"We have a lot of ethnic newspapers, and they’re traditionally smaller newspaper runs but they are also loaded with four color," Rodd Winscott, president of Chicago-based Newsweb’s printing division, told PrintWeek.

"We think we can offer them a better way to put their newspapers on the street with more up-to-date news and zoning potential - and that was one thing that appealed to us about the TKS. We can produce up to a five-section paper and they’ve incorporated the traditional newspaper folder so we can produce different sections without any waste."

Winscott noted this is the company’s first digital press for newspaper printing, adding: "With the digital print model, the smaller the press run the more cost-effective it is. This will enable us to get into some new markets we had previously not be able to enter - as well as do other types of printing we have traditionally have not been involved in."

Though community and ethnic newspapers have long catered to a very local audience, Winscott said the TKS JetLeader should also enable Newsweb to expand geographically.

"Nowadays if it doesn’t go to the neighborhood, it's essentially direct mail and in that case it doesn’t make too much difference where you’re located," he noted, adding that because Newsweb in centrally located in the US it has easy distribution to both coasts.

When it’s installed in the coming months, the Newsweb JetLeader will be configured with an inline newspaper finishing system capable of producing papers in broadsheet format up to 72 pages and five sections.

The four-colour JetLeader has a rated capacity of 150m/min and a maximum web width of 546mm and can print at resolutions up to 600dpi.

Winscott said: "We looked at everything that is on the market such as HP and Kodak and they are certainly good machines. But the TKS was what we were looking for to serve our specific market."

Newsweb is targeting for the JetLeader 1500 to be up and running in time for Graph Expo, held in Chicago in October. As for the company’s overall business, Winscott noted that, unlike general interest newspapers, ethnic and small community papers seem to be holding onto their audiences.

In a statement announcing the sale, TKS (USA) President Nobuyuki Nakajima, said the new press will enable Newsweb to also pursue new verticals such as books and catalogs, adding: "Newsweb will explore new markets using the variable data capabilities of the JetLeader."

At Drupa, TKS printed the New York edition of The Wall Street Journal daily on its stand. TKS has developed its own paper unwinder, web guide, and folders, while the web can be turned 90 degrees prior to the infeed and fed into a cross-cutter to enable book production.