Newsday takes lead in newspaper production

Newsday has become the first newspaper in Trinidad and Tobago to go completely digital in its production by introducing the CTP system — Computer to Plate. The use of the CTP means that the newspaper’s pages now move in the blink of an eye direct from the paginators’ computers to Press-ready plates. This eliminates the need for producing negatives which then had to be stripped. Stripping, in the newspaper business, means putting the negatives together in a certain sequence. These negatives would then be “burnt”  and converted into plates. Think of a large piece of film being burned on to a piece of metal. Before CTP, the paginated pages produced on computer had to be developed into negatives, much like a roll of film from a camera in a darkroom, and the negative was then converted to the plate which went on to the Press. Now the paginated pages, completed at the company’s head office on Independence Square in Port-of-Spain, go directly from the computer to the Press plates at our El Socorro press plant, thus making the entire process digital. 

With the acquisition of Newsday’s multi-million dollar Press, it was decided to look at ways to further reduce the time spent in the process whereby paginated pages became negatives, which, in turn, were made into plates. With a piece of software called the “acrobat distiller,” the whole process has changed significantly. The benefit of the acrobat distiller is that the need for a negative is completely eliminated. Instead of converting the computer files into negatives,  the distiller enables that process to be bypassed. It means now that when pages are completed in the newsroom, they can be transferred immediately from Independence Square to the Press room in El Socorro. It is here that another piece of digital software known as the Dyna Strip Imposition Software takes over, which now makes the stripping process obsolete. The  software literally does the stripping or sequencing of pages.

When the stripping is completed, another computer takes over. This software creates digital files of the newspaper pages which are taken and burnt directly on to the plates,  and sent directly to the press plates for printing. The entire process greatly improves and enhances the quality of production, particularly in terms of colour photos and advertisements. Newsday’s new digital process also reduces the time it takes to get the Press ready for printing.  It also reduces the number of dry runs spent getting the newspaper printed. The new method not only provides a cleaner and crisp newspaper print but  it also allows for a quicker press time.  In addition, the print does not lose quality because of the digital process. This latest technology puts Newsday in the front lane of ultra modern newspaper production.