A large and flexible Pressline press has been ordered for the new out-of-town print centre of the Boston Globe.

The Massachussets daily - owned by Red Sox and Liverpool FC owner John W. Henry - will install a Pressline FlexPress of 22 'zones' and four folders at a recently-purchased site in Taunton.

It will print the Globe and related products plus commercial and newspaper contracts understood to include the New York Times and the Boston Herald.

The choice of the FlexPress, designed for a single-floor operation, will simplify installation in the 31,000 m2 building the publisher bought in June for US$20.3 million.

Vice president of operations Rich Masotta says it is "exactly what we needed" for the new plant: "We wanted a press that can be installed in an unconventional printing facility without limiting our printing requirements and future expansion plans, and meets our needs for budget-conscious operation and maintenance."

The three-pages-across format with groups of units (zones) feeding at right angles into a double-width folder will deliver "near double-width performance" with the quality and flexibility of a single-width press, he says.

The configuration allows colour flexibility, and the ability to operate as a single press or be split into two. Formats using multiple web widths include 'stitch tab' and the maker's unusual three-around 3Volution compact format, which delivers a folded tabloid-sized product with section options.

Third party technology includes EAE controls, Rexroth shaftless drives, Perretta motorised fountains, Technotrans dampening, WPC colour register and Nela plate lockups.

Local businessman Henry bought the 143-year-old newspaper and its nearby Worcester Telegram & Gazette title, websites and direct mail business - plus a half share in the Metro Boston newspaper - in 2013 for $70 million from the New York Times Company, which had owned it for 20 years.

Pictured: The new press will have 22 'zones' and four folders.