HP and Singapore Press Holdings collaborate to provide innovative digital printing solutions

HP Inc. and Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) have collaborated to enhance SPH’s innovative media solutions for its advertisers and brand owners. The agreement will include the addition of a HP PageWide Web Press T240 HD to SPH’s Jurong printing facility. HP will provide training in deploying digital printing for brand and customer engagement as well as business development support.

The agreement was signed by Anthony Tan, Deputy CEO, SPH and Richard Bailey, HP President of Asia Pacific and Japan, at the SPH News Centre Auditorium. SPH’s core business is publishing of newspapers, magazines and books in both print and digital editions. It also owns other digital products, online classifieds, radio stations and outdoor media.

“While brands understand the value in giving customers a seamless, personalized experience online and in print, making that a reality can be challenging for many,” said Bailey. “HP’s digital printing technology enables publishing houses such as SPH to create differentiated experiences for their target audiences as well as offer high quality customisation to brands. Brands, in turn, can then better engage their consumers.”

The HP PageWide Web Press T240 HD supports content customisation across text, graphics and images. This enables SPH to offer a wider range of curated content – including personalized greetings and messages, targeted advertisements, unique QR codes and wraparounds that will drive readers to more content online.

SPH can tap into a proprietary “invisible watermark” technology which allows advertisers and brand owners to reach out to readers through interactive campaigns. The “invisible watermark” is embedded within and does not disrupt the overall look and feel of a print advertisement. With an appropriate mobile app, unique digital experiences can be delivered to users when they scan over the print advertisement.

The HP PageWide Web Press has a high duty cycle of 58 million images per month and can produce 100 per cent variable content at speeds of 152 metres of newsprint per minute. This makes it ideal for moving offset work to digital and delivering outstanding print quality suited for a wide range of commercial print applications, such as books and catalogues.

The press will be progressively installed and tested during the last quarter of 2018 and is expected to be commissioned by the first quarter of 2019.