston I have been greatly encouraged by what I have seen in our local operations. Our publishing strategy going forward will ensure that we give our local audiences what they want.
"While providing our existing audiences with an even better product, both in print and online, we will extend our audience by increasing our online content and making it easier to access in the most relevant ways as technologies continue to evolve."
He added: "Johnston's focus has always been on local and we will increasingly benefit from that core expertise with the rapid growth in both social media and in demand for access from mobile devices. We are committed to remaining a local company: that means local journalists and sales people working across the UK and Republic of Ireland, staying close to the communities and businesses they serve."
David Mackintosh, leader of Northampton Borough Council, said on Twitter he was "very sad" that the Northampton Chronicle and Echo would no longer publish a daily newspaper. "Very sad that @ChronandEcho won't continue as daily paper. It is vital part of town's community and hope new online edition carries that on," he said. Others who commented on the papers' website described the shift as "the end of an era".
Monday's move was announced ahead of further changes to be revealed by Johnston Press during its annual results on 25 April.
The publisher said in the statement that its 273 local websites would be given a "light touch" relaunch, including design changes to the homepage and added social media features, as part of the changes this year. It added that there would be a "substantial investment" in marketing for its relaunched online and weekly publications.
A spokesman for Johnston Press said each of its weekly titles would undergo a "meaningful" relaunch later this year. The shift to "platform neutral" newsrooms is likely to mean further job losses at the publisher.
Johnston Press reported profits of £54.9m in 2010, but the publisher's £350m debt threatens to swamp its £40m market capitalisation. Shares in the publisher had fallen about 6% by about 12.30pm Monday, to 6p, bringing the company's market cap down to £38.38m.
Johnston Press's daily newspapers
Going weekly
Halifax Courier
Northampton Chronicle & Echo
Northhamptonshire Evening Telegraph - Kettering
Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Scarborough Evening News
Scotsman
Edinburgh Evening News
Yorkshire Post
Yorkshire Evening Post
Lancashire Evening Post
The Gazette - Blackpool
Hartlepool Mail
The News - Portsmouth
Sheffield Star
Sunderland Echo
Wigan Evening Post
Shields Gazette - South Shields
Doncaster Star
News Letter - Ulster
