Despite tough economic circumstances, newspaper groups in Australia and New Zealand are powering ahead with major projects.
Fairfax Media is about a month from commissioning a new print site for the ‘The Press’ in Christchurch, where a four-tower Goss Uniliner 80 and Ferag mailroom are the centrepiece of the plant on a Greenfield site in suburban Harefield.
Neither group chief executive Bob Lockley nor project manager Barrie Murphy are ready to talk about progress on the NZ project – which involves a press similar to that commissioned at Ormiston, Queensland, before Christmas. However, GXpress understands that print trials are underway and other departments are preparing for the production switch, which will deliver 100 per cent full colour availability to the flagship daily.
In the News Limited camp, with the new $32 million KBA/Ferag-equipped print site in Hobart running since mid-May, a date has been set for production of weekday editions of the ‘Australian’ there from August 17.
Currently, copies of the national broadsheet airlifted from Melbourne carry a freight surcharge of 40 cents on the normal weekday cover price of $1.50. A successful trial at the end of June – on the night of GXpress’s visit – confirmed there would be no problems producing the about 4500 copies needed daily through the week. Production of the 12,000-copy 'Weekend Australian' edition on Friday nights – and later copies of the Melbourne ‘Herald Sun’ – is expected to follow.
The new Glenorchy plant for the Hobart 'Mercury' includes a smaller verion of the KBA Comet single-width press design used with Ferag mailroom equipment for the Gold Coast 'Bulletin' … but there are key differences.
An unusual double-delivery folder and a second Ferag RollSert inserting drum provide full redundancy, ensuring that if folder or inserter break down, production can still continue. Two Agfa Polaris platesetters from the city plant have been relocated, and a Barenschee optical plate bender added.
The new plant can not only print complete, all-colour editions of the 154-year-old ‘Mercury’ – 51,000 copies on weekdays and 80,000 at weekends, plus 60,000 of the 'Sunday Tasmanian' – but ends a period during which about 40 per cent of production had been outsourced to Fairfax’s ‘Launceston Examiner’ and PMP Print in Melbourne.
• Full report in the upcoming print edition of GXpress.
• At News Limited’s Mile End, Adelaide, print site, group technical manager Barry Johnson reports that the first of the eight-couple units from News’ Chullora site – replaced by the installation of new manroland Geoman presses – is in place, with refurbishment continuing onsite.
Work is also proceeding on building the new presshall extention for the ‘Townsville Bulletin’, where a ‘spare’ Geoman press is to be installed. With the main concrete slab cast, work is continuing with preparations for the press base and other building work.
Pictured: Hobart production manager Wayne Bailey with the new press
