An integrated solution from manroland web systems (Booth 2210) and Océ (Booth 400) is yielding 40,000 digitally printed and folded newspapers within five hours for Rivet Presse Edition, its first official customer. Under the terms of the contract, distribution optimized newspapers are being produced in different formats—broadsheet or tabloid, long grain and short grain. Both national and regional dailies, as well as foreign editions, are printed in the order they are required for delivery to outlets in a defined area around Limoges, France.

Printing is achieved on two Océ JetStream 4300 color inkjet presses with 30" reel widths that produce offset-like-quality digital newspapers at speeds of 200 meters per minute. But postpress finishing is the key to speed in this process, which is where manroland’s back-end expertise comes into play.

“Publishers across the world are increasingly looking to digital color printing with all its efficiency and costs benefits as a vehicle to produce additional income streams, particularly for advertising, in an increasingly tough marketplace,” explains Sebastian Landesberger, Executive VP of Océ Printing Systems. “Rivet Presse Edition is using systems [of] Océ and manroland to open up many new doors for very targeted, niche, regionalized, and personalized products. This is something the newspaper industry has been waiting for. It’s here, it’s now, and we’re right at the forefront of developments.”

Called the Synapse project, developed with Rivet Presse, which publishes the regional French daily L’Echo, the business model may open up new editorial opportunities for publishers. The newspaper of the future can be built on variable content to create a “new and stronger” relationship with readers and help rebuild circulation and advertising revenues as well as improve interaction between print and new media.

The digital process offers a new economic model supporting “editorial innovation,” adds Christian Sirieix, director of Rivet Presse Edition. Some of the leading names in France are expected to sign up for the commercial operation. In the future, newspapers will still have the same core news and features, but readers can receive their own personal content according to their own specific interests or of their region of interest.

manroland devised a newspaper folding device to create the fully automated production lines that can produce up to 40,000 newspapers in variable formats in five hours. The fully variable digital, pin-type folder VPF 211 offers the possibility to produce broadsheet or tabloid newspapers in long grain and short grain with different structures.

Rivet Presse Edition also is beginning complementary printing activities during the day shift; these commercial applications, based on variable data, help to balance the business model.

“It is a unique project for newspapers anywhere in the world,” says Sirieix. “On the same production line, several different titles can be printed and released in the exact order required by the distributor. Better still, on the same basis, the production line will be able to publish newspapers ‘a la carte.’ This new process is revolutionary.

“We certainly don’t aim to limit competition, but rather lead by example,” Sirieix continues.

Peter Kuisle, executive VP of sales, service, and marketing, manroland web systems, adds: “It’s exciting to see that our hard work in continuous research and development activities pays off in this future-oriented project which can change the way some newspapers will be printed and distributed in future.”