The solution, part of Oc’s Digital Newspaper Network vision, allows for newspapers from anywhere in the world to be published in Australia on the day on the same day as they would be published in their native countries.
NSW premier Bob Carr was on hand to officially launch the printer, and has deemed the event “a great moment for Australia”.
“The tyranny of distance has always been a problem for Australia, but it has all but been overcome now that we can get today’s newspaper from anywhere around the world on the same day publication,” says Carr.
“This proves that people still want to hold a newspaper, to feel the paper and get the ink on their fingers, and that the digital age has not destroyed the printed word as was said it would.”
Steve Sparkes, SecurityMail managing director, is pleased to be part of Oc’s vision for instant global access to printed news.
“We excel in developing and applying new technologies to keep NSW in line with the rest of the world. The Digital Newspaper Service is just one of the many ways we are achieving that goal,” says Sparkes.
“The Digital Newspaper Service is taking newspaper printing into a new era by printing digitally on genuine newsprint so that the end result retains the look and feel of a real newspaper.”
Currently, SecurityMail is printing 150 copies of the International Herald Tribune and 500 copies of The Guardian International Edition per day, with Paul Andrews, SecurityMail business solutions manager Paul Andrews expecting to sign up the USA Today newspaper in the very near future for around 200 copies. All in all, the Digital Newspress 8000 is capable of printing 400 48-page newspapers per hour, with a Hunkler finishing device cutting, stacking, folding and collating in-line.
In keeping with SecurityMail’s traditional work of transactional printing and mailing, the press is used from 1am to 9am each day printing newspapers, while transactional documents are printed on the day and evening shifts.
Tim Venediger, Océ market segment manager for newspapers, believes that this is the true beauty of the Digital Newspress 8000 solution and the Digital Newspaper Network.
“We offer the opportunity for publications to gain access to markets where perhaps they are not as well represented as with other technologies today,” says Venediger.
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