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Newspapers News South Africa

Witness press capacity to double

Press capacity at the Witness' Willowton plant will almost double by May next year with the installation of two additional printing towers, reel stands and a folder. Production of the German KBA Comet press, currently printing 70 000 copies an hour of a 16-page newspaper, will be substantially increased.

New computer-to-plate technology will be installed at the same time, eliminating bottlenecks in its pre-press production area. This further saves time and labour, and ensures that titles get to press faster.

The reduced manpower requirements will not lead to retrenchments and existing staff will be trained and redeployed in other areas of production.

Since the installation of its new press in Willowton in 2002, the company has seen the demand for broadsheet and tabloid newspapers grow. It now prints more than 1,5 million broadsheet newspapers and 2,5 million tabloid newspapers every month.

The list of titles include The Witness, Weekend Witness, Ilanga, Daily Sun, Mail & Guardian, Soccer Laduuma, Rapport, City Press and Sunday Sun, The Mirror, UmAfrika, Village Talk, Greytown Gazette, Free4All, and the recently-launched Free4All Early Edition.

Distribution of these newspapers throughout KwaZulu Natal is done by a growing network of private contractors.

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