Ridgefield Park, NJ – October 25, 2006 – Agfa Graphics announced today that Post-Newsweek Media, a newspaper and commercial printer serving the Washington, D.C./Baltimore, Maryland market, has purchased three :Advantage CLS platesetters with :Arkitex NewsDrive from Agfa to bring state-of-the-art CtP technology to its new plant in Laurel, Maryland, which is expected to begin operations in the first quarter of 2007. 

“We looked at similar pieces of equipment from other manufacturers but found that Agfa’s :Advantage CLS has the simplicity of design that we prefer,” said John Payne, director of printing, Post-Newsweek Media. “It can hold many times the amount of plates than our current system, enabling us to become more of a lights-out operation during several shifts without much manual intervention.”

That kind of volume and automation is a primary objective at Post-Newsweek Media, which prints community newspapers that are circulated to more than 40 percent of the homes in the state—close to a million newspapers per week—in addition to work from 125 commercial customers, most of which are in the high-profile Baltimore/Washington, D.C. area.

“A lot of our press equipment is 25 or 30 years old, and we are looking forward to the time savings, the cost savings, and the increase in color printing that we are going to now enjoy in Laurel, where will have a much bigger plant than we have now,” added Frank Abbott, group president of Post-Newsweek Media. “We did our due diligence and we are happy with our choice of the :Advantage CLS.”

“By selecting Agfa’s :Advantage CLS platesetter, Post-Newsweek Media assured itself of higher quality, better reliability, and increased cost efficiencies over what it had been experiencing,” said Sheila Nysko, Agfa’s business development manager, Newspaper Systems, North America. “Post-Newsweek can be confident that the three new :Advantage platesetters will keep up with the company’s tremendous output with ease.”

Agfa’s :Advantage CLS, which can be configured for multiple plate sizes (11.5” to 27”) without customization, produces up to 220 plates per hour, and is applicable for short, medium and long-run newspapers that require a high volume of plates on short deadlines.

About Agfa
The Agfa-Gevaert Group is one of the world’s leading imaging and information technology companies. Agfa develops, manufactures and markets analog and digital systems for the printing industry (Agfa Graphics), the healthcare sector (Agfa HealthCare) and specific industrial applications (Agfa Materials).
Agfa's headquarters are in Mortsel, Belgium. The company is present in 40 countries and has agents in another 100 countries throughout the world. The Agfa-Gevaert Group achieved a turnover of 3,308 million euro in 2005.

About Agfa Graphics
Agfa Graphics offers integrated prepress solutions to the printing industry. These solutions comprise consumables, hardware, software and services for production workflow, project and color management. Computer-to-film, computer-to-plate and digital proofing systems have earned Agfa Graphics a worldwide leadership position in the commercial and package printing and the newspaper publishing markets.

Agfa Graphics is rapidly expanding its offerings in the growing digital inkjet market. Its experience in both imaging and emulsion technology has provided the expertise required for making an assortment of high-quality UV and solvent-based inks. Joint development and manufacturing partnerships with industry leaders expand its technological reach and allow the company to develop comprehensive digital solutions for printing posters, banners, signage, displays, labels and packaging materials.
Product and company information can be found on Agfa’s home page on the World Wide Web at: www.agfa.com.