Core Publishing Solutions Spotlight
Solution Shoulders the Publication Load
There is an interesting dichotomy of thought when it comes to print providers with roots in the nineteenth century. While printers with such a rich and storied history tend to be pigeonholed as loyal toward mature and time-tested methods of manufacturing, one could contend that in order to remain relevant and keep the lights on, adhering to the latest technology is paramount.
Core Publishing Solutions, the Eagan, Minnesota-based print production arm of business/professional publisher extraordinaire Thomson Reuters, is a prime example of this. The printing operation — one of the largest in North America — has come a long way since its founding in 1872 as West Bookstore & Publishing (West), where it developed as a niche in legal publishing market, eventually becoming the content engine behind the online Westlaw legal research service. West expanded its market scope when it was acquired by The Thomson Corporation in 1996 and when it merged with Thomson Publishing. Additional expansion came when Thomson obtained the global news and financial information business Reuters in 2008.
Core Publishing Solutions has 440 employees working at its 1.3 million-square-foot facility — 650,000 of which are dedicated to production. The shop produces perfect bound, case bound, and loose-leaf titles for more than 100 other publishers that do business primarily in the professional, scholarly, higher education, and trade markets.
The Core Publishing Solutions printing facility boasts web, and sheetfed machines, complemented by both continuous feed and digital sheetfed toner-based presses. The company previously relied on the services of two Canon imagePRESS C7010 color toner machines and three monochrome VarioPrint 6000 TITAN digital presses.
“Like all printers, we work toward solutions to manage shorter run lengths and quicker turn times,” says Larry Soler, director of prepress, press, and digital departments for the company.
“We were looking at a growing print-on-demand workload, and we needed to beef up our output because the current imagePRESS C7010s were overloaded. We were churning out more than one million impressions per month between the two printers.”
According to Soler, Core Publishing Solutions had come to a technological crossroads.
What the plant needed, Soler realized, was a solution to support the organization’s business model as a high quality, service-oriented, short-run book manufacturer. As part of the vetting process, Vickie Jensen — the technical supervisor for prepress and digital print at Core Publishing Solutions — explained that the company needed to review its costs to establish what new device would provide the best return on investment. It became a question of digital toner and click charges versus the production inkjet printing model.
In the end, Core Publishing Solutions opted to go with the VarioPrint i300 sheetfed press from Canon Solutions America. The press was installed in November and December of 2015. “Canon Solutions America showed good faith with us, as we utilized our technology rider on imagePRESS C7010 toner machines to get into the VarioPrint i300 inkjet press,” Jensen says.
From a workflow standpoint, Jensen says that many of their custom workflows are using PRISMAsync controllers — utilizing multiple data sources. One production workflow has been completely migrated, she says, and as of press time, the team was working on an automated XML-based workflow.
While still new on the shop floor, the VarioPrint i300 inkjet press has made life easier for a number of Core Publishing Solutions’ customers. One of the greatest benefits has been using a single print-on-demand process for both monochrome and color custom reports. The jobs were previously produced on a combination of three devices. Now, the VarioPrint i300 inkjet press handles all 750,000 impressions each month.
“That allows us to service a particular customer that requires same-day printing, binding, and shipping, which will improve our overall customer service,” Jensen remarks.
“We have been able to deliver a quality product in the short cycle time required for their products.”
What this machine ultimately represents, Soler says, is an evolutionary process that sees inkjet printing capabilities as the driver behind Core Publishing Solutions’ growth as the go-to provider of excellence in book publishing, while meeting the goals of publishers and outside authors.
Moving forward, Soler foresees the company taking advantage of upgrades for the VarioPrint i300 inkjet press, including a spot precoat technology called ColorGrip. The precoat is placed only where areas will receive ink, allowing the ink to sit high on the sheet and provide better print contrast.
“We will work to optimize the VarioPrint i300 speed and quality that supports us to maximize the whole production value stream,” Soler says. “Specifically for the VarioPrint i300, we are looking to ramp up to a volume of five to six million impressions per month. This includes additional loose-leaf products and newsletters once the BLM600 product line is released in Q3. In addition, the new ColorGrip ink set and bonding agent will allow us to migrate products with coated stocks.”
At-a-Glance
Core Publishing Solutions - Thomson Reuters, Eagan, MN
Markets Served:
Publishing solutions for the professional, scholarly, higher education, and trade markets
Capabilities:
Color and monochrome sheetfed digital printing, web offset printing, binding (perfect bound, adhesive burst bound, Smyth sewn case, saddle stitch, loose leaf)
Ancillary Services:
Electronic books, warehousing and fulfillment, custom kitting
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