Two Ferag drum inserters have been refurbished and relocated to Atlanta as part of production reorganisation within Cox Enterprises.

Production at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution - Cox's largest print site - is being expanded with the addition of two MSD lines and other equipment from the newer Austin American-Statesman plant in Texas.

The Atlanta, Georgia, plant produces several daily newspapers including the AJC, Mundo Hispanico, USA Today, Birmingham News and editions of the New York Times - as well as weekly and monthly publications - totalling around 1.5 million copies a week.

While both sites had Ferag-equipped mailrooms, the age of that in Atlanta prompted a decision to move all of the Austin equipment across. Over four months, two lines were dismantled, shipped to Atlanta and set up in a new layout with a new UTR conveyor chain. Atlanta also gains Ferag's MultiDisc product storage system, linked to its Goss Magnapak inserters.

A single folding machine with the two consecutive UTR infeed stations on each line, means one folding machine can be used to produce two different newspapers at once.

AJC operations senior director Clarence Jackson says operation is now more efficient with products wound automatically, rather than manually stacked. "That has also led to a marked increase in workplace safety for our employees," he says.

Cox Enterprises traces its beginnings to the Dayton Daily News, which James M. Cox bought in 1898. Today's family-owned business is made up of three divisions - Cox Communications, Cox Automotive and Cox Media Group - with 60,000 employees 2016 revenues of more than $20 billion. It operates 14 TV stations, a cable channel, more than 60 radio stations and eight daily newspapers.

Among shareholders is the founder's reclusive granddaughter Blair Parry-Okeden, who lives in Scone, NSW, and displaced West Australian mining magnate Gina Rinehart from top place in the Forbes rich list with an estimated net worth at $12.5 billion. She inherited a 25 per cent stake in the media empire after the death of her mother in 2007.