July 2007

Corpus Christi 1st in Texas to switch to 46"

CORPUS CHRISTI — The Caller Times on June 6 became the first newspaper in Texas to switch to a 46-inch printing web.

And according to Newspapers & Technology magazine only two other newspapers in North America have switched to a 46-inch web. The Bismark (N.D.) Tribune was the first in spring 2005. The Toronto Star in Canada began making the change this spring and expects the reconfiguration to be fully converted by the fall.

The Caller Times’ parent company E.W. Scripps spent about $500,000 reconfiguring the printing press at the coastal bend facility to print the new newspaper size. The parent company also invested more than $800,000 recently to upgrade the Caller Times’ editorial system and install a direct-to-plate imaging system.

“Obviously, we are quite excited about the conversion to a 46-inch web width,” Caller Times publisher Patrick Birmingham said.


The Caller Times' first page on the 46 inch web rolled off June 6.

“Yes it provides newsprint savings, but the change also allowed us to save a step in our production cycle by going direct to plate. The impact of the cut down was minimal to our reader and the better reproduction quality raised the overall quality of the newspaper. ”

Caller Times vice president of production Ron Ferriby said since the newspaper made the width and direct to plate switch on the same day they have received very little feedback on the narrower size.

“However we get great reviews on the cleaner, sharper images,” Ferriby said.

The switch also makes the newspaper even easier for readers to hold and read.

“We have created a user-friendly product now with the new size,” Ferriby said.

About seven years ago newspapers nationwide began switching to narrower web widths to cut costs and reduce newsprint usage. Most adopted a 50-inch web that is called PASS size.

Since then however many newspapers have shrunk their web widths even further to 48 and 47 inches.

In Texas, 361 newspapers are on a non-SAU or PASS format and only 153 are still considered SAU (52-inch web).