Editor’s note: In March 2003, Newspapers & Technology profiled the commercial printing operations of two papers, the Pueblo (Colo.) Chieftain and the Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer. Five years later, both papers report continued success, and both point to their commercial operations as key revenue streams helping them to weather the economic headwinds buffeting their core products. Their stories:
 

Pueblo: ‘Even more important’

If anything, the money The Pueblo Chieftain generates from its commercial printing business today is even more critical than it was in the early 2000s, said Marvin Laut, the paper’s general manager.

“When you look at the struggles the newspaper industry is facing, and with the cost of newsprint going up and ad revenues flat, commercial printing is even more important,” he said.

“On the commercial side, our task is to print jobs and produce a high-quality product. It’s a different business. Even if some of the paper’s profit declines, commercial printing stabilizes the business. We have the iron sitting back there. We might as well have it running.”

Laut said The Chieftain’s roster of commercial clients still primarily centers on area newspapers and periodicals. The paper, he said, added a number of major accounts in the past few years, including the production of a weekly Denver newspaper, an outdoor guide and an auto trader in Colorado Springs.

These clients are in addition to an alternative weekly paper and other periodicals The Chieftain (daily, 48,491; Sun  day, 50,687) has printed for years.

Although the mix of clients hasn’t dramatically changed since 2003, The Chieftain did bolster its production infrastructure, adding two thermal computer-to-plate systems from Kodak and an associated plate bender from Glunz & Jensen K&F Inc.

“That’s worked out very well,” Laut said. “It helped us cut production time and registration is right on the mark. We’ve been able to get our SNAP (specifications for newsprint advertising production) certification and we’re very proud of that.”

It also moved to an electronic, Web-based print ordering system, eliminating paper orders.

Execs are also evaluating changes to the paper’s MAN Roland singlewide Uniset press, which The Chieftain commissioned in 1997 as part of an $8 million production upgrade.

“We’re experimenting with higher quality ink, and we are also looking at narrowing our web width,” Laut said.

Laut said the press itself doesn’t need any upgrades. In 2002, The Chieftain added an inline quarter-folder to the machine and it upgraded postpress with a stitcher trimmer and commercial stackers from Muller Martini.

The paper has been able to avoid the pitfalls of underbidding its commercial work through an in-house app that allows managers to quickly access fixed and variable costs. “We then add in the margin,” Laut said. “We typically bid this way and it’s worked out.” If prices for consumables, such as newsprint, threaten to rise, Laut said he informs clients right away, and will even share with them invoices from suppliers so they understand the impact of price changes. “It’s better to be honest with them,” he said.

Laut said margins from The Chieftain’s commercial operations remain firmly in the double-digit range, affording the family-owned the paper some additional breathing room in the Pueblo marketplace.

“We have a formula that’s working, and we’re providing a high-quality product,” Laut said. “We take tremendous pride in our production,” he said, citing the work of Chieftain Production Director Ned Sutton. “When we get a commercial job, we keep it.”
 

Fayetteville: Double-digit growth

In 2003, former Production Director John Jenkins had big goals for Target Printing and Distribution, the commercial printing arm of the Fayetteville Observer.

By 2008, Jenkins said, he expected Target to hit the $10 million mark, a goal that current Production Director Ron Cartledge said the unit has surpassed.

“Our growth is at double digits,” he said. “We’re well over the ($10 million) mark.”

Cartledge took over Target in 2006, six years after Fayetteville Publishing, the family-owned company that prints the Observer, opened a 200,000-square-foot production plant built around a six-tower Koenig & Bauer AG doublewide Colora press equipped with two folders.

In addition to the press, Target also equipped itself with a Gammerler rotary trimmer and a stacker. Glue tips and a quarter folder, each installed on the Colora, serve as a foundation for the firm’s specialty work.

The press and associated pre- and postproduction equipment enabled the paper to diversify its operations, a decision that’s bearing fruit.

“We’re very happy with where we’re at,” Cartledge said.

Target generates the bulk of its business today from producing some 21 weekly newspapers. It also does a fair amount of business printing materials for area colleges as well as producing specialty jobs.

Like The Chieftain, Target hasn’t made too many changes to its printing infrastructure, Cartledge said. It did migrate to CTP in 2006, adding two violet platesetters from Agfa. It also added color proofing software from Newscolor and upgraded its presetting app, tapping EAE for the software.

“We run a lot of pages with 4-color, and that’s our claim to fame (for our commercial clients),” he said, explaining why Target invested in proofing and presetting apps.

The printer also rolled out a more formal job scheduling system. “When we first started, we had a calendar and we’d write down the jobs. It was almost like a job jar. Now we take a close look at scheduling, so that we know what’s coming up and that we can schedule comparable jobs, which helps reduce makeready.” It also consolidated cost accounting software on a single server, allowing operators to view pricing information for both the daily paper and commercial jobs on a single screen.

Because the press has two folders, Cartledge said he can schedule jobs more efficiently and run them while also printing the Observer.

“Our forte is high-quality and high-color,” Cartledge said. “Since we also have variable web width on the press, we can go as low as 32 inches and we can even run single sheets.