Flexible system enables insertion of variable data to expand services offered

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND - Keen to harness the potential for variable data in newspapers and subsequent improvements in reader engagement, Italian newspaper printer Poligrafici Printing has invested in Kodak Prosper S30 Imprinting Systems.

Poligrafici Printing, whose subsidiaries include Grafica Editoriale and Centro Stampa Poligrafici, is the industrial branch of the stock exchange listed Poligrafici - Monrif media group (www.monrifgroup.net). It publishes three national newspapers: Il Resto del Carlino in Emilia-Romagna, Il Giorno in Milan, La Nazione in Florence, and the QN supplement featured in all three newspapers containing news from Italy and abroad. It also produces other editorial and commercial products from its production sites in Bologna, Florence, Milan and Loreto.

The business model chosen by Poligrafici Printing is unique in Italy as it integrates all organisational and technological processes, which are usually performed independently. Consequently, the company is able to efficiently meet the production needs of the publishing industry (dailies, weeklies and monthlies, free-press), mass retailing (flyers) and businesses (sales catalogues), amounting to an overall total of about 80,000 tons of printed material per year.

Inkjet and roto-offset: a winning combination

'Our primary need was to differentiate our offering, by enabling customers to insert variable data at any point in the printed matter, not necessarily on the first page and/or the outer back page as is usually the case,' explained Silvio Broggi, a member of the company's board of directors. 'The imprinting of variable data in static content becomes a great marketing tool, since it encourages consumers to read through the entire printed document, whether it be a flyer, newspaper or magazine, and has a communication value, which in our opinion is extremely important'.

The Kodak Prosper S30 Imprinting Systems at work on the KBA Commander web press at Poligrafici Printing in Bologna

The Kodak Prosper Imprinting System has been installed on a KBA Commander with drying oven at the Bologna site. This machine has the right characteristics to perform this type of imprinting, explained Silvio Broggi, 'because it is a commercial newspaper press, which after printing delivers the paper vertically with a roller diverting it 90° into the drying oven. The Kodak Prosper S-Series System suits this characteristic perfectly, as it can print on the stationary paper before the drying process, therefore working in an ideal manner.'

Following the sucessful introduction two to three customised documents are produced each week. For example, L'enigmista, the group's weekly newspaper magazine dedicated to games, launched a prize competition with readers invited to find a number printed inside the magazine and compare it to a winning number on the magazine's Website.

Endless applications for a growing market

The Kodak Prosper S-Series Imprinting Systems allow printing houses to capitalise on the investments made in offset presses and bridge the gap with digital techniques by adopting a one-step inline process. This solution can be easily integrated into existing production processes, allowing the use of all current equipment while exploiting new advertising opportunities with highly targeted products, including: advertising campaigns personalised to a geographic location, micro-campaigns based on geo-coded maps, bar codes, coupons, competitions and games with variable content and traceability of the printed matter, which is essential in the mass retail industry.

The Kodak Prosper S30 Imprinting System can print at a speed of 915mpm and guarantees a 600 x 200dpi resolution, ensuring excellent print quality and offering a wide range of advanced services for hybrid printing applications.

The Prosper S-Series Imprinting Systems include the following models: S5, S10, S10 CMYK, S20 and S30. Each solution offers laser quality that overprints the offset printed document at different speeds and resolutions, providing a high level of customisation.

'The newspaper industry is facing unprecedented pressure from alternative forms of comunication which is why this form of dynamic printing can help the medium connect more effectively with readers,' stated Olivier Claude, Kodak's general manager for Print and VP Commercial Business EAMER 'Poligrafici Printing has already seen encouraging results from creating personalized content in a number of different ways and we anticipate the broader market will also turn its attention to the possibilities now available. The ability to individualise anything from images and content to adverts, enables a highly targeted product that communicates on a more interactive level and in turn increases return on investment.'

Silvio Broggi concluded, 'The market is still not aware of the real potential of the customisation tools available, so we will continue to offer them to our customers and do all we can to use them to an increasing extent. The same can be said for printing newspapers too, because this is the future and these applications should rekindle interest in printed material.'