KBA’s latest waterless Cortina press installation has gone live at M. DuMont Schauberg in Cologne.
The triple-wide press is part of a 28 million Euro (A$48.5 million) investment which includes new CTP, mailroom, buildings and infrastructure. And as executive vice-president Christian DuMont Schütte commented at the inauguration, “that’s a lot of money at a time when many newspapers are not doing too well”.
The “investment in the future” is the latest in a relationship with the German press manufacturer which extends over 176 years. KBA executive vice-president for web press sales, Christoph Müller says Josef DuMont purchased his first cylinder press in 1833, just 16 years after Koenig & Bauer was founded. “Many more were to follow, and like the Cortina today, they were all at the bleeding edge of technology,” he says.
The new plant includes Kodak CTP with Marks-3-zet and Nela ancillaries, and a Ferag mailroom. Engineered for a maximum web width of 1,890 mm and equipped with automatic plate changers, the Cortina 6/2 prints MDS’s in-house titles and a raft of other products at 80,000 cph, with a possible maximum of 48 pages in the Berliner format and 96 pages tabloid.
Müller says M. DuMont Schauberg is investing not just in technology but also in newspapers as a medium, systematically expanding its position in the German newspaper market, as well as in television, radio and the internet. Alongside a number of in-house titles – the ‘Kölner Stadtanzeiger’, ‘Kölnische Rundschau’ and the ‘Express’ – MDS also owns an east German title, the ‘Mitteldeutsche Zeitung’ in Halle, which it acquired shortly after reunification. Since then the company has taken a majority stake in the ‘Frankfurter Rundschau’, a shareholding in the Haaretz group in Israel and, a few months ago, the purchase from the Mecom group of the ‘Berliner Zeitung’, ‘Berliner Kurier’ and ‘Hamburger Morgenpost’.
Pictured: Veteran head of newspaper technology at MDS, Richard Zöller (front right) shares his delight in the waterless start-up with guests
