New York Daily News Orders 15-Tower KBA Press

KBA has sealed an order from the New York Daily News for a 15-tower, triple-width ultra-compact Commander CT press.

Scheduled to be commissioned in autumn 2009, the triple-wide Commander CT press line for the Daily News will have three sections, each with five Pastomat reelstands, five towers and one KF 7 jaw folder.

It will be embedded in a Patras A automated reel-logistics system, complete with storage and retrieval vehicles, splice preparation and on-demand reel loading.

KBA added that the press's automation will include blanket washing, colour registration, fully automated KBA's Platetronic plate changers, the company's Rollertronic roller locks and Niptronic cylinder bearings.

The press will also feature cut-off controls and ribbon stitchers and it will be controlled from six consoles incorporating a job scheduling and press pre-setting system complete with materials management software.

Founded in 1919 as the first US daily printed in tabloid form, the Daily News is the largest and said to be the most widely read newspaper in the New York metropolitan market and the fifth largest newspaper in the USA.

Along with its newly-redesigned web site - NYDailyNews.com - the Daily News reaches 4.6 million readers per week and won 10 Pulitzer Prizes.

New York Daily News chairman and publisher, Mort Zuckerman, explained: "I believe in the future of the Daily News and that's why I am making this significant investment.

When the KBA printing presses are fully operational, the print quality of the Daily News will be head and shoulders above the competition and equal to any newspaper in the world.

This will solidify our leadership in the New York market, reinforce our position as the country's leading tabloid and raise the bar on newspaper production in the United States.

And Daily News chief executive officer, Marc Z Kramer, added: "In one leap, we are strategically positioning our printed product to meet the ever-changing demands of today's and tomorrow's advertisers and readers.

When our new KBA Commander CT presses come on-line, the Daily News will be the only major market daily newspaper in the United States with 100 per cent colour production capability and we will be brilliantly positioned to maintain and increase our dominance of the New York media landscape.

He continued: "Advertisers' demands for high-quality colour in daily newspapers are a worldwide phenomenon and nowhere is it in more demand than in New York, the media capital of the world.

We live in a world of vivid colour and newspapers have to reflect that.

Our new KBA presses will allow us to work even more closely with our advertisers to meet their ever-changing demands.

In addition, the new presses will enable us to offer creative and innovative ways for advertisers' messages to reach our millions of loyal readers.

It is an opportunity we know they will want to seize.

KBA's deputy president, Claus Bolza-Schunemann, said: "The decision by such a prominent US media house to adopt the most advanced wet offset technology on the international market is proof of KBA's competence.

We first explored the idea of six-wide presses with the Daily News exactly 40 years ago but only recent technologies and advances have led this unique concept to reality.

The inauguration of a triple-wide KBA Commander CT in New York will mark a further milestone in our 191-year history and will again focus on KBA as a mover and shaker in newspaper technology.

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