New presses to 'set course' of Advertiser

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

Mike Fisch flipped through the delivery photos like a proud father.

Installation of The Honolulu Advertiser's new printing presses began this week at the paper's 147,000-square-foot printing facility under construction in Kapolei. Above, a 24-ton printing unit is rotated before being lowered into place. Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

"The first crate rolled off at 10:10 a.m. ...," Fisch said, pointing to the picture that captured the moment that the first 14-ton crate touched Hawai'i soil.

Yesterday, the pieces that will make up the two Regioman offset presses from MAN Roland of Augsburg, Germany, were blessed in a ceremony that begins a new era for The Advertiser.

On Monday, workers from MAN Roland began installing the units that will make up the new, offset presses. Eventually, the presses will stretch 220 feet long and stand four stories high in The Advertiser's $29.5 million printing plant nearing completion in Kapolei.

The presses are worth more than the building they will sit in. At night, people driving along the H-1 Freeway will be able to see them running in The Advertiser's glass-lined press hall.

Fisch hopes to start the new presses in June and convert The Advertiser's entire run in late summer. The MAN Roland presses will churn out a redesigned Advertiser that will be shorter and narrower, following industry standards, and will have the capability of printing full color on every page.

The presses also will do it faster and more efficiently with higher quality printing and color reproduction, Fisch said.

"It's only a press," Fisch said. "But the new press will set the course of the newspaper for the next 40 years. ... Right now, we turn advertisers away on color because we don't have the capacity. In the future, Macy's can advertise in color anywhere in the paper and feel good about the quality."

The old Wood-Hoe and Goss presses currently spinning out each day's Advertiser will be sold for scrap metal, Fisch said.

Removing the old presses on Kapi'olani Boulevard will take 10 months, beginning in 2005. The hole left behind will create room to begin a total renovation of the 75-year-old News Building at 605 Kapi'olani Blvd., which will continue to house advertising, news and administrative operations.

The blessing by the Rev. Kaleo Patterson yesterday fits with the newspaper's Hawaiian origins, Fisch said, and also was an attempt to ward off the kind of bad fortune that coincided with the installation of the presses at the News Building 40 years ago.

"When this press building was built in the '60s and they were putting in the press, one of the riggers fell and killed himself," Fisch said. "Most people don't know about that. I'm not leaving anything to chance."

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8085.