Hagatna, Guam – Gannett's Pacific Daily News recently opted to place a FoldLine finishing system on the end of their Kodak Prosper 5000 digital inkjet newspaper solution.

With the addition of approximately 35,000 military personnel (not including families and other support personnel), the US Territory of Guam is undergoing a population boom. Along with the increased population and rising literacy rates is an increased need for printed information, and Pacific Daily News will be the primary printed news outlet for the island.

Answering to the rising demand, Gannett Publishing Services made the decision to upgrade from the current older and less flexible offset printing equipment in use at Pacific Daily News. They took into consideration the tabloid newspaper format, paging & throughput requirements, and pressroom space limitations, and determined that a digital inkjet press would best meet the needs of the Pacific Daily News' circulation of 20,000. Additionally, the elimination of platemaking equipment through digital inkjet printing contributes to the economic efficiency of the operation.

However, in order to effectively communicate to its audience, Pacific Daily News' entire circulation must be printed and finished (cut and folded) in four hours or less. The FoldLine from manroland web systems is the only digital finishing system currently in production which will perform at that speed, up to 1,000 feet per minute.

"This is a breakthrough installation for manroland web systems. Gannett Publishing Services is a leader in the print industry, and they are embracing emerging technologies for newspapers. We believe this technology is a game-changer for newspapers in the future," stated Ron Sams, Vice President of Sales for manroland web systems.

In order to select the right system for the needs of Pacific Daily News, the team from Gannett did significant research, including reviewing customer references from current manroland web systems customers running the FoldLine system.

Utilizing manroland web systems' extensive engineering experience in folding and finishing, FoldLine, manufactured at the factory in Augsburg, Germany, currently has several successful installations around the world, including at the world's first 100% digitally printed newspaper, Swiss daily Walliser Bote.