Inflexibility has rendered traditional printing press an irrelevant process

As illustrated above, the printing press plays a critical role in the final production of a print newspaper through duplication of the newspaper into several copies that are bundled together for sale and delivery as single or bundled copies to single or groups of consumers in various locations of a given region.

The case study research found that according to respondents at Avusa Media (Port Elizabeth), despite some advances achieved in prepress and printing press technology – mainly those that allow for quality enhancement of newspaper copy and faster printing press production turn-around times - an inherent inflexibility of certain processes of the printing press posed a problem.

Respondents at Avusa Media (Port Elizabeth) who constituted operations management generally, and therefore formed what Struwig and Stead (2001:

124) describe as purposeful random sampling; acknowledged under Questions 6.2.1.5 and 6.2.2.4 above that printing press technology was unable to respond effectively or respond at all to the publishers‟ need for speed to market.

Crucial aspects to this, according to the respondents; included elements of the printing press production process, among which is newsprint – the special type of paper on which newspapers are printed. Avusa Media group newspapers are generally printed using the coldset offset lithography process. (Avusa: 2009).

It emerged that

(i) Lack of development in newsprint technology rendered the product inflexible with regards to sizes that can be used on available printing presses at Avusa Media (Port Elizabeth) in spite of the speed and high quality at which the printing press can print newspapers;

(ii) The quality of the printed newspaper is incapable of matching that of a digital newspaper. The respondents view was that current innovation in

printing press technology such as press design incorporating more automation and enhanced color quality management was simply providing inadequate responses.

(iii) Newsprint was costly and with each newspaper produced for a single reader, the costs escalated further when combined with distribution or delivery and sales costs.

With regards (i) above, according to the respondents, available printing press equipment, size and age invariably determine the level to which „modernised‟

newsprint, where available, can be utilised. By implication, the older the equipment at the printing press and also depending on the size, the less

„modernised‟ newsprint can be used.

With regards (iii), although the respondents did not provide costs figures specific to Avusa Media (Port Elizabeth) to illustrate their point due to confidentiality reasons; as reflected in Chapter 2 (page 25), newsprint costs are estimated to account for up to 20 per cent of a print newspaper‟s overall costs.

WAN (2007) reported that newsprint costs per ton were rapidly increasing worldwide, a matter described by the Wall Street Journal (2008) as contributing to print newspaper publishers‟ problems at a time when they were struggling with declining circulation and advertising revenue.

But in addition, virtually all respondents under Question 6.1.2.4 of the research questionnaire, expressed a view that general innovation currently in printing press technology available at Avusa Media (Port Elizabeth) was no longer relevant as an answer to the pressure for speed-to-market by print newspapers and that printing presses as part of the process of producing a print newspaper might become obsolete as the technology was „no longer viewed as a distribution vehicle for news.‟

This view somewhat confirmed a case as stated by Davis and Heineke (2005) of entire production processes and products becoming obsolete due to rapid technological advances. However, it further illustrated the loss of traction traditional print newspaper companies are evidently experiencing due partly to what Crosbie (2009; 4) and Epstein (2009) – Chapter 4 (page 58) - described as print newspaper publishers‟ lack of foresight to radical changes that would be rendered by rapid technological advances.

The case study research found further that all respondents were however keen (Response 6.2.1.8) for Avusa Media (Port Elizabeth) to gain access to, or acquire an alternative technologically driven printing press and print newspaper delivery process allowing for speed matching with digital platforms.

It emerged that this view (Response: 6.2.1.7) was based on a widely held belief that print newspapers will continue to offer an alternative platform for readers, especially in a developing country like South Africa, and that it was incumbent upon publishers to continue to offer readers alternative news publishing platforms.

The view by respondents at Avusa Media Eastern Cape (Port Elizabeth on future trends, and specifically the role of the print media; was not inconsistent with publishers‟ view elsewhere in the world.

As reflected in Chapter 2 (pages 36) according to WAN (2009: 26) despite a predilection for digital strategies, many print newspaper companies worldwide in 2009 identified several non-digital businesses as top priorities for development in five years to 2014 and in the top three were newspaper production and distribution services.

Central to the strategy, according to WAN (2009: 28) would be increasing profitability through greater efficiencies and cost savings involving, among other

things, the streamlining of workflow and processes, and investment in technology.

While the foregoing might seem somewhat contradictory to findings at Avusa Media (Port Elizabeth) about specifically the future role of the printing press – a core feature of print newspaper production – what it does is it confirms publishers‟ intentions worldwide to continue producing newspapers through non digital processes.

6.3.3 Traditional distribution methods not evolved, now a major constraint to speed to market.

The research established further that physical delivery of newspapers, another critical part of the news publishing and printing business model - had also become a major challenge in terms of speed to market, due mainly to transport logistics costs arising primarily from centralized location of printing presses.

It emerged that in the ordinary course of print newspaper business prior to the advent of digital platforms for news dissemination, it made perfect business sense for print newspaper publishers to centralize printing presses to minimize costs based on economies of scale.

Avusa Media (Port Elizabeth), as reflected in Chapter 4 (page 56), owns and operates a printing press in Port Elizabeth that produces several publications including The Herald, Weekend Post, Sunday Times, The Times and about half-a-dozen community papers which get delivered across the Eastern and Western Cape provinces.

However, according to respondents, with the advent of internet and its phenomenal speed to market, the competitive advantage of a centralised printing press for publishers of newspapers has been effectively eliminated.

One respondent, a senior manager directly involved with monitoring printing press software development for the company put it succinctly (Response:

6.2.2.4)

“Cost, cost, and cost. Advanced printing technology reduces the cost of running the paper through the press (better productivity, less labour, faster printing) and only slightly reduces the cost of the newsprint used (due to a small reduction in waste). It does virtually nothing to reduce the cost of distribution and delivery.

As outlined above, this is a significant finding to the extent that printed newspaper distribution which essentially involves massive investment in acquisition and maintenance of transport vehicles as well as personnel, remains a vital part of the business structure of a print newspaper publishing company.

The critical aspect is that while Avusa Media (Port Elizabeth) is fully dependent on it and therefore the newspaper publisher continues to be burdened with the costs involved, the transportation mode has not developed any technological advantage to enable it to perform better, at speeds that even remotely match that of the digital platform.

6.4 CONCLUSION

The case study research findings made interesting, if astonishing revelations about the flux state in which traditional print newspapers business is in South Africa as reflected by Avusa Media (Port Elizabeth).

More specific was the discovery or confirmation that the traditional business structure for printed newspapers was increasingly becoming unviable due to poverty of technological innovation in critical parts of the production value chain;

namely post production processes that encompass printing and distribution of printed newspapers.

An overview of the industry in South Africa and globally prior to the study being conducted had given an impression that technological innovation and advances were fairly widespread but perhaps disjointed hence the seeming paralysis that beset the print newspaper publishing industry worldwide, and which gave rise to a need for undertaking of the study to closely probe into these developments.

The impression was based on innovation in printing press technology propagated by certain printing press infrastructure developers such as Eastman Kodak Company (2009) which had brought out, among other innovative tools, a digital continuous inkjet printer – the Kodak Versamark V-series printing system - using dye-based inks printed on standard newsprint and producing output that closely resembled the look and feel of traditional offset printing.

According to Eastman Kodak Company (2009) the digital printing technology was

„by its very nature‟ immediate and capable of eliminating many of the preparation costs and time associated with conventional newspaper prepress.

The case study research findings at Avusa Media (Port Elizabeth) however revealed that while there were indeed such technological innovations and advances in the print newspaper publishing industry value chain worldwide, they were not only severely limited and disjointed but were also seemingly moving apart rather than towards consolidation in terms of the speed to market need faced by print newspaper publishers.

It is a finding that somewhat illustrates Crosbie‟s assertion (2009: 41) as reflected in Chapter 4 (page 58) that the „grave condition‟ in which traditional media and specifically print newspaper industry finds itself is due to the fact that it has been

“catastrophically oblivious” to the greatest challenge in the history of media posed by digital platforms

Flowing from these findings, it became apparent that solutions as envisaged with the secondary objections in Chapter 1 (page 5), namely; seeking to establish whether with identified technological innovation in post production processes, there would be greater efficiencies in production and delivery of print newspapers; significant increases in profitability and rate of return on invested capital, significant improvement in market penetration, significant improvement in customer retention, enhancement of customer relations and greater focus by print newspaper producers to core activity, were not determinable.