I renewed an acquaintance with Malaysia’s ‘Star’ on the overnight flight from Brisbane... and was pleasantly surprised. It’s a hefty but well-printed wad of a tabloid, and you have to tot up the separately-numbered supplements to reach that day’s total of 104. Quality on one of these sections was outstanding, with ink coverage (and a tendency to gloss) which made me wonder whether it was heatset. The PublishAsia plant visit the following evening provided the explanation: The Star Media Hub in Shah Alam has the first Goss Universal presses equipped with digital inking and cooled ink, and Baldwin spray dampening. Two nine-tower lines installed in 2005 stand alongside the two four-and-a-half-tower Colorliners which print the main book at 72,000 cph, and give a discernable ‘lift’ to supplements and other preprints. A Müller Martini-equipped mailroom includes buffered Newsliner inserters with ‘stick-on’ applicators. Plates come from Krause lines equipped with K&F punch benders. A northern hub in Pulau Pinang – similarly equipped but with one press of each kind – maintains the link with Penang, where ‘The Star’ was launched in 1971. Within five years it had gone national, relocating progressively to Kuala Lumpur in the late 1970s. Today’s Stock Exchange listed business also includes magazines and books, three radio stations and a online presence which dates to 1995. The plant is dedicated to print production – editorial and other departments are nearer to the city in Petaling Jaya – now occupying two-thirds of the almost four-hectare site after a 2005 extension. Facilities include generator capacity sufficient for the whole plant, and waste treatment. With circulation between 295,000-305,000 copies daily, the ‘Star’ is the leading English-language tabloid in Malaysia. Senior production manager Mohamed Hassan bin Mohamed Ali says a recent development has been to establish a Sarawak edition printed by a contract printer on the eastern island. “We had been sending 2000 copies to East Malaysia for a long time, but a survey showed that demand for printed news was much higher,” he says. “Since March, the contractor has been printing 7000 copies – not enough to justify our setting up our own printing house, but with growing demand this may be an option.” Peter Coleman nngx Additional reporting by Stephan Peters