Tribune Company Continues to Make Agfa its Computer-to-Plate Provider of Choice.

Agfa Graphics announced today that the publishing unit of the Tribune Company, the third-largest newspaper publisher in the U.S. in total circulation, continues to invest in Agfa total solutions with the recent purchase of three additional :Advantage DL platesetters by the Hartford Courant, making a total of 20 Agfa violet platesetters at the Tribune Company.
With the majority of its newspaper sites now using :Arkitex workflow, Agfa CtP platesetters and Agfa :N91v plates, the Tribune Company has made a decisive move towards Agfa total solutions systems.

“Nationwide, we have a demanding set of goals to help maintain the production schedules that make Tribune newspapers the leaders in our field. A smooth workflow, reliable platemaking, time- and cost-effectiveness, and consistently high quality are among those goals,” said the Tribune Company’s Mark Thomas, director, group operations. “We see on a daily basis that Agfa, because of their experience with the technology, knowledge of our industry, and commitment to their customers, is a provider we want in our digital solutions corner.”

This strong affiliation between Agfa Graphics and the Tribune Company is based on the consistent quality and reliability of the Agfa solutions, as well as the low cost of ownership and return on investment.

The Agfa products involved in the Tribune-wide lineup include :Arkitex workflow; :Polaris imaging systems, :Advantage DL platesetters, :N91v plates, and :Arkitex OptiInk software for ink savings. Newsday of Long Island, New York purchased four :Polaris imaging systems, and the Baltimore Sun purchased three :Advantage DL platesetters. The Daily Press of Newport News, Virginia, now has two :Advantage DL platesetters.

“For a production environment like Newsday’s, where we produce over 20,000 plates per week for 10 presses, Agfa had the only applicable CtP solution. Our :Polaris XTVs systems provide outstanding throughput speed, consistent high quality output and the reliability that we require to meet our production goals every day,” said Ron Chiavaro, director of printing & prepress operations at Newsday. “We’re confident that Agfa’s violet technology and customer support will serve us well into the future”.

“The productivity and consistency of Agfa’s solution for newspapers is what a daily like the Baltimore Sun and a parent company like the Tribune need to stay competitive and keep up the reputation for which we’re known,” added John Frahm, director of production at the Baltimore Sun. “The capability, reliability, ease of use and support of the :Advantage platesetter were key factors in our choice, in addition to selecting the right long-term partner.”
In addition, The South Florida Sun-Sentinel has three :Advantage DLs, and its neighboring Orlando Sentinel has invested in three.

Slade Wentworth, prepress & quality assurance manager at the Sun-Sentinel, said that producing a newspaper and growing more commercial printing business is a fast-paced evolution that requires products that can keep pace. “We need to constantly raise our baseline for printed quality, our production capacity and our customers’ satisfaction. Agfa’s products and services for CtP workflow have had an immediate and positive impact on all three of these key areas for us.”

Other Tribune Company newspapers with Agfa’s :Advantage DL platesetters are The Morning Call of Allentown, Pennsylvania which has two, and the Hartford Courant in Hartford, Connecticut which recently invested in three. All of the newspapers that use Agfa platesetters also use :N91v CtP plates. “With more than 8 million readers on weekdays, over 11 million on the weekends, and a journalistic heritage that includes a hundred Pulitzer Prizes, the Tribune Company is certainly a newspaper group with which we are extremely proud to be associated,” said Agfa Graphics’ Sheila Nysko, business development manager, newspapers.

In addition, several of the Tribune newspapers are investing in Agfa’s new :Arkitex OptiInk software, a fully automatic ink savings solution that helps reduce ink costs while improving quality and press performance. According to Slade Wentworth at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, ink cost savings of 15% have already been realized with the new software.

:Arkitex is a powerful newspaper workflow system that integrates and automates all tasks and equipment. :Polaris and :Advantage are CtP systems designed to meet the demanding plate production requirements of newspapers by utilizing cost-effective violet laser technology. Violet lasers provide unparalleled reliability and longevity, and the high-speed imaging systems in which they are used are designed to handle multiple resolutions at once, while keeping operating costs low. The :N91v is a negative-working aluminum plate optimized to work with these violet-laser systems. :Arkitex OptiInk software also achieves impressive results in cost savings, as well as in press performance and print quality.
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