ROCHESTER, N.Y. April 1—Gazette Communications Inc., Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Reno Gazette-Journal, Reno, Nev.; Forum Communications, Detroit Lakes, Minn.; Knight-Ridder, Belleville, Ill.; Western Communications Inc., Bend, Ore.; Times Publishing Co., St. Petersburg, Fla.; Lehman Communications, Longmont, Colo.; Hamilton Web Printing, Hamilton, Ont.; and Epoch Press Inc., Burnaby, B.C., all recently purchased KODAK thermal CTP newspaper solutions to make the transition to a digital production environment. KODAK thermal CTP newspaper solutions deliver increases in print productivity, reliability, efficiency and quality, helping customers meet tight deadlines, improve profitability and explore new market opportunities. “We did a number of site visits and talked to several users before deciding to go with Kodak. We examined the cost of consumables, the quality of reproduction and found everything we were looking for in KODAK thermal CTP solutions. We were impressed by the automation of workflow and believe this will have a big impact for our operations going forward,” said Craig Carmody, Production Manager at Gazette Communications. Gazette Communications purchased two KODAK TRENDSETTER NEWS 150 thermal platesetters, KODAK THERMALNEWS digital plates, KODAK STACCATO screening software, KODAK PRINERGY Evo workflow system and NELA PL-T plate loaders. The company prints 63,000 copies daily, 72,000 copies on Saturday and 80,000 copies on Sunday of the Cedar Rapids Gazette; 3 million comic sections weekly for King Features that are shipped to 130 newspapers; Deals on Wheels for Trader Publications; the Daily Iowan student newspaper for the University of Iowa; the weekly Iowa Farmer Today; and a number of other consumer and trade publications. “We were impressed by the service we received from Kodak during our review process. Thermal is the technology that many newspapers are moving to and consultants on the press towers we just installed uniformly told us thermal was the direction to go. Kodak’s thermal newspaper solutions provide a high level of accuracy and predictability,” said Beth Ptak, Production Manager at the Reno Gazette-Journal. The Reno Gazette-Journal has a daily circulation of 72,000 and a Sunday circulation of 85,000. They also print four weekly newspapers with a total circulation of 16,000. The company purchased two KODAK TRENDSETTER NEWS 100 units and KODAK thermal digital plates. “In today’s media rich environment, newspapers must continually work to earn readership, while at the same time look for expanded revenue opportunities,” said Neil McLean, Worldwide Newspaper Director, Kodak. “Kodak’s digital solutions supply newspapers with efficient, flexible solutions to extend deadlines for going to print and for producing high quality color.” Additional recent newspaper sales by Kodak include: •Forum Communications, the commercial newsprint division of the Fargo Forum that prints newspaper inserts, purchased two KODAK TRENDSETTER NEWS 70 platesetters and THERMALNEWS plates •Knight-Ridder, which prints the Belleville News-Democrat, several weeklies and agri business titles, purchased two TRENDSETTER NEWS 70 platesetters and PRINERGY Evo workflow system •Times Publishing purchased four KODAK TRENDSETTER NEWS 200 CTP platesetters, KODAK THERMALNEWS plates and four NELA PL-T plate loaders. The Pulitzer Prize winning Times was founded in 1884 and is now Florida’s largest daily newspaper with a daily circulation of 327,390 and a Sunday circulation of 420,811 •Western Communications Inc., which prints the daily The Bulletin and other newspapers, purchased a KODAK TRENDSETTER NEWS 50 platesetter and PRINERGY Evo workflow system in addition to their existing TRENDSETTER NEWS platesetter and STACCATO screening •Lehman Communications, which prints the Longmont Daily Times-Call, Loveland Daily Reporter-Herald and several other newspapers, purchased two TRENDSETTER NEWS 70 platesetters •Hamilton Web Printing, which prints the Hamilton Mountain News, Stoney Creek News, Dundas Star News, Ancaster News, Cambridge Times, Guelph Tribune and Waterloo Chronicle, purchased a TRENDSETTER NEWS 100 platesetter, NewsManager workflow system, PRINERGY Evo workflow system and KODAK thermal digital plates •Epoch Press Inc. prints the The Epoch Times daily and purchased a TRENDSETTER NEWS 50 platesetter, KODAK thermal digital plates, PRINERGY Evo workflow system and STACCATO screening Kodak offers proven end to end solutions including CTP, workflow, consumables and screening technologies. The TRENDSETTER NEWS thermal CTP device comes in five speeds, ranging from 60 to more than 240 plates per hour to suit newspaper printing facilities of all sizes. The TRENDSETTER NEWS CTP device delivers fast, reliable imaging with a standard file format interface for newspaper production systems. It is available with semi automatic or fully automated plate loading and unloading. The machine to machine accuracy of the KODAK SQUARESPOT thermal imaging heads, combined with the binary nature of thermal imaging, achieves consistent and repeatable halftone dot structures. The THERMALNEWS printing plate meets the rigorous demands of newspaper printing. Precise reproduction of high resolution, first generation thermal dots, with no dot gain at plate level, provides outstanding quality output and run lengths of more than 200,000 without postbaking. And faster makeready and plate reliability give newspapers extra editorial time. KODAK NewsManager software, a powerful PDF workflow management tool for high performance newspaper prepress, enables a flexible, automated workflow from edition plan to plate production. Based on open standards, it easily integrates into existing systems. NewsManager workflow software is scaleable to meet all needs, from contract printers to metropolitan, national and international newspapers with multiple print sites. The PRINERGY Evo workflow system helps newspapers deal with last minute changes easily, without causing delays. In conjunction with TRENDSETTER NEWS CTP devices, PRINERGY Evo software helps deliver end to end automation, speed, control and flexibility so newspapers can extend editorial and ad deadlines and output large numbers of pages more quickly. Based on the latest standards, and proven PRINERGY refine technology, PRINERGY Evo software delivers exceptional PDF processing power. The NewsManager 1.1 system, PRINERGY Evo, TRENDSETTER NEWS CTP platesetters and THERMALNEWS plates will be demonstrated at NEXPO, April 1-4 in Chicago, at booth 1062.