Poing, 20 May 2003— Oce and its partner for specialised finishing systems, Hunkeler AG of Switzerland, have announced the introduction of a new generation of technology aimed specifically at the finishing requirements of the newspaper industry. Specifically geared towards the production of short-run digitally produced newspapers in "Out of Market" locations. Tim Venediger who heads the Digital Newspaper Network (DNN) activities for Océ commented: "After several years of successful implementation of the original fully automated finishing system from Hunkeler, this new generation of newspaper finishing brings important benefits to the needs of our customers—the newspaper publishers on the one hand, and our print service partners on the other." A specific advantage is that it enables the start-up of newspaper production to be achieved with lower initial volumes. The new system is aimed at achieving ease of entry—at lower start-up costs—for our worldwide customer base to enter the newspaper printing business. A further important advantage offered by the system is that it provides multiple-use application, this means that the print provider can also use the output finishing technology for other diverse applications such as cut-to-stack, with all format sizes supported. With this new development, newspaper finishing is now possible using the current fully automated line, or via the newly announced near-line solution. The business of Océ DNN is about delivering remote or "Out of Country" print services to International newspaper publishers—enabling publishers to get their titles produced anywhere in the world, with "Day A" availability—using Océ´s network of worldwide printing customers as the production sites. Venediger states this new technology—which is geared towards the handling of lower volumes of newspaper production—holds the potential to multiply the current number of newspaper production sites by a significant factor. Furthermore it maintains Océ´s unique advantage of delivering a broadsheet newspaper with the same look and feel as the original, a key requirement for many publishers. "We are aware of a great number of publishers with strong interest in getting their titles into new markets, but where the initial start-up volumes are low. This makes it difficult to justify the cost of the fully automated finishing line which is ideally suited to a daily production volume starting at 2000." Franz Hunkeler, President of the Hunkeler AG, is emphasizing their ongoing commitment to the short-run newspaper market: "This new development pioneered together by Hunkeler and Océ will fill the gap in the lower start-up category, with a cost effective ratio as low as a few hundred copies per day."