- Versioned publications identified as opportunity for growth
- In-house print capabilities to provide increased quality control and production flexibility
Community Impact Newspaper of Pflugerville, Texas, has today confirmed its investment in a Goss Magnum Compact. The highly-automated Magnum Compact press will be central to the company's new, purpose-built printing operation, designed to meet an ever-increasing demand for this regionalized, community newspaper,
Scheduled for installation in Q2 2016, the Goss Magnum Compact will enable the publishing house to bring high-quality printing on-site and maintain its competitive edge with a wide range of versioned products.
With 20 regional issues and a circulation of over 1.5 million copies per month, Community Impact Newspaper has seen significant growth since its launch in 2005. The model for a publication that features relevant, local news, continues to increase in popularity in the regions it currently serves, and owners, John and Jennifer Garrett, are confident it can be replicated elsewhere.
"The news industry is a very competitive marketplace, with online and print competing for the same audience," explains John Garrett, owner, Community Impact Newspaper. "To be heard over other news channels, you have to up your game. This means providing a news source that is highly-targeted, provides quality content and has a good reputation for accurate, reliable information. This is where print is stronger than digital media, and Community Impact Newspaper is proof of that."
Shortly after the husband and wife duo moved to Austin, they recognized a gap in the market for an informative publication designed for local citizens. However, drawing on their extensive experience within the newspaper industry, they understood that people would not pay for subscriptions and decided to mail it for free.
Garrett continues, "Gone are the days of people paying for news, so in order to be profitable you have to ensure that your publication has high-quality content. This ensures that advertisers recognize its value to readers. In addition, providing a regionalized, versioned newspaper that reaches a very specific, local target audience is crucial. This approach has served us well to date but we continue to look for ways to enhance our paper to provide an even better product in the future. To take the next step, we need to bring high-quality printing in-house and increase our versioning capabilities. That's where the Goss Magnum Compact comes in."
With simplified operation and run-length flexibility, the Magnum Compact enables users to print a wide range of products competitively. The ability to print cost-effective runs as short as 500 - 1,000 copies provides printers not only with an alternative to digital print, but an economical way of handling runs up to 250,000 copies, giving unparalleled production flexibility and a powerful competitive advantage.
Community Impact Newspaper recognized that by managing versioning and targeted inserts at the production level, the company can not only better control the product quality but explore new opportunities to enhance it.
"However, we knew very little about print production when we started exploring this opportunity," explains Garrett. "We researched the level of investment required and the technology on the market, and this is when we started the conversation with Goss. Seeing their presses really helped us to visualize how we could leverage this technology. The print house we have used to date uses Goss technology, so we knew the print quality was of a high standard. However, other features, such as its suitability for short runs and versioning, automatic plate loading and quick changeovers were also critical factors that led us to choose this press."
The Goss Autoplate technology delivers fast makereadies and enables successive jobs to be run with complete plate changes within two minutes. This is accomplished with minimum waste and contributes to maximum press uptime. Plates that have been removed may be reused for repeat production of shorter run jobs, further extending the value proposition of the press.
Community Impact's press configuration will include three Contiweb FB pasters, three four-high Magnum compact towers and a Goss N45 folder with quarter folder, ensuring superior, crease free folding capabilities.
"While we think that the press will be well utilized, we are confident that there is plenty of room for growth. We know the decision to bring print in-house isn't typical for publishers, but we have a market-leading product and are certain of the many opportunities available - just within what we are doing today, let alone when we start to grow.
"Even so, it's been a daunting process! But Goss really helped us to understand the technology. This is the biggest investment we have ever made and it's nice to do it with people we respect. Goss have made the entire process enjoyable, and this is definitely the start of a great partnership," Garrett concludes.
www.gossinternational.com
