High-quality print and design make the South China Morning Post a success among readers and advertising customers. A new GEOMAN and an overhaul of existing presses will help maintain this status – partners in Hong Kong have no doubts.

Not a year goes by in which the South China Morning Post newspapers are not awarded for their excellence, for example by the newspaper award of the Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers Association, or more recently in April 2012 at the Asian Media Awards. The South China Morning Post expects nothing but the best. With this in mind, Brilliant Star Printing Services Ltd in Hong Kong, the company responsible for contract printing and a 100% subsidiary of the South China Morning Post, recently invested in a new GEOMAN press while concurrently implementing the pressupdate program from manroland web systems for its existing printing systems.

New GEOMAN order in the works
In May 2012, the long-term customer signed the contract for a new GEOMAN press from manroland web systems. This investment, with a production start planned for July 2013, will allow the company to expand its capacities considerably and cater to customer requests with even greater flexibility. In addition, a GEOMAN from 1999 and REGIOMAN from 2005 will be geared up for the future. What do pressupdate services entail? The web width of both printing systems will be reduced from 1524 mm to 1370 mm, evidence of the continued trend towards smaller newspapers, also observable in Asia. Important tasks will be coordinated in the future for all three printing systems, i.e., the new GEOMAN and the existing presses. This involves upgrading remote maintenance for greater production reliability as well as production planning with a modernized PPM station. Moreover, the proven GEOMAN system will receive an overall upgrade of electronics and the machine control systems with PECOM components. The pressupdate measures will be implemented in parallel from midyear to the fall of 2012. The impact on the daily newspaper production will thus be minimized. In general, the South China Morning Post is clearly a model company in relation to the continuous modernization of its printing systems, from the machine park to pre-press.

The South China Morning Post is the largest English-language newspaper in Hong Kong and one of the leading economic newspapers in the region with a print run of roughly 150,000 copies. In addition to the company’s main product South China Morning Post, the biweekly Jiu Jak Magazine and the weekly Post Magazine, as well as the Business Post and supplements, are printed in Hong Kong.