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September/October
2015
January/February 2016
Reprinted with permission from Newspapers & Technology, 2016
www.newsandtech.com
The premier resource for insight, analysis and technology
integration in newspaper, magazine, digital and hybrid production.
Globe targeting February ’17 go-live in Taunton
uby
tara McMeekin Contributing Writer
The exterior of The Globe’s new 328,000 square
foot production facility in Taunton. The publisher
hopes to take production of all internal and commercially produced products live by February 2017.
Photo: The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is moving full speed
ahead at its newly minted 328,000-square-foot
production facility in Taunton.
The facility will produce The Globe and
other papers it publishes, as well as its commercial contracts with The New York Times,
the Boston Herald, the Worcester Telegram &
Gazette, and its newest client, Gannett flagship USA Today, which went into production
at the existing facility on Jan. 25. The Globe
expects to produce the first products at
the new plant sometime around April 4,
according to Vice President of Operations
Rich Masotta, although not all presses and
production capacity will be live until
February 2017.
The Globe first announced that it had
found a new facility in May 2015 (see News
& Tech July 2015). The building — formerly
owned by Chambers Properties — seems to be
a perfect fit for a buzzing newspaper production operation.
“We found the warehouse in Taunton and
it was conducive to exactly what we wanted to
do,” Masotta told N&T.
The biggest boon, he said, will be getting
into a facility where everything can live on one
level vs. the three levels at The Globe’s existing
700,000-square-foot production site.
The new facility, located at 330 ConstituNews & Tech
tion Drive, has been vacant since 2011
when its last tenant, the Boston Apparel
Group, vacated.
Some 282,000 square feet of the facility
will be dedicated to production and distribution operations, with offices comprising the
remaining 46,000 square feet.
In February, The Globe tapped Pressline
Services for its FlexPress infrastructure, which
will equip the facility with 22 zones and four
folders, and position the publisher to court
additional commercial work.
Press installations began in early December.
“In total, Pressline is retrofitting 140 Goss
Urbanite units with all new controls and inking systems,” Masotta said.
The press infrastructure provides
three pages across and right angling into a
doublewide folder, giving The Globe near doublewidth performance, Masotta said.
The FlexPress will feature EAE Press
Controls, Rexroth shaftless technology,
Perretta motorized fountains, Technotrans
dampeners, WPC registration controls and
NELA lockups.
“We also have a four-tower Tensor press,
and we plan on moving that over, along with
a UV curing system,” Masotta said. “We will
have four zones that will be able to print all
commercial work and USAT. We will have the
press capacity to print jackets and we will
have a significant amount of dayside capacity
— so we’ll be bringing a lot more commercial
work in.”
Three-up, chem-free CTP
On the prepress side, The Globe selected CTP
equipment from Agfa to feed the presses.
The publisher is installing four Advantage
N-TR high-speed platesetters with N94 violet,
chemistry-free plates and four Attiro highspeed clean-out units. The publisher is also
installing four Nela VCP 1200 automatic
vision register punch benders.
“We are hoping to have our platemaking equipment installed by the end of January, and begin testing in early February,” said
Cesar Molina, director of New England Media
Group Prepress Operations. “We’re switching
to 36-inch plates for 3-up, or three pages per
plate.”
The 3-up process would have slowed
down the workflow with the existing equipment, prompting the publisher’s move to the
high-speed CTP equipment,” Molina added.
The Globe’s relationship with Agfa, which
is located just 30 minutes away in Wilmington, dates back 13 years.
“Our front-end system is also Agfa, giving
us consistency,” Molina said. “Performance
has been great and we haven’t experienced
any significant issues with plates affecting the
pressroom over the years.”
Building a pressroom
While the facility is by all accounts perfect for
a newspaper and commercial printing operation, Masotta said a project of this magnitude
is never without it’s obstacles.
“Building a pressroom from scratch is
a challenge with all of the construction and
components,” he said.
The Globe partnered with The Austin Co.
on the design and layout of the new facility.
Austin got involved in the project in October
2014 and brought to the table an integrated
team of architects, engineers, and project
managers.
“Because it’s not a manufacturing or
production space, mechanical, electrical and
plumbing systems have to be brought up to
speed to accommodate a manufacturing facility,” Mike Pusich, manager of facilities development for Austin Co., told N&T. “We looked
at structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection and architectural aspects,
and modified the master plan to fit.”
The Boston Globe continued on page 1
January/February 2016
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Turner Co. handled construction on
the building.
“They liked our integrated team and
our newspaper experience,” Pusich said.
Pusich said very little demo work was
required on the facility.
“In terms of basic bones, The Globe did
a really good job of selecting a facility that
was a good fit for a newspaper,” he said.
The Globe will be able to use most of
the existing office space and the cafeteria
with no modifications. One kitchen area
has been modified and redesigned to serve
as locker rooms.
“If you were to start with a blank piece
of paper, this was a great fit,” Pusich said.
The existing warehouse did require
the removal of columns to accommodate
presses and the addition of slabs to ensure
they could handle the press loads.
Reprinted with permission from Newspapers & Technology, 2016
“There weren’t many surprises and it
was largely what you’d expect turning a distribution center into a newspaper production facility,” Pusich said.
The Globe and Austin Co. opted for air
rotation units in the facility for air handling
in the plant.
“We couldn’t hang ductwork because
we had to use what capacity we had for
conveyor and ink piping loads,” Pusich said.
“Air rotation allowed us to put units on each
side of the building. They blow to the center
of the building, and that was the ideal solution for this facility.”
Plumbing, electrical, and mechanical
work to support the press installation has
been extensive. Austin partnered with Technotrans for the ink pumps and piping, and
Pressline to accommodate plumbing associated with the reconditioned presslines.
“The press concept was really well developed — Pressline did a good job of taking
the product mix and configuring Urbanite
presses to handle that full range of products in a very efficient way,” Pusich said. “It
gives The Globe a tremendous amount of
flexibility.”
Pusich applauds the time The Globe
has devoted to the move, associated installations, and go-live.
“They’ve done an excellent job of
putting the job together — the team and
the schedule — they’re not rushing it and
they’ve left a good amount of time for commissioning the presses, training and bringing the presses online in a phased manner.”
Masotta attributes the success of the
project to Globe owner John Henry’s commitment to the paper.
“It’s a big investment by John Henry,”
Masotta said. “And there is no one else
that’s really doing that kind of investing in
newspapers — it’s a huge gesture.” p
Pressline is handling the press installation at the new facility and through its FlexPress infrastructure is retrofitting 140 Goss Urbanite units.
Photo: The Austin Co.
News & Tech
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