On TOI press visit, students learn print innovation

By Sanya Bhattacharjee
“Did you know Print is known to be the most sustainable form of media?” said Rajesh Agarwal, Assistant General Manager at the Times of India Printing Press in Sahibabad, while addressing budding journalists from Bennett University’s Times School of Media about print’s importance and shared some details about the various activities that take place in the Printing Press.
The field trip to the Times of India Press at Sahibabad turned out to be a valuable learning experience for the BAJMC students. The field trip gave the students an opportunity to learn about:

Practical Exposure: Students got practical exposure to the printing and publishing process by visiting a working press. They got an opportunity to observe various stages of production including typesetting, printing and packaging. They got to know about the latest technologies and trends being adopted in the printing industry.

Understanding Media Operations: The visit to the Printing Press (Plant) gave the students a better understanding of the operations of a media organization. They saw firsthand how different departments within the plant work together to produce the newspaper and other publications (supplements).

Feel the Paper: It was a valuable opportunity for the media-journalism students to see and smell the paper rolls very closely before printing. They also closely observed the process of plate making from computer, color mixing, loading of paper rolls on machine, printing, traveling of newspaper on conveyor belt and packaging-bundling.

Innovations at TOI
At the briefing, Mr Agarwal spoke about the variety of innovations that The Times of India has included in the newspapers from time to time.
“One day people opened the newspaper in the morning and got an aroma of coffee, that idea or innovation was new and unique so both the customer and the audience were happy,” he said. He went on to talk about the strength of print through different senses of the human body.
Following this, the students were taken on a tour around the plant wherein they got to see and smell the paper rolls very closely before printing. Being able to closely observe the process of plate making from the computer screen, colour mixing, loading paper rolls on a machine, printing, travelling of the newspaper on the conveyor belt and packaging-bundling, the students got to know how sustainable print media is.
“From the process of afforestation to recycling the newspapers, it is all a biodegradable process and causes little to no harm to the environment. In fact, in the case of digital media, there is a larger carbon footprint,” Mr Agarwal said.

(The writer is a Semester II student of BA (Journalism and Mass Communication) programme.)