The Star Tribune Media Co. is investing $5 million to upgrade the decades-old newspaper press system at its Heritage printing facility in Minneapolis. The upgrades are expected to be completed in 2020.
Star Tribune Media investing $5 million in press system upgrade at Minneapolis plant
The Heritage facility in Minneapolis will get new electronic control system.
April 15, 2016 at 1:56AM
The North Loop facility is responsible for printing not only the Star Tribune and its products, but also the Pioneer Press and the regional edition of USA Today.
The updates to the controls of the press system are expected to help stabilize and ensure its performance, said Kevin Desmond, senior vice president of operations for Star Tribune, in a statement.
"Print products remain central to the Star Tribune mission," Desmond said in a statement. "With these infrastructure improvements from Manroland Web Systems, we're extending the life of our assets, allowing us to deliver higher-quality output well into the future."
While the printing presses themselves are mechanically in working order, the electronic controls that run them are the originals from the 1980s and mostly have never been updated.
"It's really, really old technology," Desmond said in an interview, comparing them to early models of computers.
It is significantly cheaper to prolong the life of the equipment with the retrofit as opposed to replacing the whole system, Desmond said.
Manroland said the PECOM-X computerized control system will help increase "capabilities to make job changeovers faster, reduce waste and increase color and format flexibility."
The Star Tribune's upgrades are being done in phases to try to minimize possible production disruptions, officials said.
Nicole Norfleet • 612-673-4495
Twitter: @nicolenorfleet
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