If you haven't yet seen a hard copy of Springfield Business Journal this week, you're missing some big changes we've made in the newspaper.
The March 23 issue is on a different type of paper, printed by a different printer, using a different process than the previous issue.
The specifications are 40-pound hi-brite, Nowata Printing Co. and a cold-set press, but what we hope readers notice are sharper images, richer colors and a paper with more "plop factor," as we like to call it.
It's my honor to introduce you to the new-look-and-feel Springfield Business Journal, and I encourage you to get your hands on a copy.
Let's explore the benefits of this revamped SBJ, of which there are four main areas.
1. Paper quality. We've moved to the 40-pound, 80-brite paper throughout, instead of a 40-pound cover and newsprint inside. Essentially, each page has the quality of our past covers. The paper is manufactured by AbitibiBowater.
2. Printer/color improvements. We're now printing on a cold-set press. For several years SBJ was printed on heat-set presses, which are ideal for slick papers, such as magazines and glossy inserts, because a heating process adheres the ink to the pages. Cold-set printing has advanced over the years to become a cost-effective option for newspapers. During our research, we determined the cold-set products displayed richer and more accurate colors. SBJ Publishing Inc.'s new printer, Nowata, also operates a heat-set press, which would enable SBJ and our clients to print glossy products as needed.
3. Local business. SBJ will be printed in our city's very own industrial park. One of three Nowata print shops operates at the Partnership Industrial Center off of East Kearney Street. The other plants are in Nowata, Okla., and Harrison, Ark. Should anything go wrong with our files or the presses, we're within a 15-minute drive of the plant. That's comforting; SBJ's previous printer, Kopco Inc., is in Caney, Kan., a three-hour drive.
4. Environmental effect. There will be no more trucking of papers from Kansas to Joplin to Springfield. SBJ Publishing's Joplin Tri-State Business also is making the switch to Nowata and the Joplin paper will mail from Springfield - with no expected effects on delivery times. That means fewer trucks burning less fuel on our precious highways.
A little background on Nowata: It's a commercial printer, with retail, grocer and catalog clients but a specialty in tabloid newspapers, because it is owned by newspaper group Community Publishers Inc.
Nowata prints Northwest Arkansas Business and Tulsa Business Journal, and when Arkansas Business' in-state printer was down due to the recent ice storms, Nowata's Springfield plant took the job on short notice.
The hardest adjustment from my position is the reduction in paper size - just by a hair. I wonder if you'll even notice.
Another change is to an unstitched print job, or sans staples in the binding. The paper will continue to be trimmed for that clean finish on the edges.
A hurting industry
I'm particularly encouraged by and grateful for these improvements at a time when so many papers are contracting. Stalwarts such as the Rocky Mountain News have shut down, and others including the San Francisco Chronicle and Seattle Post-Intelligencer are considering their options. In Missouri, the Kansas City Star is cutting 150 jobs in accordance with a 15 percent staff reduction across all McClatchy Co. newspapers.
And just when we thought it was limited to daily metro papers, Indianapolis Business Journal last week reported that the 52-year-old statewide Indiana Business magazine printed its last issue in February. The publisher, Curtis Publishing Inc., will continue to produce the Saturday Evening Post, IBJ reported.
Now, that comes close to home. A monthly business magazine folding is the equivalent to a neighbor hanging a foreclosure sign.
But here is SBJ, 29 years into this publishing gig and continuing to advance the print product with the readers' best interests in mind.
It's important to note that Kopco served SBJ very well for years, and we continue to consider Kopco a viable printing option.
This was a business decision that any good company would make, while constantly reviewing all expenses. Led by Expense Reduction Analysts, namely Phil Martiszus and Greg Pollard, SBJ's management team reviewed bids ERA collected from qualifying regional printers, and we made the best choice on cost and quality. SBJ founder and Publisher Dianne Elizabeth Osis says this was the most thorough decision-making process she and her management teams have undertaken.
We're expecting great things from this business relationship.
You can print that.[[In-content Ad]]
Springfield Business Journal Editor Eric Olson can be reached at eolson@sbj.net.
