Princeton, NJ – 1st June, 2007: ProImage America, Inc. has today announced that the Houston Chronicle, one of the largest circulation newspapers in the United States (503,114 daily, 677,425 Sunday) has implemented its modular NewsWay digital workflow solution providing the newspaper with integrated end-to-end workflow automation.
“NewsWay is highly configurable. It also integrates multiple systems, bringing together our Adcontrol, ad layout system, Millennium editorial, Agfa NewsDrive, plate sorting, Nela bending equipment and Rockwell press control systems, while allowing us to easily track and visually check pages through the entire workflow,” says Mike Mayo, VP of Production, Houston Chronicle.
“One of the key reasons for installing a complete workflow solution is that we also are in the process of migrating from film to CTP,” adds Michael Daniel, the Houston Chronicle’s Director of Printing. “NewsWay maximizes productivity by load balancing the output devices and automatically diverts files to another device when the first is busy. It also proofs color pages as they are approved, and importantly, automatically locks color pages to the device to which it was originally sent, ensuring consistent color quality.
NewsWay automates several production processes: ProImage NewsWay is a sophisticated browser-based workflow and transmission management solution that includes support for multiple workflows, plan generation, production tracking, priority scheduling, hard proofing, softViewing, annotation, page pairing, deadline monitoring, text and furniture burning, and a plate editor and pasteboard. It also provides enhanced internal communications with sticky notes, conferencing, and automated event notification
The downtown editorial facility at the Houston Chronicle includes a NewsWay transmission hub that manages automatic file transmission over a redundant 1GB fiber network to the Southwest remote print site 14 miles away providing real-time status reports. It also includes an Edition Plan Generator that imports text files from the layout system to automatically create edition plans, an ability to manually create plans with tracking of all editions, and an update wizard that allows updates to plans to be made.
At the Southwest Plant, NewsWay receives the pages and bu rns text and furniture onto the plates and provides the automated page pairing capability for 1-up, 2-up, or 4-up page configurations with the ability for rotation and cropping. NewsWay also burns barcodes on the page image for plate sorting and bin location, and interfaces with a barcode reader to obtain plate status information for plate tracking.
On output, NewsWay receives TIFF files from the Harlequin RIPs and automatically calculates ink coverage, by column, for each page and forwards the computed results to a Rockwell press control system, optimizing ink usage and enhancing print quality.
Modular NewsWay software will control and manage workflow from a variety of front-end systems through to output. And because it uses a simple Web browser, NewsWay will monitor production status, both at origination and print sites, irrespective of location. The software supports IFRA Track, JDF (Job Definition Format), ICC profiles and PDF as well as Bitmap workflow, providing one cost-effective integrated end-to-end production solution.
About The Houston Chronicle: The Houston Chronicle, the largest newspaper in Texas and the nation’s seventh-largest newspaper, has evolved into a multimedia company publishing online and commercial print products, in English and Spanish, reaching specific audiences with unique delivery programs. In addition to the Houston Chronicle’s 1.2 million daily readers and 1.7 million readers on Sunday, Chron.com, the Chronicle’s online site, averages nearly 61 million page views and 6.8 million unique visitors each month. The Houston Chronicle is owned by the Hearst Corporation.
About ProImage: New ProImage is based in Netanya, Israel, ten miles north of Tel Aviv, with sales and support offices in North America (Princeton, New Jersey) and Europe (London, UK). The company, first established in 1995, is a leading developer of browser-based digital workflow and production tracking solutions for the newspaper and printing industries. Using a standard Internet browser and standard platform hardware, ProImage's advanced technologies offer the printing industry flexible and feature rich end-to-end communications, workflow management, production tracking and Internet proofing solutions Around 80 newspapers in the United States entrust ProImage solutions to manage the mission-critical workflow management of their print products, including four of the largest by circulation. Selling directly in some parts of the world, and through dealer partners in France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Scandinavia, Spain, Russia, China and Thailand, the company also enjoys a number of important international technology and marketing strategic alliances.
Contact:
Rick Shafranek
Vice President of Sales
Tel: +1 919-363-0413
e-mail: rick@newsway.com
www.newsway.com
New ProImage America, Inc.
212 Carnegie Center - Suite 206
Princeton, NJ 08540
“NewsWay is highly configurable. It also integrates multiple systems, bringing together our Adcontrol, ad layout system, Millennium editorial, Agfa NewsDrive, plate sorting, Nela bending equipment and Rockwell press control systems, while allowing us to easily track and visually check pages through the entire workflow,” says Mike Mayo, VP of Production, Houston Chronicle.
“One of the key reasons for installing a complete workflow solution is that we also are in the process of migrating from film to CTP,” adds Michael Daniel, the Houston Chronicle’s Director of Printing. “NewsWay maximizes productivity by load balancing the output devices and automatically diverts files to another device when the first is busy. It also proofs color pages as they are approved, and importantly, automatically locks color pages to the device to which it was originally sent, ensuring consistent color quality.
NewsWay automates several production processes: ProImage NewsWay is a sophisticated browser-based workflow and transmission management solution that includes support for multiple workflows, plan generation, production tracking, priority scheduling, hard proofing, softViewing, annotation, page pairing, deadline monitoring, text and furniture burning, and a plate editor and pasteboard. It also provides enhanced internal communications with sticky notes, conferencing, and automated event notification
The downtown editorial facility at the Houston Chronicle includes a NewsWay transmission hub that manages automatic file transmission over a redundant 1GB fiber network to the Southwest remote print site 14 miles away providing real-time status reports. It also includes an Edition Plan Generator that imports text files from the layout system to automatically create edition plans, an ability to manually create plans with tracking of all editions, and an update wizard that allows updates to plans to be made.
At the Southwest Plant, NewsWay receives the pages and bu rns text and furniture onto the plates and provides the automated page pairing capability for 1-up, 2-up, or 4-up page configurations with the ability for rotation and cropping. NewsWay also burns barcodes on the page image for plate sorting and bin location, and interfaces with a barcode reader to obtain plate status information for plate tracking.
On output, NewsWay receives TIFF files from the Harlequin RIPs and automatically calculates ink coverage, by column, for each page and forwards the computed results to a Rockwell press control system, optimizing ink usage and enhancing print quality.
Modular NewsWay software will control and manage workflow from a variety of front-end systems through to output. And because it uses a simple Web browser, NewsWay will monitor production status, both at origination and print sites, irrespective of location. The software supports IFRA Track, JDF (Job Definition Format), ICC profiles and PDF as well as Bitmap workflow, providing one cost-effective integrated end-to-end production solution.
About The Houston Chronicle: The Houston Chronicle, the largest newspaper in Texas and the nation’s seventh-largest newspaper, has evolved into a multimedia company publishing online and commercial print products, in English and Spanish, reaching specific audiences with unique delivery programs. In addition to the Houston Chronicle’s 1.2 million daily readers and 1.7 million readers on Sunday, Chron.com, the Chronicle’s online site, averages nearly 61 million page views and 6.8 million unique visitors each month. The Houston Chronicle is owned by the Hearst Corporation.
About ProImage: New ProImage is based in Netanya, Israel, ten miles north of Tel Aviv, with sales and support offices in North America (Princeton, New Jersey) and Europe (London, UK). The company, first established in 1995, is a leading developer of browser-based digital workflow and production tracking solutions for the newspaper and printing industries. Using a standard Internet browser and standard platform hardware, ProImage's advanced technologies offer the printing industry flexible and feature rich end-to-end communications, workflow management, production tracking and Internet proofing solutions Around 80 newspapers in the United States entrust ProImage solutions to manage the mission-critical workflow management of their print products, including four of the largest by circulation. Selling directly in some parts of the world, and through dealer partners in France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Scandinavia, Spain, Russia, China and Thailand, the company also enjoys a number of important international technology and marketing strategic alliances.
Contact:
Rick Shafranek
Vice President of Sales
Tel: +1 919-363-0413
e-mail: rick@newsway.com
www.newsway.com
New ProImage America, Inc.
212 Carnegie Center - Suite 206
Princeton, NJ 08540