Just a few months after its commissioning, a UNISET 75 press from MAN Roland is making its mark as a revenue generator at the Jefferson City News Tribune, the leading newspaper of Missouri's capital city. Installed earlier this year as the centerpiece of a new $14 million production facility, the News Tribune's UNISET 75 features four reel stands, 32 couples and a 2:3:3 MAN Roland folder. The configuration is proving to be ideal to attract more commercial work, in the form of publication and insert products, for the News Tribune Company. Mike Vivion, the News Tribune's General Manager, understandably does not want to disclose the names of his new commercial clients. But he notes that the added color possibilities, improved print quality and production efficiencies that UNISET provides enable his company to more aggressively pursue and capture commercial business. Tripling Commercial Revenue "We've landed a big weekly from Iowa along with some other excellent publication work and insert jobs as well," Vivion says. "The objective is to triple our outside printing by next year, and I'm pretty sure we will make that goal." Printing the News Tribune Company's family of newspapers remains the number one priority of the UNISET 75. The publishing firm serves Missouri's capital city with three papers. The Sunday News Tribune has a paid circulation of 24,041. The News Tribune is published weekday afternoons and Saturday mornings, with a circulation of 17,351. And the Daily Capital News is a morning paper that reaches 2,388 paying readers. The company also prints the Fulton Sun, a five-days-a-week daily newspaper, with a circulation of 4,087 and the weekly California Democrat with 3,613 subscribers, extending its coverage of central Missouri. Color Ads Double Vivion says the UNISET is sparking new interest in advertising in the publications. "Our ability to provide more color ads went over really well," he says. "We've more than doubled the number of color ads we produce. UNISET's capabilities are getting a very good reception from our advertisers." News Tribune editors completely redesigned the paper to make better use of the expanded color capabilities UNISET delivers. It's a more open look that also takes advantage of the press' higher print quality. "Our readers like how we've improved their newspaper," Vivion observes. "We've received some pretty good comments. Overall they like the cleaner design, bigger pictures and more color throughout the paper." Technical Advantages A wide range of circulations and a diversity of commercial work could present a challenge in terms of job size and run length. But the UNISET 75 lets News Tribune press crews take it all in stride. "This MAN Roland press comes up to color very quickly and generates very little waste," Vivion observes. "It's a big plus on the smaller jobs." The PECOM operating and automation system on the UNISET 75 contributes to the press' makeready prowess. The advancement also makes the press easier to learn and simpler to run. "Our press crews caught on very quickly and very well to PECOM's capabilities," Vivion recalls. "The other day we had one pressman running the UNISET by himself. We wouldn't think of doing that with the old press we used to operate." The News Tribune production staff are firm believers in keeping their new facility at peak performance by employing good housekeeping and maintenance practices. MAN Roland printservices joins in that philosophy and is on call to ensure that the break-in period for the new press is trouble free. "If there are any issues, MAN Roland addresses them quickly," Vivion says. "They even handled some prepress concerns we had with other vendors. They really stepped up and got them going. We're very happy with MAN Roland and with our new UNISET." MAN Roland has also found the News Tribune project to be a satisfying experience. "It's always a pleasure to work with professionals who can set goals and then exceed them," says Vincent Lapinski, COO of Web Operations for MAN Roland Inc.. "What makes this project even more gratifying is that the News Tribune is using our technology to help increase its profits. Other newspapers might want to take notice of how that's being accomplished here."