BH invests to upgrade presses

Dec 10, 2015 at 05:41 pm by Staff


Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has reinvested in print at the Omaha hiub of his BH Media.

The 130-year-old Omaha World-Herald - where Terry Kroeger is publisher - has been the centre of the billionaire's media empire since its acquisition four years ago.

An 18-tower, three-folder manroland Geoman pressline installed at the Freedom Center there in 2001 has just been upgraded with new control systems installed under the maker's 'puzzle' strategy. Production leader Ron Headid says bringing a third party into play would have been "expensive and a big risk".

Instead, the manroland electronic retrofit includes the PLCs and discontinued InterbusLoop, an additional path for connecting sensors and actuators to the local Interbus structure. These electronic components have been replaced at four printing units, one folder superstructure including turner bars, the section and safety computers and at four of the 18 reel splicers.

The upgrade gives the publisher access to the latest generation technology from the maker's Pecom-X portfolio. Beyond the ability to replace discontinued parts, the upgrade has expanded production and advertising options with the ability to produce half covers - including spadea formats - for newspapers in-house.

"This cover application offers more possibilities for brand new advertising campaigns and thereby shows new sources of revenue," says Headid.

manroland used a step-by-step approach to the retrofit, ensuring that not all computers or other components have to be replaced at the same time. Service manager for north and latin America Andreas Wecker says advice is given on risk management, so actions and their limits are understood and prioritised.


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