November 04 2003 -- Surrey and Berkshire Newspapers Ltd. has won the ‘Newspaper Printer of the Year’ award from UK print title PrintWeek, for its titles the Esher News and Mail, the Reading Evening Post and the Surrey Advertiser. The Berkshire based firm fought off stiff competition to take the plaudits in the Agfa sponsored award, at The Grosvenor House Hotel on the 20th of October. This prestigious award means an impressive triple sweep of honours won by the publisher in 2003, representing a clean sweep of all of the UK trade press print quality awards. The Reading Evening Post won Production Journal’s ‘Regional Newspaper of the Year’ award, in April, whilst the Esher News and Mail won Printing World’s ‘Newspaper Printing’ award in July. The winning titles are all printed on a Goss Colorliner press utilizing the unique Goss Digital Inking System at the Reading print facility of Surrey and Berkshire Newspapers Ltd. The award-winning newspapers are just several of the high profile, regional newspapers operated by the Guardian Media Group across the UK. Jo Newell, Managing Director of the Reading plant for Surrey and Berkshire Newspapers Ltd., comments, “Winning this award represents a major coup for us as a group. We take great pride in the fact that we believe no other company has won all three of these prestigious industry awards before. It has involved a combination of the hard work and commitment of our staff, to ensure that we get the absolute best that we can out of the press.” Jo adds, “The print quality produced on our Goss Colorliner is second to none and this has now been recognized by a third award.” Key to the high print quality achieved on the Colorliner press at Surrey & Berkshire Newspapers is the use of Goss three-form digital inking combined with latest ‘Pre-set & Forget’ technology. ‘Pre-set & Forget’ is the term given to the imposition driven capability developed by Goss, which achieves optimum start-up efficiency before printer intervention through automated systems within the press. This further enhances the quality and consistency of digital inking through its ability to preset from the original RIPped data, as well as maximizing the inherent ink uniformity benefits of three-form inking. In addition, Surrey & Berkshire Ltd. has had a long-term focus on intensive personnel training, from design and repro through platemaking to press operation, in its commitment to achieving pre-press to press matching. Shane Lancaster, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Goss Preston, comments, “Quality of this standard is only achievable with a concerted team effort. The cooperation between Goss, Agfa and the Reading team, with the total support of the Surrey and Berkshire Newspapers management, has resulted in a press that has proven unbeatable for quality newspaper production.” Shane concludes, “Surrey and Berkshire Newspapers has taken the best tools for the job and used them to produce the best-in-class products. We are proud that our equipment has been used to win a clean sweep of all the UK trade press newspaper quality awards. My personal congratulations to all involved."