Locally-owned Minneapolis publisher Star Tribune Media will use manroland's latest control technology on its Goss press after winning print work from Gannett and DFM.

German press maker manroland is pitching increasingly for upgrade and control systems orders, and last year introduced a version of its PECOM system to suit any third-party press. In the case of Star Tribune, the press is Goss's Headliner Offset, a design at its most popular almost three decades ago.

Installed 1987 and extended in 1999, the former McClatchy company had five presses totalling 55 units and 50 reelstands - each capable of printing a 72 page product including 20 four-colour and four spot.

Star Tribune's success in gaining other publishers' work compounded the need to upgrade and update press controls, and the manroland contract will access the PECOM-X control desk through off-the-shelf electronic gateways. Faster job changeovers, reduced waste and increased colour and format flexibility are promised.

The upgrades are being phased to avoid interrupting production and reduce capital impact.

Operations senior vice president Kevin Desmond says the order followed visits to other users: "The long-term goals and expertise of their team members created a technology partnership which fits our desire to continue to grow and develop our own production models," he says.

It is a milestone event for manroland in that it extends the company's controls systems technology beyond its own web press footprint.

Star Tribune - which was bought by local businessman Glen Taylor in 2014 - has been working to turn its printing operation into a profit centre.

Its own titles are the seventh-largest Sunday and 12th-largest daily circulation newspapers in the US. Last year it added the 27,000 weekday run of the midwest editions of Gannett's USA Today to a contract book which has included DFM's Pioneer Press since the closure of its St Paul plant.

Gannett had earlier sold its heatset operation at Maple Grove to QuadGraphics, which moved the work to its own sites and closed that part of the plant. At its peak the site had about 300 employees.

Pictured: The control desk on a Goss Headliner Offset press