As the 9000-odd participants in this year’s Ifra Expo prepare to return to their newspaper offices, a momentous thought is being contemplated in a remote corner of one of the Hamburg halls (writes Peter Coleman). What if there were no more newspapers?
Printed ones, at least.
Ronald Marien – formerly marketing manager at Agfa Graphics – and Peter Bootds reckon that would be a shame, and the plan to launch a series of spectacular public events to get people to realise what they might be missing.
“I want to inform people that there may not be a newspaper, and to ‘slow down’ and enjoy – and value – what they’ve got,” he says.
“I’m so convinced of the value of the newspaper, and we need to bring this home to people through positive actions.”
In an unsold corner of the expo’s Hall 3 – and with the support of WAN-Ifra – he was quietly presenting the case to anyone who would listen. Under the ‘House of Newspapers’ banner, he is seeking starting sponsorship of 10,000 Euros from each of ten sponsors, for which he has set a deadline of the end of October.
Marien now works for Dutch exhibition design company Gielissen, which produced the impressive stand Agfa used for DRUPA in 2008 and in modified form at events since including this IfraExpo.
And with the resources at his disposal, he has an equally impressive portfolio of ideas for the newspaper campaign. All will be spectacular, designed to be a talking point and to attract community and media attention.
He rejects ideas that drawing attention to possibility that ‘one day there might be no more newspapers” could be self-fulfilling: “No,” he says, “and at least you have to give it a try”.
Different degrees of optimism about the future of newspapers and print were to be seen elsewhere at the IfraExpo, where related events continue today.
That press manufacturers continued to announce new orders at the show is encouraging, and value-add press technologies were coming under particular scrutiny. Sean Tait of Fairfax Media/Rural Press – winner of this year's Australian SWUG scholarship – was among those doing the rounds of UV specialists, in company with Steve Packham of DIC Australia.
The press announcements continued: Goss said it would supply an unusual 3/2 Uniliner press to print SEV’s flagship daily tabloid ‘La Prealpina’ in Italy’s Lombardy region, and two more double-width Uniliners for French government publisher DILA. One of these is to be equipped with UV on one tower, believed to be coming from US specialist Prime although no confirmation is forthcoming.
KBA announced yet another order for its compact Commander CT press – from Aachener Verlagsgesellschaft – bringing its tally for the design for 86 towers. The German publisher is buying two highly automated double-width presses to print its two daily newspapers from the end of 2011.
The action of course, is also elsewhere, and single-width specialists Manugraph and Solna are among those doing well in lively Asian markets including India and China. Solna – which announced an order for a high-speed three-tower D390 press for the ‘Xiamen Daily’ and another for Singapore book printer Grandluxe – is currently installing its largest-ever order, a 24-tower press for China’s Nanfang Daily Media Group.
We’re not saying print isn’t threatened in markets such as the USA – which some say has lost the plot – but ‘no more newspapers’? Not any time yet.
• IfraExpo returns to Vienna in October 2011 and is slated for Madrid in 2012.
Peter Coleman