Posted on: Sunday, July 25, 2004
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AFTER DEADLINE
Progress steady, exciting in transition to Kapolei plant
By Saundra Keyes
Advertiser Editor
The Advertiser marked an exhilarating milestone Wednesday when our PM edition rolled off our new presses at Kapolei — the first complete copy of the newspaper to be printed there.
We take another significant step today, adding Sunday Business, Island Life and Travel to the list of sections printed at Kapolei, along with the TV guide and several of our advertising sections.
You'll identify the Kapolei-printed sections quickly because of their size, clarity and vivid color. Comparing them with today's news, sports and opinion sections, all printed on our aging letterpresses, you may wonder why we're moving printing to Kapolei in stages rather than transforming the newspaper all at once.
We'd love to do the latter, but getting new presses up and running is far too complex to accomplish in a day.
Consider the presses, which took eight months to install. They weigh 1,230 tons and sit on a concrete table that is 15 feet high.
The press line, 220 feet long and 62 feet high, consists of two presses that each have six printing towers. Each press can print 70,000 newspapers per hour.
After more than 25 years in the newspaper business, I still marvel at what happens within that hour.
The presses are fed with 50-inch-wide, 2,500-pound rolls of newsprint that are converted into printed, multisectioned, folded and cut newspapers.
All the colors you see in our photos, graphics and ads comes from just four inks — red, blue, yellow and black. The press must lay down those inks in exactly the right mix, and precisely aligned so that each element on each page looks sharply focused.
As newspapers come off the press, they're delivered to our packaging and distribution center, which contains equipment that inserts preprinted products and then bundles newspaper packages for distribution.
"We're converting from 1950s printing technology to the most modern equipment available," said Bill Bogert, our vice president for production and the new plant's guiding force. Bogert, a modest man who never seeks the limelight for himself, brags justifiably to anyone in hearing distance about the quality of both our new equipment and the employees who are bringing it up to speed.
He notes that although the press and packaging equipment are computer-driven and computer-controlled, it is people who control the computers. And those people are combining intensive training with live production of various sections.
That's why we're moving printing to Kapolei in stages.
We began with parts of the newspaper that are printed in advance of news deadlines such as our auto, real-estate and classified advertising sections and TGIF, Taste and daily Island Life. More Sunday preprints were added today.
Last week's PM edition move was especially challenging because it involved news sections produced on deadline. While getting up to deadline speed, we're not printing the full range of inside news color that you'll see later this summer.
We're keenly aware that our phased move to Kapolei makes demands on you as well as on us.
We know your newspaper looks odd, with some sections printed at one size and some at another, and that our new typeface is more readable printed on the Kapolei press than on our old letterpresses.
We appreciate your patience as we go through this transition, and have been grateful for the feedback you've provided.
Many of you have said you like our page size and are wowed by the color on our Kapolei-printed sections. We're confident that both sentiments will increase next month, when you'll get a paper with color on almost every page, and with every section sized the same.
Others have expressed reservations about our new type fonts, which were selected for readability as printed at Kapolei. Because of our phased-in move to printing there, readers of all editions other than the PM are getting some sections printed on the new presses and others printed on the old.
Some of you who initially disliked the new typeface have said you find it comfortably readable in the sections printed at Kapolei. Others expect to reserve judgment until the entire paper is printed there.
You've told us you like the color-coded sports and movie listings in our daily TV grids. Beginning today, you'll find them in the Sunday TV guide, along with other changes.
Some of you have begged that we show more of our columnists' heads in the labels that run with their columns, asking why we crop photos so low on their foreheads. We made this change to emphasize columnists' faces, and we think that some of the new labels are working well. We plan to retake the photos for others and then make a judgment.
We've already made some small adjustments, such as using bolder type for the crossword-puzzle clues. And I predict we'll be making others once you — and all of us — have had a chance to live with an Advertiser fully printed at Kapolei.
That opportunity will come next month, and we're all looking forward to it. Meanwhile, we invite your feedback at 538-6397 or at myadvertiser@honoluluadvertiser.com. Also on board
Reach Saundra Keyes at skeyes@honoluluadvertiser.com.
Caroline Kim, a retired Air Force officer's wife who recently returned to Hawai'i after three decades on the Mainland and overseas, was our sixth Community Editorial Board member in our most recent round of meetings. Kim, an active volunteer who serves on a number of community boards and agencies, was inadvertently left out of the item listing board members in last week's After Deadline column.
Caroline Kim
