May 6th 2008 – Sankei Shimbun is replacing six existing double-width presses with the purchase of four Goss Newsliner 90 presses at its Hokusetsu Center printing facility in Osaka.

Printing Sankei Shimbun and the daily Sankei Sports, the publisher has ordered the new presses for increased flexibility and greater color capacity for its growing newspaper circulations.

Mr. Mutsunori Funatsuki, senior manager of the production department at Sankei Shimbun's Osaka headquarters, explained, "We were looking for a state-of-the-art press with much higher performance levels and greater color capacity for this latest investment." The company visited Asahi Shimbun's Hanshin plant to see the Newsliner 90 press which has been in operation at the facility for 18 months to evaluate its performance, efficiency and suitability. "In the end, we have recognized the Goss Newsliner 90 press as the best solution," Funatsuki confirmed.

The new presses will each be configured as two five-high towers, two four-high towers, one folder and four reelstands. Goss' award winning and highly accurate Goss DigiRail digital inking system will also be included. Capable of printing 32-pages in full color, the presses are scheduled to be on production during 2009.

This specification will give the company a more flexible approach for printing a variety of different products. Adopting the five-high configuration with the fifth unit being a mono unit with open fountain inking, they have gained the ability to obtain a specific color that is difficult to reproduce in full-color by color separation.

The morning newspaper, Sankei Shimbun, currently boasts a circulation of more than 2.2 million copies per day, which has steadily increased by 7 percent over the past 5 years despite many national and regional newspaper companies suffering from decreasing circulations.

Seiji Kato, president of Goss Japan concluded, "It is a great honor for us that the Newsliner 90 press has been selected by the prestigious Sankei Shimbun for the first time. I am confident that the Newsliner press with its enhanced features and excellent performance record will provide them with the flexible production they desire and will contribute to their higher productivity and enhanced quality printing."

Part of the Fuji Sankei Group, Sankei Shimbun, headquartered in Tokyo and Osaka, was established in 1933 and is one of the five largest national newspaper companies in Japan.