Leading Greek newspaper publisher, Naftemporiki P. Athanassiades & Co. SA., has ordered Goss Community tower additions and enhancements to keep pace with advertiser and contract print demands. The upgrade program is due to start in December 2009 at the company's state-of-the-art production facility in Koropi, east of the capital Athens.

Headquartered in Athens with several regional offices, Naftemporiki is a longtime user of Goss press technology. With a daily circulation of 23,000 copies and an audited readership of 65,000 for its flagship title of the same name, the publisher holds the number one position among financial newspapers and the number one readership position overall in Greece. The addition of two new four-high towers to an existing three-tower Goss Community press will increase production capacity from 80 to 96 pages tabloid, including 40 in full-color, eight of which are heatset.

Naftemporiki has favored the Goss Community press for its quality, consistency and flexibility since 1981. "In a country like Greece where we have relatively small newspaper print volumes, the Community is the ideal choice," comments Panos Raptis, part owner and production manager. "Its single-width design makes it highly flexible while providing ease of use, print quality, reliability and consistency. We have also benefited from many technology enhancements over time, including motorized registration and spraybars."

Exploiting the simple modularity of the Goss Community press, Naftemporiki has chosen to enhance the existing two year-old press equipment with modernized features to further improve print quality, consistency and efficiency. Among other features, the three towers will benefit from a range of technologies to reduce waste and enhance efficiencies. These include a new motorized inking system with presetting capability, motorized page compensators and spraybars, and an automatic web break detection system. In common with all Greek newspapers, cover pages are printed heatset. The enhancement program will also involve retrofitting additional drives for the flexibility to operate the heatset tower independently.

As well as its own title, Naftemporiki also contract prints a daily political newspaper and several local weekly and monthly titles. According to Panos Raptis, this latest investment concludes four years of production modernization by the company, and is perfectly timed to address changing market conditions in Greece. "With decreasing circulations but greater demand for color we need to be agile, versatile and more efficient. The additional towers and the press enhancements have been specified to provide all this. At the same time, with almost half of our highly educated readership in the age range of 25 – 44 years, we know that the design and visual appeal of Naftemporiki is very important. This investment will also enable us to satisfy their insistence on a high-quality product."