SWUG winners print it again

Winning newspaper sites at Single Width Users Group awards line-up for back-to-back celebrations in Tasmania.

This year’s Single Width Users Group annual awards for newspaper production saw a re-run of last year’s results with the same two sites taking out the major awards.

As in 2010, the big winner at this year’s award ceremony, held at Hobart’s Wrest Point convention centre over the weekend, was the Fairfax Media North Richmond site which took home both the Art Roller Shield for Best Overall Print Quality, won for its production of the Illawarra Mercury newspaper, and the Coates Australia Shield for Best Four Colour Newspaper which it won for production of The Land newspaper.

The third major award produced another back-to-back winner in the category of Best Coldset Commercial Publication, presented by Flint Ink, which went to New Zealand-based Horton Media for its production of NZ Aviation, the same publication with which it won last year.

The awards night capped off a busy weekend for more than 200 delegates from 41 printing sites around Australia and New Zealand who attended this year’s conference. Highlights included the traditional Friday night welcome function – a cruise up the Derwent River – sponsored by Kodak, and the Saturday night site visit to the local Davies Brothers print site, home of the Hobart Mercury newspaper.

Key topics covered by the conference included the latest developments in UV printing and digital inkjet printing as well as proactive maintenance, environmental auditing and OH&S.

Guest motivational speaker was renowned Australian axe man, David Foster, who demonstrated in dramatic fashion what can be done to a lump of wood apart from turning it into paper and printing news on it.

Pictured: Bob Lockley, SWUG president (left) and Anthony Payne (right) congratulate Mike Horler from Horton Media NZ on winning the award for best coldset commercial publication two years in a row.

Art Roller Shield – best overall print quality
Highly commended – The Advocate – Examiner Print Centre (Goss Community)
Runner-up – Australian Financial Review – Davies Brothers (KBA Comet)
Winner – Illawarra Mercury – North Richmond (manroland Uniset 70)

Coates Australia Shield – best overall four colour newspaper
Highly commended – Australian Financial Review – Mandurah (manroland Uniset)
Runner-up – Shepparton News – Newsprinters (Goss Community)
Winner – The Land – North Richmond (manroland Uniset 70)

Flint Ink shield - best coldset commercial publication
Highly commended – Riverine Herald Real Estate – Newsprinters (Goss Community)
Runner-up – The Eagle Summer 2010 – Print Leader Tamworth (Goss Community)
Winner – NZ Aviation – Horton Media NZ (Goss Community)