United Daily News: e-printing

The "United Daily News" was founded in 1951 and is the flagship of the United Daily News. It is also the largest and most influential newspaper in Taiwan. In 1987, the United Daily News set up its own color printing company. The United Daily News has always stood up in the fiercely competitive newspaper industry in Taiwan, and it naturally has to be attributed to the idea of ​​the founder, Wang Yiwu, that he is “performing the newspaper”. At the same time, it is undeniable that the e-print team is a joint newspaper delivered to the readers on time every day. The most practical guarantee.

Ready to work
Taiwan’s newspaper industry started to use computer automatic grouping and folding functions very early. The joint newspaper department started the digitization and informationization of the entire newspaper office very early.

The e-printing of the printing industry must first be ensured by the e-editing of the printing service. It took several years for the joint newspaper department to allow each editor to accept online revisions, questions, questions, and postings, which laid the foundation for e-printing. In terms of management, the introduction of ERP is also a very difficult project. It began to do preliminary research three years ago. By the end of this year, more than 30 modules of ERP will be put on line in the joint newspaper department. The automation of equipment automation and management information is mature, and CTP can play a role smoothly. From the ad's group edition to the present, the whole preparation process and the joint newspaper department have probably gone through 10 years.

Automatic Arrangement and Digital Transcription
The content of e-printing in the joint newspaper department can be divided into three parts: automatic imposition and digital copying, computer direct plate making, and digital proofing project.

The headquarters of the United Daily News is in Taipei. Linkou, Taichung and Kaohsiung have their own branches. The printing system has also been set accordingly. After all the operations of the United Daily News were completed at the Taipei headquarters, they passed through the printing company's platemaking factory and passed through a set of copying equipment to Linkou, Taichung and Kaohsiung. Editing work for all local layouts is done at the headquarters and then printed out by printing presses.

The United Daily News has branch offices in North America, Europe, and Southeast Asia. The main news is provided and completed by Taipei. The news is then transmitted through the global network to the various branches, which are then published by the clubs together with local news and advertisements.

Computer Direct Plate Making

The headquarters of the United Daily News in Taipei has six CTP computer platesetters. The process of direct plate-making is: the editorial department completes the news content, and the advertiser and ad group edition department completes the content of the advertising system. Then, the printing department's platemaking factory transmits the content through the full-page splitting group large format system control center. To Linkou Plant, Taichung Plant, and Kaohsiung Plant, CTP will make the plates. Among them, the joint newspapers have a CTP operating system control center and a digital proofing system. In addition to CTP, the United Daily News also has some traditional film output machines.

A description of the progress of the joint newspaper direct computer program. From November 2001 to February 2002, it was the effectiveness evaluation and equipment evaluation of the entire program. In the first phase, the first production line was introduced in Taipei to purchase and install. It went on-line in June and it saved 7 workers in August. In the second phase starting in September, two production lines were introduced into each plant. On-line operations were conducted in February 2003. By June, a total of 15 people were reduced in the fourth plant. Followed by the third stage, the province introduced 20 production lines and went online in October. By the end of the year, it had also reduced 43 people.

Digital proofing

Jointly reported the work flow of the coefficient code proofing, remote proofing can be done between Taipei and various external factories. The current digital proofing equipment used in the United Daily News is Epson 10600. There are 12 branches in Taipei Head Office and the following branches. Table 2 describes the progress of the joint reporting of coefficient code proofing projects. October 15, 2001 - November 2 project. The first stage was the installation of four headquartered offices in Taipei, followed by eight layoffs. The second stage was in July 2003. A total of 7 units were installed in 3 foreign plants, and Taipei Head Office also replaced the Epson 10600 model.

The combined investment in digital proofing in the United Daily News is approximately NT$2.68 million (approximately RMB650,000) in the first phase and NT$5.27 million (approximately RMB1.27 million) in the second phase.

The benefits of printing

Through the introduction of computer-to-plate projects, the combined newspapers have obvious benefits in the following three aspects: The first is to save manpower and reduce costs. The second is to increase the platemaking efficiency. The high speed of the CTP allowed the printing sector to save more time and gave it to the editors. Now the time for the final press release of the joint newspaper printing company to be printed is 15 to 20 minutes. The third is to improve quality. Direct platemaking reduces errors in platemaking, improves the accuracy of overprinting in printing, and improves quality.

Digital proofing is the first to bring about economic benefits. The annual newspaper department printing department thus reduces the expenditure by approximately NT$13.53 million (approximately RMB 3.26 million). In addition, in the past, the quality of printing in each factory was different. Now that digital proofing improves the consistency of the printing plate, the quality of the printing in each factory tends to be consistent. In addition, the combined newspapers have more opportunities and room to accept prints such as posters, books, and other newspapers. Whether it is computer or digital proofing, it will allow the joint newspaper department to have more time to undertake other types of jobs and increase the added value of the equipment.

Due to the impact of other media in recent years, the advertising revenue of Taiwan’s newspaper industry has been severely declining. Under a difficult world, the joint newspaper department has made such a big investment in e-printing business a rare vision. The colleagues in the Taiwanese newspaper printing industry have made great efforts in e-printing and hope to become a reference for their counterparts in the Mainland.

Source: Coinprint