N.Z. News expects wages to rise

Press, 17 July 1979, Page 20

N.Z. News expects wages to rise

PA Auckland N.Z. News, Ltd, printer and publisher had started the current year well, the chairman (Mr G. T. Upton) said at the annual meeting. However, the company was likely to be faced with considerable increases in wages, and it was, therefore, impossible to forecast the result for the full year, he said. Expressing his satisfaction with the new techniques used to produce the “Auckland Star,” and soon also the "Christchurch Star,” Mr Upton said that conversion of the existing presses to the "Di-litho” process had cost $400,000. If the “Auckland Star” had

installed offset presses with the same capacity, the cost would have been SBM, he said.

The “Auckland Star” would now not need new presses for at least 10 years. By then, there should be presses of a revolutionary type, and at half the price of a present-day offset press. Equipment to prepare the “Auckland Star” to the prepress stage had cost about $2.5M. This included typesetting, and composition, which occupied one-third of the previous space, and had become “office jobs.” As example of the savings made with the new computerised photosetting method, Mr Upton mentioned the production of the U.B.D, and Wise’s business directories.

In the past, 50 tonnes of “laboriously set” lead type was used, but now the same amount of information needed for printing the directories was contained on 12 magnetic types, weighing a few kg.