The Aachener Zeitung and Aachener Nachrichten, two German dailies steeped in tradition and amongst the core publications of the Zeitungsverlag Aachen, will in future be planned and produced using PlanPag and AdPag by ppi Media. The German city of Aachen is near the borders of both Belgium and the Netherlands.
ppi Media’s PlanPag, the leading solution for planning daily newspapers, is in use at numerous media houses around the world. The Zeitungsverlag Aachen now joins them to plan their dailies, the Aachener Nachrichten and Aachener Zeitung, which will both use PlanPag as well as AdPag, ppi Media’s solution for the pagination of classified ads. The project to introduce the planning and production tools is already in full swing. ppi Media will also take care of connecting the VI&VA ad system and the press control system for the Zeitungsverlag Aachen.
The introduction of the ppi Media suite in Aachen was initiated by the Rheinische Post Mediengruppe, which co-owns the Zeitungsverlag Aachen. “Working with ppi Media and its solution has always been a very positive experience. We have been using PlanPag and other tools to produce and plan the Rheinische Post and some of our other titles for a long time now,” says Stephan Garre, chief executive officer of the Pre-Press-Services GmbH, a spin-off of the Rheinische Post Mediengruppe publishing production.
2023 promises an interesting ride for print in India
Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and
multi-channel IPPGroup. While the print and packaging industries have been resilient in the past 33 months since the pandemic lockdown of 25 March 2020, the commercial printing and newspaper industries have yet to recover their pre-Covid trajectory.
The fragmented commercial printing industry faces substantial challenges as does the newspaper industry.
While digital short-run printing and the signage industry seem to be recovering a bit faster, ultimately
their growth will also be moderated by the progress of the overall economy. On the other hand book
printing exports are doing well but they too face several supply-chain and logistics challenges.
The price of publication papers including newsprint has been high in the past year while availability is diminished by several mills shutting down their publication paper and newsprint machines in the past four years. Indian paper mills are also exporting many types of paper and have raised prices for Indian printers. To some extent, this has helped in the recovery of the digital printing industry with its on-demand short-run and low-wastage paradigm.
Ultimately digital print and other digital channels will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future. For instance, there is no alternative to a rise in textbook consumption but this segment will only reach normality in the next financial year beginning on 1 April 2023.
Thus while the new normal is a moving target and many commercial printers look to diversification, we believe that our target audiences may shift and change. Like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.
Our 2023 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock and reconnect with your potential markets and customers. Print is the glue for the growth of liberal education, new industry, and an emerging economy. We seek your participation in what promises to be an interesting ride.
– Naresh Khanna
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