Witnessing history

According to Russell Cumming the general manager of operations at The Natal Witness the decision to test thermal computer-to-plate technology was based on the considerable growth in the volume of products being printed by the newspaper.

In the run-up to the final decision being made, management from The Natal Witness investigated two different systems and two different technologies, thermal and violet. According to Cumming, apart from the obvious technological differences, there was very little difference between the two systems considered. What finally, however, swayed the decision was the user-friendliness and simplicity of use of the Kodak Creo Trendsetter News system from Antalis.

Easy to operate

Since its installation, the Kodak Creo Trendsetter News systems with Synapse newsmanager workflow has proven so easy to operate that, what should have been, a six-month trial period has turned into a complete order for two identical lines in just three months.

The installation of a computer-to-plate system was directly related to the upgrade of the KBA Comet printing press, which is being extended to offer the ability to operate as one press with additional colour or pagination capacity or as two presses.

Being situated in Pietermaritzburg has resulted in The Natal Witness developing a philosophy of installing duplicate systems in order to offer a back-up, should anything go wrong with the primary system.

Easier, faster and more productive

Explains Cumming, "We believed, when we installed the first system, that we would be able to take our production up to about 50% on the CTP line and have the other 50% output conventionally. However, it soon became obvious that it would be easier, faster and more productive to take all of our production digital."

The addition of the second line, installed during July 2006, has given give the prepress department at The Natal Witness the ability to output all the plates needed for the numerous titles it prints in a shorter period of time.

Shorter deadline

Cumming adds, "The aim is that it will give us a shorter deadline from the time we receive the final pages of our publications."

While there has been some concern at being the first newspaper to move to thermal CTP, management ha felt relatively comfortable with the decision, having seen the Trendsetter News system in production at newspapers overseas and in hearing the feedback from satisfied customers.

Following installation of the system, training was provided to Witness staff both by Kodak Creo and Antalis in order to allow a smooth transition from film to digital production. The result has been that staff members are now comfortable with the system and former photo lithographers are trained in the use of the system.

No retrenchments

"We have been fortunate because, in the run-up to making this move, we decided not to take on any additional staff but rather to use the staff that we had; therefore, when the conversion to digital production was completed, we did not have to retrench anyone. We have simply moved them into other areas within the prepress department," says Cumming.

Given that The Natal Witness is part of the Media24 group, some of its work comes from within the group. Titles printed at there include The Natal Witness, Weekend Witness, Ilanga, Daily Sun, Umafrika and Soccer Luduma. Added to this are numerous newspaper inserts and commercial tabloid jobs, all of which combine to give The Natal Witness a very high production capacity, totalling in the region of 30 tons of paper being output per day.

Cumming concludes, "When the new press capacity [came] online during July we [are now] able to take on even more work and... the second computer-to-plate line [has] really come into its own. We already know that we could not do without computer-to-plate because of the speed and quality aspects but, with the increased press capacity, we would be totally unable to cope if we were still doing conventional film output, patching and plate making."