San Luis Obispo - In its continued effort to educate the best and brightest to enter the graphic communication industry and lead it in the future, Cal Poly's Graphic Communication Department has unveiled the Dow Jones & Company Web Printing Laboratory.

With heavy support from industry partners, the department has expanded its educational offerings in publication printing by doubling the page count and color capacity of its web publication press. The addition of four-units makes it an eight-unit web press.

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Dow Jones is beefing up its infrastructure facilities to better compete with rivals The New York Times and other national newspapers. The U.S. business and financial news provider is investing its hopes in a multimillion dollar project that aims to boost colour capacity at its U.S production sites nationwide, NewsandTech.com reported.

The upgrades are scheduled to be completed by September 2011. This upgrade will double the colour capacity of the Wall Street Journal, by providing up to 48 pages of colour

As a part of this upgrade, the company will be adding new colour towers at its seven print sites in United States and at contracted sites that include the Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald and others, sources told NewsandTech.com. The towers installed will include a mix of Goss International Colorliner and Metrocolor units, which the company is acquiring from shuttered or downsized plants of other publishers.

Dow Jones' chief communications officer declined to comment about the project, according to NewsandTech.com. Dow Jones is owned by News Corporation.

Dubai-based Atlas Media Communications has entered into an agreement with Newspaper Direct to print up to twelve international newspaper titles in the UAE, The National reported last week.

The deal is part of a US$4 million (Dh14.69 million) business plan that includes the possibility of franchise agreements in other regional markets as well.

Image: The National

Previously, the newspapers had to be flown in. Each newspaper required a license from the UAE government and approval from the National Media Council, and it took two months to obtain the license, Amit Radia, chief executive of Atlas Media Communications, told The National.

"This model allows you more personalisation [of newspapers], it reduces lead times, and helps you cope with market demand, instead of being stuck with half a million copies a day," he said.

According to the license agreement, the company plans to print more European titles, newspapers from the United States, Far East, Australia and South Africa across the Gulf states and east Africa as well. However, change of any content or sale of local advertising in the newspapers the company republishes in the UAE is prohibited under the local law.

Independent Kazakh newspapers are faced with a temporary stop to printing as their major printing press has been closed in order to be tax probed, the Taiwan News reported Friday.

Authorities raided and closed the Kometa-S printing press earlier this week under the premise of tax evasion. The Kometa-S plant prints the Independent newspaper Respublika, and the publications for the Azat and Alga opposition movements. All printing has been postponed while the investigation proceeds. Respublika labelled the raid an act of intimidation to force the papers closure.