Express Newspapers orders first Goss Magnum Compact for the southern hemisphere

Express Newspapers (Ceylon) Limited has ordered a Goss Magnum Compact press for installation at its plant in Colombo, Sri Lanka, for the production of daily and weekly newspapers and semi-commercial magazines.

The order comprises three fourhigh Magnum Compact towers with one folder for 24-page singlewidth production with 546 mm cut-off. Installation is scheduled to begin in spring 2015.

“The Magnum Compact press will give us benefits on many levels,” said Kumar Nadesan, managing director, Express Newspapers. “Apart from providing more page capacity, the new press is highly automated which will make our daily production more streamlined and efficient.”

(L to R) Peter Kirwan, vice president of Asia Pacific, Goss International, Keerthi Abeynayake of MD Scan Engineering (Goss agent for Sri Lanka) and Kumar Nadesan, managing director, Express Newspapers.The Goss Magnum Compact press is the world’s first – and only – 2×1 web offset press with an automatic platechanger. The Goss Autoplate plate-changing facility will enable Express Newspapers to change a full set of 24 plates in less than five minutes, including ink presets. In addition, the ability to change a single plate in less than one minute will allow Express Newspapers to produce the multiple language editions of the company’s flagship newspaper, Virakesari, with unprecedented speed and efficiency. Full automation with pre-setting, automatic register control, ink filling and automatic reelstands are among the other time and waste-saving features.

In addition to the three editions of Virakesari (28-page Tamil-language daily with a circulation of approximately 65,000 copies; the 72-page Sunday Virakesari has a circulation of around 120,000 copies), Express Newspapers publishes a raft of newspapers and coldset magazines, including Metro News (daily, 25,000 copies); The Vidivelli (weekly, 27,000 copies); The Sooriyakanthi (weekly, 15,000 copies); The Mithiran (weekly, 40,000 copies); The Genuis (fortnightly, 20,000 copies); The Jothidakesari (monthly, 10,000 copies); and The Sugavalvu (monthly, 10,000 copies).

As the Goss Magnum Compact press is equally suited to book and semi-commercial work as newspaper printing, it is an attractive choice for the company.

The new Magnum Compact press for Express Newspapers will deliver more page capacity while making daily production more streamlined and efficient.“With the transformation of the newspaper market, we want to be sure that we are able to respond to new circumstances,” Nadesan continued. “The Magnum Compact press is a game-changer in being able to offer that versatility as well as the immediate benefit of time and waste savings. This made it our best choice to accommodate different editions, jobs, and the possibility of short runs for special editions or commercial publications.”

The fast and automatic plate changes of the Magnum Compact mean that plates can be changed and good copy achieved faster than on any other single-width newspaper press on the market, making it viable for short runs as low as 500 copies.

“We have a long history with Goss,” Nadesan concludes. “We have relied on our existing Goss Community SSC press for many years. Now, the Magnum Compact press will make us the most technologically advanced newspaper publisher in the region; its productivity, flexibility and automation will ensure our competitive edge well into the future.”