August 24, 2007 - The Virginian-Pilot, a commercial printer based in Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA, is reaping the benefits in increased productivity, reduced waste and start-up times, six months after purchasing the QuadTech Autotron 2800 Register Guidance System and Register Motorization from LITHO SERVICE, based in Quebec, Canada.
The Virginian-Pilot installed the $120,000 worth of equipment in March 2007 to three of its Goss Metro Presses, initially on a trial basis to see how efficient the additional products would prove to be. George Karangelen, Quality/Imaging Manager, at the Virginian-Pilot commented, " From day one, the tryouts proved to be extremely successful, and we have already seen start up waste copies and bad papers due to paster cycles reduced by 23% in the last six months."
The plant in Norfolk at present has 30 units in a line which consist of 20 half deck (color units) and 10 mono (black) units. LITHO SERVICE, which is a retro-fitting expert in the web printing market, provided register motorization for the circumferential, side lay and unit-to-unit compensators. This is the first time that QuadTech has partnered with the Canadian company.
The Virginian-Pilot also prints the daily broadsheet of the same title that is not only its biggest printing commodity, but also the largest daily metro newspaper in the State of Virginia with a daily circulation figure of 183,024. Both the Autotron 2800 Register Guidance System and the LITHO SERVICE Motorization System are currently on three units that run a youth orientated tabloid called The Link.
The Link which is a five-day a week product, has a Monday-Friday circulation of around 32,000. Lorenzo Mason, Production Maintenance Manager said, "We deliberately chose to test the new equipment on this product because it is the only one that we run color on every page, so we could really evaluate its proficiency."
George added, "We were the first printing company in the US to install the Autotron 2800 on a Goss Metro press and we are so pleased with the results, our next step is to install the motorization and Autotrons on the color leads for The Virginian-Pilot newspaper."
The Virginian Pilot newspaper as it is known today owes its establishment in the early 1900’s to Samuel L. Slover, who was a dominant force in newspaper publishing in Virginia. It was one of the first newspapers in the United States to launch its own website.  According to a poll by Burelles Luce, based on circulation figures, The Virginian Pilot ranks at No. 51 in the 2007 top daily newspapers in the United States.