The Newspaper Society has established a new Reproduction Standards Group to bring the technical and advertising sectors of newspaper production together to improve reproduction quality.


It was set up after last years questionnaire from the Society, which showed that reproduction was the primary concern of 10,000 representatives of the national advertising community.


Precision Colour Printing managing director Paul Liggins, who chairs the new group, said: We want to hear first-hand the concerns that were expressed in the questionnaire and address those issues.


There is much that can be done, including an industry-wide education campaign, with guidance on the parameters of artwork creation when designing ads for web offset production.


Also on the group are Newcastle Chronicle & Journal creative support manager Michael Brown, Johnston Press Printing Division managing director David Crow, Northcliffe Newspapers assistant commercial director Alison White, Newspaper Society marketing director Chris Stanley and Newspaper Society head of communications Lynne Anderson.


The group is the societys second initiative to bridge the gap between designers, advertisers and newspaper printers after it launched the 1m internet file delivery system AdF@st, which is free to agencies (PrintWeek, 19 May 2000).


Anderson said: There are a lot of strands that well be bringing together from marketing to agencies to technology. You never know what kinds of ideas will come up we may have another AdF@st on our hands.


Story by John Davies