KCRag Forum

This is what I was talking about when asking if the press could do other types of print.  I was wondering if they could do other commercial work besides the paper.  This seems to make sense for the long run, in that, there will always be print.  I just don't think the paper will continue in its current subscriptions and will need other print work to maximize benefit of the new press.  What other types of print work can the press do?  Could there be other types of businesses that are attracted because of the new press?  Is there the possibility of more national papers using the press because of its technology and the central location of KC for distribution purposes?  I know that papers like USA Today probably have there own advanced technology presses but there might be other national publications looking to outsource some capacity.

I think that the Lawrence paper still prints USA Today for this region, so unless that contract is up for renewal, that's not an option. The NY Times also is out; that's printed in Columbia under a long-term contract that began just a few years ago.

Beermo: Are you guys getting stitchers? That would expand the range of jobs that the new plant can sell. Or it could contract out the stitching part to another company, as is often the case in commercial printing.

we currently don't print 24/7. also our max speed is around 55,000pph. also we are very limited in what we can print  because the presses we have in the main building are junk.

new presses will have all the latest bells and whistles. lots and lots of color, plus max speed is supposed to be around 80,000pph. lot of tasks on new presses will be automated, whereas on the old presses there is a lot of manual/hands on labor required. so new presses should be a lot faster to set up for a run and they will run faster.  so we can print more stuff with higher quality, faster.

i would have to say that the star probably has the oldest presses in the knight ridder conglomo.

mr./ms. beautyfromashes is either yanking our chain with their thoughts or is very young and hasn't been around the block. subscriptions are going nowhere. just as newspapers are going nowhere, as long as there are forests to clear cut.

the way you maximize your investment in presses is to run the hell out of them 24/7. to do that you must seek out other things to print. we do print different things on the old presses, but are limited by their obsolescence. when these new presses come online we will have the fastest and the best quality producing presses in our region. we will also be able to print stuff that no one else can because we will have the biggest presses in town. newspaper presses dwarf all regular job shop presses. their capacity to print quality and produce numbers is second to none. the star will be stealing ad accounts from everyone in town and then some.

the usa today presses in lawrence are housed in the journal-world building and are used only to print the usa today. they are leased from the journal-world. and they ain't shit.  they are at least 10 years old, if not 20 years old. the new presses at the star will blow them away. literally.

haven't heard anything about stitchers, but i had a machinist tell me that the star bought a $300,000 stapler that can be moved from folder to folder as needed.

the star also has a small printshop that does little flyers and business cards and other small stuff. they will be moving to the new building.

just wait 'til next year. the new paper will knock your socks off. newspaper execs from around the country that have toured the star are dumbfounded by the quality we get from the old presses. they are absolutely amazed that we can do what we do with those dinosaurs. they have a hard time quantifying what they are seeing. just wait 'til we get ahold of these new kba commanders. i never thought i would see the day that the star bought new presses, but that day is here.

Beermo wrote: haven't heard anything about stitchers, but i had a machinist tell me that the star bought a $300,000 stapler that can be moved from folder to folder as needed.

I've never seen an in-line stitcher in action. I'll be interested to see if it can keep up when the press is running at full speed.

just got the the new star pressroom site moved to the new domain. not much there yet, but i will add more content when i  get more pics and info from the star.

here's the link.  http://www.newpressroom.com/

Thanks Beermo. The interior pics are great.  Will there be tours available when the building is completed?

tat2kc wrote: Thanks Beermo. The interior pics are great.  Will there be tours available when the building is completed?

of course there will be tours.  right now i can't even just walk in and walk around.

the way they built the innards is to have a walkway or open hallway or whatever you call it that encircles the press area around the 3rd level up. so you can walk around the presses and be out of the way and have an unobstructed view of the whole thing.

when we went up to omaha to check out their new presses and building we were able to walk all around the presses and up on the catwalks. that's not going to happen with the general public.

It would be neat if the Web cam currently aimed at the outside of the plant eventually were moved inside so you could watch the presses running.

KC0KEK wrote: It would be neat if the Web cam currently aimed at the outside of the plant eventually were moved inside so you could watch the presses running.

maybe if you sent a email to randy waters vp of production something might happen. his addy is rwaters@kcstar.com

got an update on my site.

after much pain and suffering trying to get my low iq brain to figure out ms frontpage, i have posted a new page to my http://www.newpressroom.com/ site.

i'm trying to provide pics and info while keeping my bandwidth down to a minimum so this shit doesn't cost me an arm and a leg.

i finished a week of class on color theory, kba commander press operator training and offset variables in the new star production facility this past week and got permission from the v.p. of production to take pics and post them on the web.

took me almost 2 hours just to figure out thumbnails and what the hell frontpage was doing with my links to the pics, but after that i cruised fairly well with it. 

the new page is the first in a series of pages that will probably number around 6 or more with over 100 pics in this go-round. i will also get around to adding a links page for info on the star, kba and other crap.

click on the link above and scroll down a little and you will see the link to the folder page.

What are those orange rollers just above the former boards? Are they part of some inkjet system? Or just for stabilizing the web?

Beermo wrote: got an update on my site.

took me almost 2 hours just to figure out thumbnails and what the hell frontpage was doing with my links to the pics, but after that i cruised fairly well with it.   

I'm betting that after you mess with FrontPage for awhile, you will go back to hand coding. I HATE FrontPage. Only because it is MS and has so much stuff that is only usable with MS stuff. Admittedly, I didn't go past FP2000-hated the file extensions, etc.

KC0KEK wrote: What are those orange rollers just above the former boards? Are they part of some inkjet system? Or just for stabilizing the web?

those aren't rollers. they're guards around the trolleys. everything you see in that orange color anywhere on the press is a guard. no way in hell are you putting on ink at the former boards. those green looking lines you see are air lines for adjustment from the console 6 levels down on the floor. those bigger black lines are vacuum lines for paper dust.

nota wrote: I'm betting that after you mess with FrontPage for awhile, you will go back to hand coding. I HATE FrontPage. Only because it is MS and has so much stuff that is only usable with MS stuff. Admittedly, I didn't go past FP2000-hated the file extensions, etc.

i doubt if i do any hand coding since i don't know how. i understand the concept, but have never done it. besides ms frontpage cost me only 3 cd's. it's a 2000 version. it's fairly easy to use for a guy like me with no real computer skills to speak of. people ask me all the time how much i charge to build web pages for them. i tell them that i'm not that good at it and if i can do it, they can too. if i had to charge by the hour with my limited skills, they would break their bank on my mediocrity.

got another page up with more pics from the new kc star press pavilion. only took me 3 hours this time. not bad for a guy with 9 credits hours of c.c. and self taught computer skills. hehe.

i called the page the "scary views and perspectives" page. go check it out, just don't look down. you can find the link to it on the main page. http://newpressroom.com/

site's been updated again about 4 times in the last 2 days. i got some interesting links about printing and also got a link to the honolulu advertiser and their transition to new man roland presses and a link to the milwaukee journal sentinel and their transition to kba commanders, which is what the star is getting. the milwaukee site has a virtual tour on it. go check it out. from my site at http://www.newpressroom.com/ and from there to the links page. it's crude but effective. gotta save that bandwidth.

Gladstoner wrote: As your avatar shows, newspapers will go nowhere until someone finds an efficient way to use a computer in the john.

Found one... 802.11g

i got 2 new pages of pics of the new kc star pressroom up today

reel room pics page and pressroom pics page.

http://newpressroom.com/

The Star has done a great service at their own expense by staying downtown.

It is indeed a beautiful building and a fascinating place to visit.

Michael® wrote: $100,000 worth of glass? how could they have vandalized that much glass with a secure contruction zone? That's alot of glass.

Rifles and my source says it is closer to $200k