From: Subject: The Wall Street Journal Adds Color Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2005 22:46:45 -0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/html; charset="Windows-1252" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Location: http://www.naa.org/technews/tn960506/p19color.html X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1106 The Wall Street Journal Adds Color

The Wall Street Journal Adds Color

On October 22, 1995, Dow Jones & Co. experienced a production=20 milestone--its previously all black-and-white Wall Street Journal ran a = full=20 color advertisement for Cadillac. Less than two months later, the = Journal=20 printed its first color cover of a special report.

Dow Jones made the decision to install process-color equipment in = early 1994.=20 Most of the equipment to produce quality dots already existed within the = Journal's printing plants before the color project. But with 17 print = sites, the=20 paper needed to control variations in every step of the process. One = quick=20 solution was to eliminate half the variables by producing all page = negatives at=20 one place--the Journal's Color Lab in Chicopee, Mass.

For the Color Lab to supply negatives that would fit each print = site's=20 existing registration system would have been a logistical nightmare. A = better=20 choice was to change plateroom equipment to a standard punch = configuration. The=20 color lab now makes every negative with the image registered to a = standard=20 three-hole system.

Long before scheduling press installations, a choice of manufacturers = and=20 equipment had to be made. They included mixing Goss and TKS equipment,=20 half-decks and four-color common-impression-cylinder units. After much = research,=20 the company chose Goss four-color CIC equipment for its Chicopee and = South=20 Brunswick plants, half-decks for its other Goss plants, and TKS = half-decks and=20 M-72 units for its TKS plants.

The color-equipment installations were performed almost exclusively = by=20 outside contractors. Press-Tec Inc. installed the TKS presses, while = Masthead=20 International installed the Goss. It took six weeks to prepare a given = press,=20 install the color units and then move on to the next plant.

A typical installation would find crews tearing a press apart before = its=20 final night of operation, leaving just enough intact to allow the press = to run.=20 Over the weekend, thousands of wires had to be removed, reinstalled or = replaced.=20 Around 100 tons of equipment was also removed, relocated and = replaced.

To aid the press crew in keeping waste down while running process = color, Dow=20 Jones contracted Swiss-based ABB to install intelligent press controls. = A=20 separate system, manufactured by Parascan in England, scans films of the = color=20 pages in Chicopee and creates an ink-density representation. These = density files=20 are then stored on an ABB database to be recalled at a later print date. = On the=20 night of printing, the sites request density files from Chicopee which = are=20 downloaded via the corporate network. The values are translated at the = printing=20 site by the ABB press console into ink settings on the local printing = press. The=20 press crew can then preset the ink on the press.

The final step in the color project involved training production = workers and=20 advertisers in quality process-color reproduction. In 12 months, 730 = employees=20 and customers attended 46 classes.

Despite all the complexity involved in adding color to 17 separate = print=20 sites, all changes have been transparent to readers and no revenue has = been lost=20 due to lost capacity.

TechNews Volume 2, Number 3: May/June 1996
Return to May/June = Home Page=20
Return to TechNews=20 Topic Index

=A91997 Newspaper Association of America. All rights=20 reserved.