London, England, – Stroma and Newspaper Abroad, two pioneering companies in digital newspapers, today announced an agreement that will bring more international newspaper titles available the same morning to London for the first time. The partnership will ramp up production with 45 new titles printed from the London headquarters of Stroma, the digital printer with the widest range of newspapers from around the world being produced digitally in color in London on a daily basis.

Agreement brings additions to 1400-strong newspaper title database
Already, Stroma – the company at the forefront of digital newspaper printing for more than a decade – has been printing between 50 and 60 titles a day from a 1400-strong newspaper database. The announcement is being made today at a newspaper industry event for an international audience near Heathrow followed by a live digital printing demonstration at Stroma in west London. Crucially, this will pave the way for new international newspapers to be made commercially available in London.

Publishers need to think of digital printing going forward
Andreas Qvist, Chief Executive and co-founder of Newspaper Abroad, said: "Until now, the newspapers had been flown in at prohibitive cost and then distributed the following day, which didn't make sense particularly as there often was the problem of cancelled flights as well. Now virtually all the editions will be available to the reader before 7.30am. This is a fantastic project. International newspaper sales are important for publishers' revenue streams and their readers while travelling or living abroad.  They need to think of digital printing, as we have done, going forward."

He added: "More and more publishers are outsourcing their international marketing and brand development opportunities to Newspaper Abroad, instead of having their own internal departments for their expatriate customers. And they also understand how we can source local advertising for them in the countries in which they operate abroad, which now includes London. Stroma and Océ are important print partners for us, particularly as they have worldwide reputations for digital excellence in the newspaper industry. And we are also planning other digital newspaper initiatives with Océ at other locations throughout the world."

Newspaper sales forecast to rise by 25% with London digital production
Against a backdrop of falling sales for newspapers, Newspaper Abroad's venture is expected to increase sales – currently 'thousands of copies per day' – by 25% within six months. The cover price will be on a par with prices in their homeland. Most new titles are Scandinavian, but also include titles from around the world currently unavailable the same day in London.

Important step forward for colour production of newspapers
Steve Brown, Managing Director of Stroma, said: "It's great news and an important step forward for our digital color production of newspapers in London. These international newspapers can be produced within 20 minutes of editorial shutdown in their home markets, thanks to technology that means the files are transferred by PDF over the internet."

Printing digitally in color locally cuts out crippling distribution costs
Craig Nethercott, Océ UK's Director of Production Printing, said: "This new agreement is proof that the availability of full-color digital printing is a serious growth opportunity for printed newspapers, particularly as it enables newspaper publishers to cut out crippling distribution costs while still offering distant readers the tactile and visual pleasures of a physical newspaper. The Océ JetStream inkjet color production press opens up so many new doors for publishers – and, yes, it's here now!"