- Nihon Shinbun Kyokai
- NSK News Bulletin
- NSK News Bulletin June 2012
NSK News Bulletin June 2012
Asahi Printech Wins International Newspaper Color Printing Contest
Asahi Printech Co., a member of the Asahi Shimbun Company group, has won first place in a biannual international newspaper color-printing competition. The company received notice on May 9 that it had won the 2012 competition.
The contest is run by WAN-IFRA, the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers, and has been held every two years since 1994. This year’s competition is the tenth to be held so far.
A total of 192 newspapers from around the world participated in the 2012 competition, submitting copies of their regularly printed newspapers issued during the months of January and March of this year.
Those newspaper copies were evaluated in line with a 7-point numerical scale that assessed color-reproduction quality, and a 28-point sensory evaluation that covered the sharpness and texture of the color-print pages.
For its entry, Asahi Printech submitted regular Asahi Shimbun evening editions containing 16 color pages that were printed at its Sakai factory in Osaka Prefecture. Although the competition is usually decided on the basis of how many demerit points are assessed against an entry, the winning printer for this year achieved the outstanding result of a perfect score.
Asahi Printech’s same samples had earlier won the gold prize in the Asian qualifying division of the competition. The divisional prize was awarded to the company at a ceremony held in Bali, Indonesia, on April 11.
It is the third time that Asahi Printech has participated in the international competition. In 2010, its Kawasaki Factory in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture, won the world second place and a silver prize for the Asia division.
Nikkei, TBS Holdings Launch Joint Program-Distribution in Asia
Nikkei Inc. and Tokyo Broadcasting System Holdings, Inc. on April 22 initiated a new broadcast business delivering information about Japan to the Asian region. The business is the first joint venture between the two media companies.
The one-hour weekly English-language program, “Channel JAPAN,” is being broadcast to selected countries across Asia. It is distributed over three broadcast networks ? CNBC Asia (to selected Asian countries), CNBC TV18 (India) and Unique Broadcasting Inc. (Taiwan). It is also being distributed through Ustream a website that specializes in live video streaming.
The program provides up-to-date coverage of the Japanese economy and business, the latest news about popular and traditional culture, and reports on new technology. TV Tokyo Corp., an affiliate of Nikkei Inc., provides content for the programs emitted by the broadcast service.
Nikkei and TBS Holdings announced their business tie-up plans in December of last year and on April 5 concluded a contractual agreement to form the “Nikkei-TBS Smart Media Business Partnership”.
The two companies share the operating expenses for their new joint broadcast business.
Asahi Opens Korean-Language News Website
The Asahi Shimbun on May 14 opened a free Korean-language news website named the “Asahi Asia Antenna” to distribute its news articles translated into Korean.
The site has so far featured Asahi articles fitting into two broad categories ? “Fukushima & 3/11” and “Asia Today.” While delivering the latest reports related to the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, the site also features articles on Japanese politics, technology, culture and the boom of Korean pop culture in Japan, among other subjects.
The Asahi has also begun a subscription service for distributing articles in Korean to users of smartphones. The selected articles in Korean are made available via an e-book shopping website (www.cardbook.com) operated by a subsidiary of a major South Korean publishing house. The articles include the Asahi’s critically acclaimed series of feature articles covering the Fukushima nuclear accident that are titled “The Promethean trap.”
The Asahi opened a subscription-based English-language news website in October 2011 and a free Chinese-language news website in April of this year.
