Two manroland customers captured first place awards on October 18 as the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association (SNPA) recognized excellence in newspaper printing.  The Grand Rapids Press, Grand Rapids, Mich., and the News-Tribune of Jefferson City, Mo., were two of the top six newspapers honored in the SNPA Print Quality Contest.

Newspapers were judged in six different circulation and non-daily categories.  Judges evaluated entries only for those quality attributes that can be objectively measured, which included black ink density and uniformity, color ink density and uniformity, color register, page alignment, litho defects and other defects.

The News-Tribune was voted tops in the under 25,000 circulation category, besting runner-up El Dorado (Ark.) News-Times.  Bluffton Today of Bluffton, S.C. was third.   The Grand Rapids Press won the 100,000-250,000 circulation category, ahead of The Birmingham (Ala.) News and third place finisher San Antonio (Tx.) Express News.  Another manroland customer, the Savannah (Ga.) Morning News – which also prints the nearby Bluffton Today - took third place in the 25,000-50,000 circulation category won by The Eagle Tribune of North Andover, Mass.  The  Muskegon (Mich.) Chronicle was second in the voting.

"We congratulate these fine newspapers on their accomplishments and recognition in this contest," said Vince Lapinski, manroland Inc. CEO.  "In an ever-changing marketplace, these companies have successfully diversified their production strategies to ensure their future success.  Using manroland technology and by   taking advantage of the impressive quality reproduction our presses provide, they not only have increased the marketability of their newspapers but also have positioned themselves to be competitive in the commercial printing market."

Press managers at the Grand Rapids Press and News-Tribune praised their  manroland presses for helping their operations deliver top quality results.

"The manroland GEOMAN press has performed beyond expectations," said Mike Novak, Pressroom Manager at the Grand Rapids Press.  "Our team feels confident in pushing the press to achieve superior color and quality.  This press provides a stable platform for us to push the envelope and deliver a high quality product to our community.  It has given us the ability to upgrade our folds to include pop-outs and spadia, which are very popular with readers and advertisers.  We maintain the press in partnership with manroland and they jump in remotely to help us resolve small problems early and keep us in production."

"I consider it an honor to win this award.  Our manroland UNISET 75 press has opened up a whole new avenue for us to do commercial printing," said Mark Wiethaupt, Production Manager at the News-Tribune in Jefferson City.  The press is a hybrid operation that was installed in mid-2006 as part of a new $14 million production facility.  It not only prints the daily News-Tribune, the Fulton Sun and a separate weekly newspaper, but also averages over 150 commercial jobs a month.

"Our General Manager, Mike Vivion, pays very close attention to detail and in turn, this allows us to print at the highest level of quality.  The press and its quality are unbelievable," Wiethaupt said.