Two inkjet web presses will print the 17,000-circulation daily Jersey Evening Post from next year, along with UK national newspapers for the expat market.

The production deal is a coup for Kodak, which will partner publisher Guiton Group, which is a sister company of Wolverhampton, UK, daily the Express & Star newspaper within the Claverley group.

Kodak and Guiton have formed a joint venture company, of KP Services (Jersey) to print the Channel Islands daily and 11 national newspapers previously flown or shipped to Jersey and Guernsey. The total daily print order - estimated at 35,000 copies - will be printed on two Kodak Prosper 6000P inkjets, with four of the newly-launched Hunkeler Combi-Solution finishing newspapers offline.

For readers of the 125-year-old Jersey Evening Post, it means their six-day 'local' will be printed in colour throughout, while expats and other readers of the UK 'nats' will get their papers more reliably avoiding frequent weather delays.

Kodak says each 300 metres/minute press will print 3000 48-page newspaper an hour. The new Hunkeler system allows for fully-automated changeovers between tabloid and broadsheet formats as well as automated collation of multiple sections.

The company's digital newspaper printing specialist Jack Knadjian, who becomes managing director of KP Services (Jersey), says publishers need technologies that enable them to drive newspaper printing into the future: "Kodak has pioneered inkjet printing for newspapers and is ready to show the world the next generation of inkjet presses."

Without the company's Stream inkjet technology, it would have been impossible to print the number and diversity of titles - with print orders varying from 300 to more than 17,000 - in the time.

Guiton Publishing and JEP managing director Paul Carter says any third-party solution "needed to be technologically superior" to persuade them to move to such a partnership after years of self-sufficiency: "We've been watching digital development for over a decade and always held back due to the speed and reliability issues that this technology struggled with previously."

He says the company is confident the Kodak/Hunkeler combination - "and our own expertise in publishing and distribution" - makes it the right time to change. "In the year when we celebrate our 125th anniversary, it is satisfying to invest in future-proofing our business in this way."

In an official release - the paper actually announced the move last week - even the government came on board. Jersey's minister for economic development Lyndon Farnham welcomed the investment by a prestigious global company. "The partnership between Kodak UK and the Guiton Group will see the very latest digital printing technology coming to the island, new jobs created and new skills being learned," he said.

The deal will provide Kodak with an edge in the market and a much-needed showplace for its Stream-based digital newspaper printing technology.

Pictured: Paul Carter (left) and Jack Knadjian with old copies of the newspaper