Fairfax dominated the Swug newspaper awards, winning three out of four prizes for newspaper print quality and seeing two of its apprentices declared the industry’s best.
The company’s Newcastle site is Australia’s top newspaper printer, winning the top honour for single-width printing at the recent conference and awards ceremony in Darwin, with more than $30,000 in prizes.
The Newcastle Herald’s printer won the Brissett Shield for best overall print quality at the Single Width User Group (Swug) annual awards over APN’s Toowoomba-printed Review magazines and West Australian Newspaper’s Kalgoorlie Miner.
Fairfax also won the best coldset commercial publication, for the Tamworth Regional Council at its Tamworth print site and best newspaper on enhanced stock of more than 50gsm for the Perth Voice, printed in Mandurah, WA.
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APN’s Yandina site won best overall double width print quality for its work on Bundaberg’s News Mail, and was also runner up for best newspaper on enhanced stock.
“Print quality standards continue to improve among those sites taking part in the annual Swug Awards, with the judges noting that this year’s highly commended (third place) entries were good enough to have won first prize last year,” a Swug spokesperson says.
The awards also honoured the Apprentice of the Year, which this time was awarded to two candidates the judges could not choose between – with a joint prize to Aaron Bayne from Fairfax Media at North Richmond and Ben Whittaker from Fairfax Media, Canberra. Both apprentices will undertake a tour of local print facilities later this year.
More than 120 delegates from 30 print centres and supply companies throughout the region attended the two-day conference held at the Darwin Convention Centre.
Presentation topics included energy saving, workplace safety, digital print and closed loop press controls as well as the latest developments in web press equipment.
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Guest speakers included Yong Liang Sim from United Borneo Press, who discussed press trends in Asia and developments in its thriving and diverse newspaper market; KBA’s Oliver Baar and Muller Martini’s George Reaver rounding up new press technologies; and Karen Goldsmith from GAMAA.
However, the highlight was motivational speeches by former world champion boxer Danny Green, who pumped up delegates with tales of his fighting career, and army officer Kurt Brissett who talked about operating in a challenging environment – a relevant topic for the newspaper industry.
The conference included a visit to visit to News Corp Australia’s Darwin print centre, which prints the NT News daily paper, powered by a four-tower single-width KBA Comet pressline installed in 2012, Agfa CTP prepress equipment and Ferag EasySert inserting equipment in its mailroom.
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