Top Innovations from Large Commercial Printers

Aggregation applications are based on the ability to customize news and other general interest categories, pulling in articles from a broad mix of sources. Publishers Press is rolling out an aggregation app featuring niche magazine content from its print customers, explains Michael Simon, EVP of sales, whose great-great grandfather founded the company after the Civil War.

Called the Magazine Channel (TMC), the app aggregates licensed content from a variety of special interest categories such as landscaping, travel, hunting/fishing, healthcare and, yes, printing. (B2B publisher Cygnus Business Media, the parent company of Quick Printing, is among the printer’s customers.) The TMC app, which will be available in Web and native versions, will enable users to build personalized collections of articles within each interest category. TMC will include a recommendation and personalization engine being developed through a partnership with K-NFB Reading Technology. TMC also will leverage text mining technology from MarkLogic and Temis. Publishers Press plans to sell targeted advertising for TMC, with revenues shared among content licensees, Simon adds.

Meanwhile, in its Lebonon Junction bindery, near Louisville, the printer is adding a 22,000-book-per-hour Pacesetter saddlestitcher this summer—its 15^th finishing system from Goss International. The new postpress solution features six horizontal hoppers and is equipped for selective binding and inkjet personalization. Goss is supplying an FS-22 flying stitcher, HT-22 trimmer, mail table, and BS60 stacker with the system.

 “Netting close to the full rated speed, when the job permits, while achieving advanced product personalization, is what distinguishes Pacesetter systems, and our crews have been able to do that consistently with our existing 2200,” says bindery manager Joe Sweeney. “Those stitchers are more than twice as productive as our older stitchers. That, combined with faster makereadies and minimal maintenance requirements, prompted the decision to invest in a third one.”