Sri Lankan newspaper group, Wijeya Newspapers (WNL) will install a new six-tower Goss Magnum press to improve colour capacity in weekend titles and meet a growing demand for Sunday newspapers.
The Goss press will be installed in April at one of the publishers’ two print facilities in Sri Lanka’s commercial capital of Colombo.
WNL is a new customer to Goss International, and the decision behind the purchase of the Goss press was the advanced technology as well as greater production capacity.
Totaling 24 units configured as six four-high towers, six zero-speed reelstands and a half-page jaw folder, the new 2x1 (single-width, single-circumference) Magnum press will feature a 546mm cut-off and operate at speeds up to 45,000 copies per hour. It will also incorporate shaftless drive technology, as well as motorised ink keys and advanced spraybar dampening and blanket washer technology for improved quality and production versatility.
PS Wijewardene, production director, Wijeya Newspapers, says the Goss Magnum press is expected to increase capacity by thirty percent at the plant.
Wijewardene says, “In addition to an increased demand for Sunday newspapers, our customers are becoming more quality conscious, so we were looking to upgrade our capabilities with advanced technology from Goss. “Choosing the Goss Magnum press gives us the confidence that we can meet growing demands and improve quality of reproduction and color capacity in our weekend products.”
According to PS Wijewardene, the investment is part of a company-wide quality improvement program, representing a real opportunity for the publisher
Wijewardene says, “With political developments in the country, new reader regions have opened up to us in the last few years, meaning that run lengths have increased and brought with them significant growth potential.”
He says, “As readers continue to become more discerning, the ability to maximise this potential in coming years will require versatile, multipurpose production systems incorporating a variety of progressive technologies. For this reason, we have decided the time is right to take a step up in capabilities with this latest press investment.”
Wiejeya Newspapers was established in 1979 by chairman RS Wijewardene and is the foremost newspaper group in Sri Lanka with the highest recorded turnover. The company’s portfolio of publications consists of many national independent newspapers, including the leading title, Daily Lankadeepa, a Sinhalese newspaper.
WNL’s Sunday Lankadeepa is described as the ‘crown jewels’ of the Wijeya Group, having achieved the highest number of copies sold of any Sri Lankan publication on record.
Other daily titles include Daily Mirror, Daily FT and the Sunday Times, as well as Adha, a national Sinhalese daily paper, targeted at young people to encourage new readers. Weeklies and glossy magazines are also published in the three main languages of Sinhala, Tamil and English. WNL has achieved many national awards for editorial content, design, photo journalism and production across its many titles.
