News

When Rupert Murdoch announced plans for the world’s largest printing plant

for newspapers, the move was seen as a vote of confidence for the future of

print. One year after the 650-million-pound (US$917 million, €704 million)

project began operations, it has become something more – an outsourcing

success story and a symbol of print’s viability in the digital age.



News International’s Newsprinters operation will be the subject of a

featured presentation at the World Association of Newspapers first Power of

Print conference, be held in Barcelona, Spain, on 27 and 28 May next.



The presentation, by Ian MacDonald, News International’s Managing Director

Operations and a guiding force behind the project, will examine how such

mammoth operations – larger than 20 football fields -- are a growing

printing option for newspaper companies looking to use outsource printing

operations to consolidated printing facilities.



Full details of the conference, to be held concurrently with the annual

World Newspaper Advertising Conference in the same venue, can be found at

http://www.wan-press.org/powerofprint2009/home.php



Newsprinter’s plant in Broxbourne, England, north of London, contains 12

state-of-the-art, full colour manroland Colorman XXL presses. The largely

automated plant can produce 3.2 million newspapers each night. In addition

to all of News International titles (including the Times, Sunday Times, The

Sun, News of the World and thelondonpaper), the Broxbourne plant and two

others print The Telegraph Media’s Group’s 900,000 copies daily, and 650,000

on Sunday.



Most of the UK national titles have purchased new presses in the past 3 to 5

years, investing both in print quality and in the future of their titles.

Some experts say that large centralized printing operations give newspaper

companies a growing option to outsource their printing operations now and in

the future.



The Power of Print conference is the first global conference for senior

newspaper executives to explore new opportunities and successful strategies

exclusively for the printed newspaper. Although digital innovation is a

primary area of newspaper industry development, print and advertising

continue to fund these new ventures, as well as being the profit centres for

the vast majority of newspaper companies, even in these tough times.



The Power of Print conference, on 27 and 28 May, will be followed by the

World Newspaper Advertising Conference, on the 28th and 29th May, at the

Hotel Rey Juan Carlos I in the heart of Barcelona. Full details of the Power

of Print conference can be found at

http://www.wan-press.org/powerofprint2009/home.php . Details of the

Advertising conference can be found at

http://www.wan-press.org/advertising2009/home.php



Other Power of Print presentations include:



- “The facts about newspapers, profitable print trends,” a keynote speech by

Gavin O'Reilly, Chief Operating Officer, Independent News & Media Plc & WAN

President.



- “Investing in the Future of the Printed Newspaper,” by Dr Seok Hyun Hong,

Chairman, of Korea’s JoongAng Ilbo.



- “Newspaper publishing: Creating a sustainable future,” a major new

research project presented by Marieke van der Donk, Senior Manager,

Entertainment & Media for PricewaterhouseCoopers.



- Case studies of projects that can add millions of dollars to the bottom

line, by Steve Reed, Director of Circulation Operations/Single Copy for the

Arizona Republic, who will examine SoftBook technology, and Jerry Brown,

Director in the Advisory Services Practice for PricewaterhouseCoopers, who

will provide the latest distribution trends and strategies.



- “The art of balancing between print and digital,” by Mikael Pentikäinen,

President of Sanoma News in Finland.



- “The Individual Newspaper. Micro-targeted products with high yields,” by

Peter Vandevanter, Vice President for Targeted Products for MediaNews Group

in the United States.



- “A process for successful product development,” by Kylie Davis, Managing

Editor for Editorial Business Development & Strategic Publishing at the

Sydney Morning Herald and Sun-Herald in Australia.



- “Product Launches in Difficult Financial Times,” by Martim Avillez

Figueiredo, Publisher and Editor-in-chief of the new "I" daily in Portugal.



- “Boosting advertising through print publications: Lessons from the Gulf,”

by Abdul Hamid, Editor-in-Chief of Gulf News in the United Arab Emirates.



- “Newspapers that are increasing circulation,” by Fergus Sampson, CEO,

Emerging Markets, Media24 in South Africa.



- “Success with hyper-targeted print publications,” by Martha Stone,

Director of the WAN Shaping the Future of the Newspaper project.



- “Printcasting: People-Powered Magazines,” by Dan Pacheco, Founder of

Printcasting.com in the United States.



- “10 Important Lessons from three age-specific youth-targeted newspapers in

France,” by François Dufour, Editor and Founder of Play Bac Presse in

France.



Full details: http://www.wan-press.org/powerofprint2009/home.php



The Paris-based WAN, the global organisation for the newspaper industry,

defends and promotes press freedom and the professional and business

interests of newspapers world-wide. Representing 18,000 newspapers, its

membership includes 77 national newspaper associations, newspaper companies

and individual newspaper executives in 102 countries, 12 news agencies and

11 regional and world-wide press groups.



Inquiries to: Larry Kilman, Director of Communications and Public Affairs,

WAN, 7 rue Geoffroy St Hilaire, 75005 Paris France. Tel: +33 1 47 42 85 00.

Fax: +33 1 47 42 49 48. Mobile: +33 6 10 28 97 36. E-mail:

lkilman@wan.asso.fr