NEWS CLOSE TO SPENDING $30 MILLION ON NEW PRESSES PRESSING ON By MARK SOMMER  The washed-out colors, faded type and blurry photographs that have long plagued The Buffalo News may soon be gone.
Publisher Stanford Lipsey confirmed that The News has received a green light from	THE WAY OF THE DINOSAUR? _ The News presses, among the oldest of any major newspaper in the country, may soon give way to new ones.

Chairman Warren Buffett to spend $30 million to buy two presses to replace the five that have been in operation since 1957.

"We have authorization to buy presses, which is a huge investment," Lipsey said. "I would say that right now it would take something unusual to keep us from getting new presses."

Bob Casell, senior vice president of operations, said he believes $30 million is adequate to buy new, state-of-the-art presses that will meet the paper's needs.

While there are no deadlines for purchasing them, Casell said he and six other managers have been vigorously investigating new equipment in recent months.

"We're closer now to buying presses than at any time since I've been here," said Casell, who came to work at The News in 1992.

"We've got the funding, we've got everyone on a positive approach. It's not a question of convincing Warren Buffett to do this; he's agreed on the understanding that we go ahead under the right circumstances. For the last eight months, we have been very, very focused on it," he said.

The paper has narrowed its choice of press manufacturers to two German-based vendors, KBA and Mann-Roland, Casell said. "They're better presses. They're presenting the best products."

Within the past six months, The News has traveled to a handful of newspapers— including the Des Moines Register, Fayetteville (Ark.) Observer and the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle — to examine brand-new presses made by these manufacturers.

At the same time, the paper was negotiating to buy approximately 5-year-old presses from The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C.— a deal that fell through in the latter part of the year after the McClatchy-owned paper pushed back the timetable for its own purchase of new presses.

"We've been on many trips and talked to many different people. We have no intention of reinventing the wheel here," said Casell.

Still to be determined is whether to go with flexo presses — which use a water-based rather than a petroleum-based ink — or offset presses used by the overwhelming majority of the nation's newspapers, including the New York Times and USA Today.

At this point, Casell said that despite the flirtation with the flexo presses in Raleigh, offset has the upper hand.

Another consideration has been to find new presses that fit into the existing building.

"The size of the press, the weight of the press, the width of the press — all the physical aspects of the press have to fit into our building, and our building was not built to house presses that big," said Casell. "We may have to do some internal modifications, but we're not adding anything to the building. We're certainly not going to build another facility. The News is committed to staying downtown. We're The Buffalo News and, by golly, we want to stay in Buffalo," Casell said.

Because the pressroom was built for eight presses where there are only five, Bryan Carr, pre-press/press room manager, said he expects the new presses will occupy the extra space and gain additional room by removing some existing equipment.

Also factoring into any decision are the needs of different departments in areas such as color consideration, page capacity and press speed.

"We thought we were ready in December," said Lipsey, "and someone in advertising and circulation said, `What about this?,’ which sent us into new engineering studies."

The announcement of new presses will not bring immediate changes, Lipsey cautioned.

"Once a decision is made, it usually takes 18 months to 2 years for the installation," he said.

New presses will also bring a change in the number of press operators needed, said Carr.

"Staffing will be affected. Our need will be less. Contractually we'll have to work that out with the union," he said.

The acquisition of new, gleaming presses would mark a significant change, of course, for The News. Its current presses have long been dinosaurs in the newspaper publishing world.

For decades, the paper has had to salvage parts from around the country while machinists — two of them at present — spent part of their jobs making components that are no longer manufactured.

"We are the single largest letterpress newspaper standing. There are only a handful of letterpress newspapers left in the U.S.," said Carr. "They're extinct."