Shortly after signing the contracts (back row, left to right): Stefan Segger, sales director, Koenig & Bauer Digital & Webfed; Urs Zieri, managing director, Somedia Partner AG; Bruno Rothmund, press manager, Somedia Partner AG; Peter Rickenmann, managing director, Koenig & Bauer (CH) AG; (front row): Günter Noll, sales manager, Koenig & Bauer Digital & Webfed, and Paul Frei, supervisory board president, Somedia Partner AG (1) *picture taken before corona pandemic
Swiss media house Somedia Partner is investing in a highly automated newspaper press from Koenig & Bauer. A Commander CL will be installed as a replacement for a competitor’s press at the print center in Haag in St. Gallen Rhine Valley and is scheduled to come on stream in summer next year.
The new press will then be used to print more than 120,000 daily and weekly newspapers every day. Urs Zieri, managing director of Somedia Partner AG, “We wanted to and indeed needed to, invest in a new press. The discussions with Koenig & Bauer were straightforward and focussed on partnership from the very beginning. The overall package simply felt right. We are convinced that it was the right decision to go with Koenig & Bauer.”
The Commander CL comprises three four-high towers, a KF 5 jaw folder, a section stitcher and three Pastomat reel stands with a stripping station and Patras A paper-reel transport system.
Over the past years, European newspaper printers have frequently opted for presses from the highest performance class made by Koenig & Bauer. “Given the situation presented by general market developments, we are delighted to see that companies like Somedia Partner believe in print and are making investments. We are also very satisfied with the level of orders we have received for newspaper presses. Further projects are in the pipeline and decisions are expected soon. Above all, the products currently in high demand when making new investments are flexible, practice-oriented and automated presses, and we have an outstanding image in this respect with our trio represented by the Commander CL, Commander CT, and Cortina,” says Stefan Segger, sales director at Koenig & Bauer Digital & Web fed.
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.
