Malayala Manorama is pairing the five Mitsubishi presslines it ordered last October with five Muller Martini packaging lines.

The presses and equipment are being installed at three Kerala print sites, in Kozhikode, Kottayam and Kollam.

Five identical lines will include NewsGrip conveyors and two NewsStack universal stackers, attached to the compact four-tower DiamondSpirit SA presses. Each will handle 40-page broadsheet newspapers at 75,000 cph. Installations of the presses is due late this and next year.

Chief editor Mammen Mathew says the investment supports the publisher’s commitment to print: “Printed newspapers continue to be the main source of our company’s revenue and that will remain the case for the foreseeable future,” he says.

The daily newspaper with a circulation close to 2.3 million copies is the flagship of an Indian publishing operation responsible for more than 40 periodicals/magazines, plus websites, TV and radio stations.

Malayala Manorama began as a four-page weekly newspaper in 1888, and has become one of world’s largest daily newspapers. It is published from 18 printing centres – 11 in Kerala, five in Indian cities outside Kerala, and two located outside of India.