Please Help a total Newbie out

[mikeydreslim]

Hello everyone,

My name is Mike and I really need some help.

I am thinking of starting a "newspaper" publishing business in my local community (although newspaper in a loose term- more like a daily newsletter).

I want to buy a cheap printer/printing press that would give me the flexibility of publishing when/how I want (I am in Africa and there are certain restrictions on commercial printers where I live).

My budget is £2000 (about 3500 usd), but I am hoping to get a printer that allows me print 3000- 5000 copies daily of a full color newspapers.


Please can someone help me with an idea of what printer to get...bare in mind I know nothing about printing but I am able to hire people who can handle that part once I get the necessary equipments. I also have enough space so the size is no problem

Thanks

[rbailleu]

you are going to have trouble getting what you need for 3000 copies/day in your budget range.

[MrBafner]

Not liking your chances getting any offset setup for around $3500 USD.

You have to purchase a WHOLE lot of stuff that is associated with the printing press to begin with. You have to look at plates, a lot of different chemicals, paper stocks ... etc

Your best bet to begin with is to race down and grab yourself a little household printer and spend $100's of dollars on toner cartridges. Print your publications and see how you go with the handling of the paper stock.

Reason being, is that most people can't handle the after printing processes to begin with ... guillotining, folding, collating (if any), bundling & banding, packaging, then delivery to all your readers (if any).

The biggest no no ... is having children deliver the stuff. Some countries make it that they have to be over the age of 16 to do deliveries as too many children disappear while performing their job.

[oxburger]

Mikey,

A third option is to create your design for your paper so that you can get base runs of the layout printed at a 4 color offset house. Once you have these, you can print the daily information (date, articles, photos) onto the base running it through a black only laser printer or using a one color offset press. The downside to this is that any photos you want to include and all copy for the imprint will have to be black, but on the plus side, you only need to buy either a black laser printer or a one color press.

[DJButler]

Just a bit of relevant info - all the best, Darren

Creating tomorrow’s opportunities with the Océ Digital Newspaper Network
First individualised newspaper produced in Australia