AFTER the journalists have finished writing their stories and the photographers have taken their pictures, the news needs to get turned into the finished product you can hold and read.
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The Fairfax Regional Printers at Beresfield is the place where this happens and for students involved in the school newspaper competition, it’s well worth the visit.
The press is a busy place. Along with the Newcastle Herald, 32 other newspapers get printed there every day. This adds up to about 1.5 million newspapers per week. It was originally built in 1998 for $20million but a further $12 million has been spent on two major upgrades in the years since.
The printing press itself, a MAN Uniset 70, was manufactured in Germany and can print a paper of up to 96 tabloid pages with colour on each page. When the press was built, the printing towers had to be dropped by cranes through the roof due to their size.
These days it operates almost 24 hours a day, printing around 30,000 copies an hour. But the press isn’t the only thing you’ll see at Fairfax Regional Printers. There’s the paper store, the ink farm, the mail room with its rollercoasters, the plate room and the control room. Then there’s also the winding stations, insert drums, stackers, strapping lines, delivery station and more.
Tours can be arranged by contacting the school newspaper co-ordinator at the Herald on 4979 5000.
Come visit and get in the know with the news.