Digitally printed newspapers are old news for printer looking for growth

Steve Brown tells Adam Hooker how he is bucking the trend and making a success of newspaper printing.
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Over the past few months, a lot of column inches in the pages of PrintWeek have been dedicated to the digital printing of newspapers. Several publishers are looking at digital as a means of getting their product printed overseas, and it has even been discussed as an alternative for getting national newspapers into remote areas of the country without the distribution costs and time lag.

However, in one corner of west London, the talk of digitally printed newspapers as a novelty has come as quite a surprise. Stroma has been printing newspapers digitally since 2001, and this month the company celebrated its five-millionth newspaper coming off the presses.

Stroma operates as part of Océ’s Digital Newspaper Network (DNN), although recently it has sought business in its own right. Months after its foundation, Stroma was approached by Océ to print a foreign title in the UK. Frustrated with existing delivery times, one Océ client, Swiss newspaper NZZ, wanted its titles available in London first thing.

Eight years later and Stroma has 400 titles from all corners of the globe on its books, eight of which are printed every day as part of the DNN, while others are produced on an ad hoc basis, as and when they are needed. Overall, the company outputs 60 to 70 titles each day.

Stroma prints between five and 500 copies in each run but, according to managing director Steve Brown, the exact requirements for each job depend on who is staying in which part of London.

Papers go to places such as foreign embassies and chambers of commerce, hotels and airports. Stroma has handled the distribution for the latter two areas itself, but for a company with just 10 employees, establishing itself has been tough.

Brown says: Hotels are a growing market, but it’s a slow growth. Not everyone knows it’s a service that’s available. But we can offer an added value for a hotel’s customer. It’s just a case of spreading the word, but we do find the response always tends to be positive.

Plans taking off
Airport business is another key area for Stroma, with around 25% of its newspapers going to that market. In order to ensure it succeeds in the sector, the company moved from Park Royal to Southall, closer to Heathrow, a year ago and it now shares its facility with newspaper logistics company Higgs – no coincidental relationship. Brown is currently forging other relationships that will boost the volume of global national newspapers printed specifically for aircrafts.

He says: It’s not just about giving the passengers in first class and business class an alternative to The Sun, it’s about making them feel at home.

We also have the possibility to include a one-page advert in there, usually towards the back in place of a redundant ads page. We can include an advert for the airline, for example, a special offer or some other service they offer.

Brown also has plans to upgrade the company’s current Demandstream 8090 press with Océ Jetstream technology by the end of the year. The major benefit of this will be the ability to offer colour newspapers, which could offer the key to taking Stroma’s newspaper business to the next level.

He says: The machine would improve our speed, but colour has always been a major stumbling block. Publishing is led by advertising and without colour, advertising is an issue. We have been waiting for this opportunity and I think the introduction of colour will lead to a bit of a surge – I can see newspapers growing to 50-60% of our total business.

Increasing newspaper printing could be coming at a perfect time, with the industry as a whole undergoing a widespread change, not least in its distribution techniques.

Brown explains: Distributors are moving away from the sale and return model because of the cost of pulping, administration and transport for the unsold copies. With digital printing we are encouraging people to only take as many newspapers as they will need. It has happened naturally.

Perhaps mindful of the challenges currently facing the sector, Brown doesn’t overplay the importance of papers to his business, but when Stroma is able to print in colour, global publishers, hotels and airlines, are certain to come flocking.

As traditional newspaper printers continue to struggle and close plants, Stroma will increase its portfolio of publications, print runs and destinations. And, as the rest of the newspaper industry continues to talk about digitally printing newspapers, Stroma will just get on with doing it.
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STROMA FACTFILE

Based Southall, west London
Founded 2001
Managing director Steve Brown
Turnover £2m
Areas covered newspapers, training manuals
Kit Océ Demandstream 8090