"High dollar price and low advertising revenue prompted us to look for options to reduce cost of production. One key step that we took is to migrate from 45 gsm Newsprint to 42 gsm Newsprint. It gave us 7% increase in Newsprint yield", said Snehasis Roy of ABP Pvt. Ltd. Snehasis was speaking at the ANP 2015 Conference organised by ASEAN Newspaper Printers association in Bangkok.

ABP tested Newsprint from different brands and different fibre mix to find the right Newsprint for production. ABP also operates an in-house laboratory to test the mechanical properties of Newsprint before using them for production.

" Apart from fine tuning press settings to compensate for loss in thickness, bulk and strength properties, we also found some solutions in the pre-press to standardise production", mentioned Mr. Roy. Moving from AM screen to FM screen and reducing Total Ink Limit from 240 to 200 and then to 180 helped them to reduce the amount of ink on the paper. The ink was also modified to increase pigment concentration and reduce the liquid component and it reduced absorption of the ink into paper and hence reduced print through.

"Standardisation with 42 gsm is a long term project. It may take you even a year. But the benefits are huge.", concluded Mr. Roy.