Peoria, Illinois --March 31, 2003-- The Peoria Journal Star, a Copley Press, Inc. property, has signed with MAN Roland for a new GEOMAN press to replace its current Goss letterpress system. The 42-couple, 8-web machine — earmarked to more than double the paper’s color capacity — will reside in a new 66,000 sq ft extension that’s being added to the company’s facility here. "Since we are making a 50-year leap from letterpress technology to offset we expect our new GEOMAN to supply a dynamic improvement in print quality, which will exceed the expectations of our advertisers and readers," says Paul Bullock, the newspaper’s Production Director. "Our other goals are to increase color capacity and quality, meet our current production needs, and have a press with the necessary flexibility to meet our needs in the future." Scheduled for start-up in the fall of 2004, The Journal Star’s GEOMAN will be configured in six towers, three on each side of a double-couple 80-page jaw folder system. Four of the press’s towers will be 4/4 and two will be 4/1. The folder superstructure is equipped with five former boards, two up and three down, and a double-out delivery. "Two of the GEOMAN’s towers can be split to increase paging to 64 pages, running straight," Bullock adds. The former system and double-folder are equipped with a splitting feature that will allow the production of two different products running at different speeds. This feature will permit the paper to run special tab sections independently, though simultaneously, with the main section. That will eliminate the need to preprint tabloid components and insert them separately. That feature will also facilitate more cost effective production of preprinted sections for insertion in the paper’s weekend editions. The Journal Star’ boasts a Sunday circulation of 90,000 with 230,000 readers and a daily circulation of 70,000 with 165,500 readers. When asked what attracted the paper to MAN Roland as its press provider, Bullock replies with a long list of advantages. "We chose MAN Roland for many reasons: competitive price, past performance of on-time delivery, quality of press engineering, and their ability to deliver a complete press, including press controls." Like all MAN Roland web presses, the GEOMAN utilizes the company’s PECOM press control and automation system. It accelerates the makeready process and simplifies monitoring and operation of the press. But it was GEOMAN’s superior print quality that really turned heads at the Journal Star. Before selecting a press, Bullock and an executive team saw a 40-couple GEOMAN at work at Missouri’s Springfield News Leader. They found their proof in that paper. "MAN Roland also has excellent training specifications, and we were impressed with the exceptional people we met and talked to during the selection process," Bullock adds. The Peoria Journal Star’s advertisers and readers should also be suitably impressed. GEOMAN’s additional color capacity will give its advertisers more flexibility for ad placement and consecutive color pages. And readers will get their news fresher and faster, according to Bullock: "The new press will double the speed of our production allowing for later news deadlines and earlier circulation delivery times." With GEOMAN’s PECOM controls and a new Computer to Plate system in its prepress area, the Journal Star is counting on considerably faster makereadies with fewer adjusents for color registration. At the delivery end, the paper is doubling the size of its current packaging deparent. And down the road is considering printing commercial work on the GEOMAN. "The Peoria Journal Star has a 148 year heritage of serving the community," says Vincent H. Lapinski, Senior Vice President of Web Operations at MAN Roland Inc. "We’re proud that the new GEOMAN will play a part in the paper’s future success."