Titles return sparks Dubbo upgrade into new life

Newspaper giant Fairfax reaps safety awards for its Dubbo plant upgrade, which sees six regional titles return to the bush.

Anthony Payne, general manager at Fairfax Media, says since the upgrade the site has won the PANPA safety award and recently taken the gold NSW PICA award for OH&S.

“We put in two new Kodak CtP lines and re-engineered an old Goss community press. We have taken all the mono units off and repositioned two folders into the centre of the press, which now has four Goss community towers and four automatic reel stands.

“The press now has a complete safety guard package to bring it up to current standards. We bought it throughWebco in New Zealand. Our company has a very big focus on ensuring the safety and wellbeing of our employees. We have also installed fully air-conditioning into the facility,” he says.

Significant investment was made in the eight-month project, which required work to be moved offsite to take the pressure off the upgrade. Now that the Dubbo plant’s output quality is up to Fairfax standards, the six regional papers on temporary leave in Chullora will be returning to where they belong before Christmas.



The country titles returning to the bush for 24 December 2011 include Lithgow Mercury, Western Advocate, Western Times, Bathurst Domain, Oberon Review and Blayney Chronicle.

“We see the Dubbo site being there for the long term, and it is a worthwhile investment for both regional publishing and the community,” says Payne.