News Corp Australia is set to pioneer digital newspaper printing in Australia with a pilot site in Brisbane.

Tenders for the first system close this Friday and national production and logistics director Geoff Booth says hopes are to have a decision on supplier “in the next couple of months”.

Top of the list of potential opportunities for the inkjet technology is remote production of small quantities of newspaper editions. “We’re still flying copies of the Herald Sun for southeast Queensland rather than print them in Brisbane, and the freight cost alone is more than $1 million a year,” he says.

Initially, an inkjet digital press in the Brisbane south-side site at Murarrie would print the 3500 copies of the Melbourne tabloid, delivering a considerable saving on production and logistics.

The site houses the manroland Newsman web-offset presses – currently being upgraded with manroland and QI automated colour controls – which print city metro the Courier-Mail, and are set to print the Gold Coast Bulletin when the Molendinar site closes later this year.

“If (the digital print project) is successful, then obviously there is the opportunity to do so much more with the facility… in newspapers, magazines and one-off print jobs as we learn how we can use it,” he says.

“Then the question is whether we replicate the operation in places like Mt Isa, Port Pirie and Broome for example. At this stage we wouldn’t look at things like hyperlocal editions, but there are opportunities to substitute text – the weather forecast, for example – and advertisements. Maybe an ad for a holiday attraction like Wet’n’Wild for example.

“Above all, we want to learn about it, and Murarrie is a good location for that. The only way to learn is to put a toe in the water.”

Booth and News Corp Australia transformation director Curtis Davies visited key European digital newspaper print sites following the WAN-Ifra World Publishing Expo last October. Among these were German giant Axel Springer, Italian regional Centro Stampa Quotindiani (CSQ) and Belgian catholic publisher Halewijn

GXpress understands inkjet web press manufacturers including Canon/Océ, HP, KBA, Kodak and Screen were invited to tender for the project. A component in the system may be the inline newspaper finishing system developed by manroland as part of a partnership with Océ, although it is not clear whether this element might be paired with another vendor’s press.

With News close to a commitment on digital print in Australia, the big question will be what happens next: Whether cooperation with Fairfax Media would be possible – or is barred ideologically – and how the ‘window of opportunity’ potential of the digital print technology might be exploited in a difficult market.

The interesting point is that many of the remote towns in which News’ tabloids and national broadsheet The Australian have circulation are towns in which Fairfax already has plant. And that Fairfax, with similar issues to address, will be looking in the same direction.

There’s an argument that says an evolved web-offset solution including kit such as Goss International’s new automated Magnum Compact – a bolt-on extra for some of Fairfax’s many Community presses – could print the required copies for both publishers in some of these towns. The 3500 copies of the Herald Sun News wants in Brisbane, for that matter.

And another that says inkjet digital – especially with larger print formats – would be the way to go… printing a mix of titles consecutively with a minimum of staff.

Certainly current high-speed inkjet webs would be hungry for more than one publisher’s work; News and Fairfax quietly get on with the business of cooperating in some logistics areas already. This would be the classic argument for expanding that relationship.

Peter Coleman