What is believed to be the world’s first press conversion to produce three compact newspaper products on a press designed for two broadsheets is underway in Columbus, Ohio.

The concept – which turns a ‘two-around’ press cylinder into a ‘three-around’ one using a single printing plate – was introduced in different forms in 2008 as Goss International’s Triliner, and by US-based Pressline Services as 3Volution.

Pressline, which says it has three patents pending for the technology, is to convert existing TKS presses at the ‘Columbus Dispatch’ to print a much shorter and slightly narrower product. At about 371 mm deep and 267 mm wide, it will be smaller than Berliner but significantly better-proportioned than the narrow broadsheet (556 x 292 mm) the ‘Dispatch’ and many other US newspapers had been running.

A major advantage is that the reduction of more than a third in the page size translates to significant paper savings, but unlike a switch to tabloid, the sectional format and fold are retained.

In fact, the converted press will deliver three sections instead of the previous two.

Some conversions also offer the option of retaining the old format, and St. Louis-based Pressline says the system will work with both single and double-wide presses.

Pressline’s Jim Gore says users can choose between 50 per cent more productviity in straight production, or extra sections on collect: “In a straight mode you get one section per former board and 50 per cent more speed – if you are running at 50,000 cph you will get 75,000 with 3V with no colour gain,” he says. “In collect mode you get three sections per former board and 50 per cent more colour – 24 pages per web instead of 16 pages – but with no speed gain.”

Foldex Corporation says it is supplying its NJ2C short cut off jaw folders for the Columbus project. The company says its Viking folder was the first successful machine capable of producing both two-around and three-around cut off products for commercial applications. Since then it has developed special applications of both pin type and pinless folders used in commercial and publication printing. The NJ2C is the third in a series of products dedicated to coldset printing applications, and the second generation of short cut off machines with straight and double collect capability.

US trade magazine ‘News&Tech’ reported that the modified  ‘Columbus Dispatch’ will print the ‘Cincinnati Enquirer’ and ‘Kentucky Enquirer’ in the new format under a letter of intent signed this week, enabling the Gannett papers to close their plant by the end of next year.

The new format would be “brighter, more engaging and easier to read”, president and publisher Margaret Buchanan told the magazine.