Océ celebrates 5 millionth digital newspaper to roll off presses at Stroma in London
More than 20 million copies produced worldwide by global leader in short-run newspaper production
London, England—10 March 2009—Océ, an international leader in document management and printing for professionals, has celebrated a landmark in digital newspaper production – the 5 millionth copy to roll off the presses at Stroma in London.
Océ, the No.1 company in digital newspaper production, launched the world’s first commercial digital short-run newspaper site at Stroma printers in May 2001 and has now produced more than 20 million digital newspapers worldwide.
Since then, Océ has opened five more production sites – at Singapore, New York, Los Angeles, Sydney and Merenschwand in Switzerland – and prints 15 titles daily of some of the world’s most famous newspapers. These span different continents and include titles such as The Guardian, Sydney Morning Herald, New York Times and the Globe and Mail, Toronto.
In London, Swiss daily Neue Zuricher Zeitung (NZZ), the early pioneer and first company to sign to produce digital newspapers with Océ, and Danish daily financial paper Borsen Dagblad, the first newspaper to roll off the press at Stroma, are still in daily production along with Boersen Zeitung, the New York Times, Sydney Morning Herald and the Globe and Mail.
The idea was simple. Whereas readers previously had to wait until at least noon to get copies of their homeland newspaper, by printing digitally it meant the editions could roll off the presses as little as 20 minutes after editorial closure. It provided publishers with greater flexibility than ever before for their international editions printed digitally that look and feel the same as those printed on conventional web offset presses.
Steve Brown, Managing Director of Stroma, said: “Here, in London, there’s more experience at producing digital newspapers than anywhere else in the world. This has been a true and fantastic partnership with Océ – the relationship has been brilliant. Even though these are challenging times, I’m determined to take our business to the next level – and going the colour route with Océ is going to be part of that journey. Newspapers are facing difficult times, but digital opens up new markets and new revenue streams for them.”
Paul Krisson, who was instrumental in forming the Océ Digital Newspaper Network of commercial newspaper printing sites around the world, said: “Nobody’s pretending that digital newspaper production has been an easy ride. We should know because we’ve been in it from the start and are here for the long run, make no mistake about that. As the world leader in short-run digital newspaper printing with 98% of the world’s contracted newspapers running on Océ presses, we are delighted that Stroma has reached this landmark in production.”
Steve Wilson, Océ UK’s Director of Production Printing, said: “Overall, we’ve produced more than 20 million newspapers worldwide. That number is set to rise significantly with the introduction of super-productive inkjet colour technology for publishers, who will be looking at how digital is an important vehicle to provide additional income streams in an increasingly tough marketplace.”
For further information, please contact:
Océ (UK) Ltd: Colin Harding (Shaw Communications)
+44 7730 435400, pressoffice@oce.com
About Océ
Océ is one of the world's leading providers of document management and printing for professionals. The broad Océ offering includes office printing and copying systems, high speed digital production printers and wide format printing systems for both technical documentation and colour display graphics. Océ is also a foremost supplier of document management outsourcing. Many of the world’s Fortune 500 companies and leading commercial printers are Océ customers. The company was founded in 1877. With headquarters in Venlo, The Netherlands, Océ is active in around 100 countries and employs some 23,000 people worldwide. Total revenues in 2008 amounted to €2.9 billion. Océ is listed on Euronext in Amsterdam. For more information on Océ, visit the corporate website www.oce.com