Next KBA Comet coming to News Limited Northern Territory

Installation of another KBA Comet press at News Limited printing plant is set to brighten up Northern Territory News.

Production manager, Bart Irwin, told Print21 that the Comet was chosen after seeing how it had transformed both The Gold Coast Bulletin in Queensland, 2004 and at a new printing plant in Hobart, Tasmania, last year.

“It was a group decision to keep KBA single width presses in our single width sites,” he said. “We did look at other press manufactures, but for the long-term we wanted all the presses consolidated with two manufacturers: manroland for double-width and KBA for single-width.”

The KBA B/B tower press will replace a manroland Uniman 2-2 press when installation begins in September next year. The press will comprise of four Pastoline reelstands, four printing towers and a double jaw folder with a 2:3:3 cylinder ratio.

According to Irwin, upgrading to a new press will allow the newspaper to produce back-to-back colour on its 64-page editions of the paper. “This effectively covers our Sunday to Friday editions,” he said. “At this stage, Saturday will require three passes.”

The Northern Territory News was launched in 1952 and has a circulation of 47,000 copies per day on weekdays and 55,000 on Saturdays.