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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TuESDAY, FEbRuARY 12, 2019
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
JIM VAN NOSTRAND
Editor
Founded in 1873
JEREMY FELDMAN
Circulation Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN
Production Manager
CARL EARL
Systems Manager
PUBLISHER’S NOTEBOOK
Full color coming your way
Press upgrade means improvements for readers and printing customers
Y
ou’re going to notice improve-
ments in the paper this week.
Full color on every page.
That’s the result of a significant
upgrade in our press equipment that took
a bit of kismet and a lot of hard work to
bring to fruition.
The Daily Astorian had some spare
press units stored at a press refurbish-
ing site in Twin Falls, Idaho. The busi-
ness owner is getting ready to retire,
and wanted to know whether we wanted
to pick up or scrap our stored units. So
press supervisor Jim Stanovich and IT
director Carl Earl went to Twin Falls to
take a look. The word
back from our team was
that our eight black units
weren’t worth saving,
but Web Specialties had
a four-unit color tower
that they would let us
have for a great price,
KARI
and those units would
BORGEN
work splendidly on our
press.
That would mean an extra four pages
of full color could be printed in one
press run.
You may not realize that we print a
lot of newspapers on our press besides
The Daily Astorian — the weekly Chi-
nook Observer, biweekly Seaside Signal
and Cannon Beach Gazette, and monthly
Coast River Business Journal, papers
all owned by our company, EO Media
Group. Also Hipfish Monthly, Colum-
bia Press, Clatskanie Chief, St. Helens
Chronicle, Tillamook Headlight Her-
ald, Lincoln City News Guard and North
Coast Citizen every week for other
newspaper owners. And more less-fre-
quent publications, including the Astoria
and Knappa high school newspapers.
So when you add up all of the “extra
four pages” that tower could print in
color in a single press run, in just one
week, it’s a lot of color pages.
EO Media’s board of directors
thought the investment in our product
for our readers and commercial printing
customers made good sense. And due to
circumstances, the price was right.
What happened between then and
the first press run off the new tower was
pretty remarkable.
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Clark Verd checks the newspaper after new printing equipment came online Monday.
Measure up
First, the team had to figure out how
we would get the old units out and the
new units in, while still printing over a
dozen press runs a week. That required
moving the control console and renting
a forklift big enough to lift the 8,000-
pound units, but narrow enough to fit
between the wall and the existing press.
Jim Stanovich/The Daily Astorian
John D. Bruijn/The Daily Astorian
Jim Stanovich/The Daily Astorian
LEFT: Press units, newsprint roll stand and associated hardware arrive Jan. 19 at The Daily Astorian. MIDDLE: An installation gantry was
assembled in the pressroom Jan. 13 to hoist and stack the 5-ton top half of the press tower onto the bottom half. The Daily Astorian
continued to print newspapers during the three-week installation. RIGHT: With the new full-color printing tower leveled and in place,
the unit is ready for the final stages of installation.
Get the right tools for the job
Jim and Carl flew to Sacramento,
where they met press installer Russ Syr-
acuse at his warehouse and borrowed his
gantry with chain and pulley set up to
be ready to lift the units into place when
the tower arrived. There were also lots
of trips to Englund Marine, City Lumber
and Fastenal for parts and tools. Colum-
bia Steel pitched in at a moment’s notice
when some custom steel plates were
needed at the last minute.
Get the right people for the job
It takes a team. Jim and Carl installed
the last press upgrade in 2010. With the
help of production director John Bruijn
and pressmen Clark Verd and Car-
los Anaya and press apprentice David
Deckard, they worked three weeks
straight to take out the old units, prep
the site with the gantry and install the
new tower. Russ came to Astoria for five
days to assist with the actual placement
and assembly of the tower.
John D. Bruijn/The Daily Astorian
The installation of a new full-color
printing tower progresses with the
addition of the decking and newsprint roll
stand. Additional hookups will include
electricity, lighting, water, ink and air
supply lines.
Sweat the small stuff
In order for the press to work cor-
rectly, the units have to be leveled and
trammed to the existing line. Rollers cal-
ibrated, electrical wired and tested to
the control console, and programmed to
work with the existing units. All while
printing a dozen plus press runs a week.
Did I mention that these guys worked
without a break for three weeks straight?
MORE ONLINE
See more photos and a video
at DailyAstorian.com
Great results
You’re holding the result of their
work in your hands today. You’ll notice
we’ve added color to pages 5 and 6,
which usually have been black and
white. We’ve been able to add color
comics daily, and color photos through-
out the section. Your Daily Astorian
team is very happy to be able to offer
our readers and advertisers the improve-
John D. Bruijn/The Daily Astorian
Daily Astorian press crewmen Carlos Anaya, Clark Verd, Carl Earl and Jim Stanovich push
out an old 2-1/2 ton black ink only press unit after removing it to make room for the new
full-color 4-high tower.
ments our new press tower offers, and to
our sibling publications and commercial
printing customers, too.
Watch the press run
Photographer Colin Murphey has cre-
ated a video that illustrates the printing
process — it’s fascinating, and I never
tire of watching. We’re also hosting the
Northwest Press Users conference in
Astoria April 5 and 6, and will give a
tour of the new press operation for our
Northwest newspaper colleagues.
Kari borgen is publisher of The Daily
Astorian. Send questions or comments
her way at kborgen@dailyastorian.com