New rules, new categories and a new time schedule

The IFRA International Newspaper Color Quality Club (INCQC) sets new standards for newspaper printing quality worldwide. The organisers have already initiated preparations for the next round in the competition.

Online registration for candidates competing for membership in the INCQC 2010-2012 begins in May 2009. There are several important changes to the routine followed in previous competitions, especially concerning the time schedule and operational plan. Many participants expressed the wish to produce the test prints for the competition at the beginning of the year, as they would have more time and opportunity after the holiday period. IFRA is pleased to accommodate this wish.

The new operational plan is as follows:

- Registration (online) from May to end December 2009;
- Production of the monthly test prints and submission between January and April 2010;
- Final evaluation and announcement of the new Club members in June 2010;
- Presentation of the winners during IFRA Expo in October 2010.

This considerably reduces the time that elapses from when the test prints are produced up to their evaluation and announcement of the results.

Early registration bonus: Register by 16 October 2009 (cut-off date) and take part in a free test run with evaluation report in order to detect any possible need for print production optimisation in good time.

Also important are the changed competition rules that reduce the time and effort invested by the participants, without detracting from the informational value of the test results. On the contrary: For the first time, it is not only a once-off produced result that will be evaluated, but the consistency of printing quality over a four-month period. Intermediate reports will inform the participants about their progress.

For purposes of the printing tests, a newly-developed test element will be used that resembles a colour ad and is as wide as a standard text column. Therefore it can be incorporated into the regular issue without appearing out of place. This will make the test more practice-oriented and simpler to carry out.

The creation of additional categories opens up the competition for the first time also to newspapers that work with heatset or UV or that are printed by a process other than coldset-offset and, instead of newsprint, for example, use SC, LWC or pink-tinted paper. This takes due account also of the growing trend towards semi-commercial production.

Other than in the past, Club membership will no longer be limited to 50 newspapers. It is not the 50 newspapers with the highest number of points that are the winners, but all that show they can produce within the tolerances specified by the ISO 12647-3 newspaper printing standard and that present an overall good printing quality. Manifest quality deficiencies, such as misregister, wrinkles, printing plate edges, toning, etc., will result in points being deducted. Achieving a given number of points is alone decisive for attaining membership in the exclusive Color Quality Club.

At a glance

The International Newspaper Color Quality Club has been completely revised:

- A new operational plan optimises the test period and shortens the time up to the announcement of the results.
- New rules ensure a practice-oriented evaluation, reduce the investment of time and effort for the participants and open up Club membership to all who produce high quality consistently.
- New categories enable all newspaper printers to participate in the competition. All production processes and materials used are covered by the various participation categories.

With these innovations, the International Newspaper Color Quality Club, that has become established in the last 15 years as the quality standard for the international news publishing industry, has come into line with the latest developments in modern newspaper printing and opened up for new interested parties.

Project Manager Roland Thees, phone +49.6151.733-788 or e-Mail thees@ifra.com, will be pleased to provide more information about the INCQC.

About the International Newspaper Color Quality Club

The International Newspaper Color Quality Club (www.colorqualityclub.org) is the only worldwide quality printing competition for newspapers. It has been organised every two-years since 1994 by IFRA with the support of the newspaper associations NAA (North America, www.naa.org) and PANPA (Australia, www.panpa.org.au) as well as ZMG Zeitungs Marketing Gesellschaft (Germany, www.zmg.de).