French Newspaper Group Opts For Commander Press

Groupe La Provence (Hachette), publisher of regional title La Provence and a free tabloid daily, Marseille Plus, has switched its entire production to a new 10-tower KBA Commander 6/2 press line.

Groupe La Provence (Hachette), publisher of regional title La Provence and a free tabloid daily, Marseille Plus, has switched its entire production to a new 10-tower KBA Commander 6/2 press line that replaced three veteran Goss presses.

The production start sparked a lot of interest among French print providers since it represented a switch to the handier Berliner format.

Stephane Duhamel, Groupe La Provence's president, described the situation in the French media market: "You either embrace change and move forward or die." At the end of 2004 Duhamel, managing director Roland Bonnefoy and deputy director Claire Charbonnel decided to revamp La Provence , which is published in 12 editions with a circulation of around 200,000 copies per day, by changing the format, layout and colour content.

Duhamel said: "Like virtually all publishers of daily titles we saw a need to combine four factors: a handier format (Berliner), a better print quality for readers and advertisers, more reliable production and a production line that would minimise machine and labour costs." La Provence was created in 1997 from the merger of Le Provencal and Le Meridional.

Alongside Nice Matin it is owned by Groupe Hachette which, with a total of 259 titles in 49 countries, is the world's biggest publisher of magazines.

Groupe La Provence employs almost 1,000 staff and posts annual sales of around EUR100 million (US$130m).

Its other titles include a free, Marseille Plus (72 pages, 60,000 copies, half-Berliner format), the Corse Matin (5,000 copies), three weeklies - Marseille Hebdo (15,000 copies), TV Hebdo and Version Femina - and a Sunday title launched in mid-February, Le Journal du Dimanche (southwest edition, 30,000 copies), which is also printed in the Berliner format in full colour throughout.

Further daily and weekly titles will soon be transferred to the new KBA Commander 6/2.

The triple-wide Commander in Marseilles has a maximum web width of 1,890mm (74.5") and a higher output than any other press in the French newspaper market.

In straight production it can print 90,000 120pp full-colour broadsheet copies - or 10.8 million broadsheet pages - per hour.

The press line comprises 10 nine-cylinder satellite towers in two sections for 24 full-colour broadsheet pages apiece, 10 KBA Pastomat RC automatic reelstands for a maximum reel diameter of 1,500mm (59"), KBA Patras A automatic reel-handling system with stub disposal and 80 printing couples with film inking units, spray dampeners, minigaps on the blanket cylinders, continuous lock-up slots with pneumatic clamps on the plate cylinders and semi-automatic plate changers.

It also features 11 turner-bar frames, two superstructures with three adjacent formers, two KF 5 jaw folders with a 2:5:5 cylinder ratio and eight EAE consoles (four per section) with print production scheduling and press presetting system.

Until the choice was whittled down to the Commander 6/2 the field was completely open, according to Groupe La Provence.

Claire Charbonnel said: "We put the contract out to tender.

It could have gone to any of the four leading press manufacturers and we examined various permutations: collect-run or straight production, single-width, or double-width and various press line configurations, for instance.

The triple-wide KBA Commander 6/2 not only delivered the best print quality and the highest output with fewer reelstands, its satellite configuration also eliminates the risk of fan-out.

To achieve the same level of output with a 4/2 press we would have had to add five more reelstands and four-high towers." For the printing plant near the centre of Marseilles, another key consideration was a compact footprint.

Even so, the new hall measures 57 metres (130 feet) long and almost 14 metres (46 feet) high.

Press installation, which included a steel substructure, was completed on time in around six months and within the budget.

Following a series of tests under normal production conditions, on January 10 the company transferred its entire production from three 20 year-old to 25 year-old Goss presses to the new Commander 6/2.

That presented something of a challenge because at the same time Groupe La Provence also switched its daytime production of weeklies, inserts and supplements to night-time production on the Commander 6/2.

The fact that the old Goss machines had been retrofitted with EAE digital controls made it easier for the crew to switch to the new high-tech press line.

said KBA.

According to one of the operators, plate mounting is much easier on a six-wide press.

However, the total number of plates consumed at La Provence has jumped from 800 to 1,500, largely due to the higher number of pages and increased colour.

The daily title now has an average of 52 pages in three sections, half of them in full colour, as opposed to the previous 32 pages with eight in full colour.

Roland Bonnefoy said: "As with any new press, we must still make a few minor adjustments to the ink curves and, with the aid of KBA's technicians, come up to speed with the much wider choice of configurations possible.

We are aware that the entire printing profession is keeping a weather eye on us and, more specifically, the quality of the titles we print.

A number of readers and advertisers have already congratulated us on the improvement in quality." Duhamel explained: "We certainly made the right choice of press and manufacturer.

And we are looking to print additional titles alongside our own.

Our present total of around 300,000 copies (La Provence and Marseille Plus) leaves us with 20 per cent spare capacity that would enable us to add a run of 60,000 copies.".

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