Poing, Germany, May 28, 2002 -- The Toronto Globe and Mail and the Japanese-based Asahi newspaper group are set to start live production at print plants set up by Oce, the pioneer in digital printing of short-run specialist newspapers that look and feel the same as those printed by traditional litho methods. Hot on the heels of the Financial Times starting live production at its first location in South Africa, Tokyo-based Asahi, is negotiating to print at the same plant in Johannesburg that was set up by global digital printing giant Oce earlier this year. Asahi has two of the world’s largest-circulation newspapers, with total worldwide print runs of over 13 million copies per day. The Toronto Globe and Mail will become the first newspaper from across the Atlantic to print digitally at the Stroma plant at Wembley in west London. Both titles are expecting huge sales increases with the new technology that means the newspapers will be in the hands of its international readers within hours-as opposed to days-of printing. Glen Lue, the Toronto Regional Sales Manager for The Globe and Mail that has worldwide sales of 330,000, said: “Printing the newspapers on a traditional litho press and then flying them to England has been a far from ideal solution. We are literally at the mercy of the airlines in terms of the ever-increasing cost and the time it takes to get from Canada to London, which can mean an unacceptable situation of up to three days from the time of printing to the reader in a city such as London. “It is essential to have the newspapers in the hands of the readers within a very short space of time after printing, and the Oce solution allows us to do this. A lot of people have been asking for the service, and we feel confident that we should be able to increase our readership by at least 300% by printing digitally at Stroma. This is the technology of the future.” Oce Digital Newspaper Network uses its new high-speed digital machine for production at both sites. This revolutionary way of producing newspapers-via a high-speed digital data distribution network-means that titles are available within hours of printing, both to subscribers and at newsstands. Paul Krisson, business development manager for Oce’s printing and publishing division, said: “We know that the benefits of printing digitally at a remote location have resulted in a significant increases in sales for newspaper publishers. This innovative approach is providing up-to-date news from their native community to their new home.” He added: “We are pushing ahead with the newspaper Oce Digital Newspaper Network and are fully committed to the market despite the downturn in the economy that affected everybody in publishing.” It was a year ago (May 22, 2001) that Oce opened the first digital print site at Stroma, starting off with Danish daily newspaper Borsen and then, later the same month, Swiss daily newspaper NZZ. The unique concept means that newspaper publishers can retain their brand identity in other countries, keeping the look and feel of the original newspaper, which will now reach the early-morning sales windows, giving a better service to their readers. The major benefits for the newspaper publishers are that it will reduce their losses on international distribution and cut down wastage by lowering the number of pulped copies. Copies are run off on an Oce Digital Newspress 8000 machine that can print more than 400 copies per hour of the newspaper in different sections. Oce is also talking to other major newspaper publishers globally. The Dutch-based firm, offers round-the-clock, 365 days a year back-up service for its global network of high-speed printing installations. For further information about the Oce Digital Newspaper Network, please go to www.dnn.oce.com