The Lao Dong Daily has recently become the first newspaper in China to invest in ECRM Imaging Systems’ fully automated NEWSmatic CTP solution. Established in 1949 as a daily newspaper for the Shanghai area, the newspaper quickly grew to a circulation of 200,000 readers, to be a respected national title with distribution across the whole of China. The Lao Dong Daily prints ten different newspapers with plate production between 60 to 100 plates per day, which is gradually increasing due to the demand for more color advertising. Mr. Wu You Zhe, Chief Editor on the Lao Dong Daily, comments, “All newspapers have to stay competitive and profitable, so increased color pages and higher quality standards are a must. Our decision to move to CTP was based on the need to work to tight deadlines and a desire to generate greater advertising revenue, which meant that print quality had to be perfect.” A comprehensive product comparison process revealed the ECRM NEWSmatic selected as the most suitable CTP solution, based on both price and performance. “After researching the NEWSmatic the decision was very simple. The product satisfied all of our requirements in terms of performance and quality. In the past there was always a compromise on price, high quality automated output just wasn’t cost-effective. Also contributing to the decision was the fact that we’ve operated a Mako 46 film imagesetter for several years, we knew that reliability would not be a problem,” Mr. Wu explained. The NEWSmatic is a fully automated newspaper CTP system, targeted at local and regional newspapers requiring peak-time production of up to 80 broadsheet plates per hour. The NEWSmatic also appeals to larger newspapers and contract printers where multiple plate lines are commonly used to provide higher productivity and/or output back up. Being a technology leader is a key factor in the newspaper’s success, moving towards a digital workflow and increasing automation, has created a great deal of pre-press time savings. “The NEWSmatic has allowed us to cut costs and reduce our pre-press production times, with faster make-ready times allowing us to extend our editorial deadlines. Before we installed the NEWSmatic, our production deadlines were a maximum three hours, now they are less than one and a half hours. This extra capacity has enabled us to include more color pages, and begin publishing two additional newspapers.” “Although all plates are now imaged on the NEWSmatic, we have kept the Mako 46 and a platemaker as back-up, but we’ve not needed to use them yet. It is only a matter of time before more newspapers take the decision to make the smart CTP investment,” Mr. Wu concludes. With further expansion a distinct possibility, the firm has started to plan for an additional CTP device. One thing is certain; it will be another ECRM unit.