y Dennis Yohnka

dyohnka@daily-journal.com

815-937-3384

The Daily Journal wants its newspapers to stand out on the news rack.

On the other hand, when it comes to its home, it would prefer to blend in to its downtown neighborhood of office buildings, stores, banks and churches.

That was, in part, the motivation behind the industry-leading changes and innovations the company has made. It has worked to shrink its carbon footprint and improve production efficiency at its 8 Dearborn Square operations in Kankakee.

"We had been doing the recycling basics for years," explained Kevin Norden, the paper's production director. "We bundle all of our waste paper for recycling. The press plates (aluminum sheets used to imprint the pages) are recycled. And any ink left in the press at the end of the run is recovered and used."

That means no ink never goes down the drain.

So despite the thousands of newspapers printed here every week, there are but two dumpsters outside the manufactring plant.

But that is not all.

"We were still using the plate-making system that we started with -- from back in the 1970s -- when we went to the offset press," General Manager Ken Munjoy said.

"In the summer of 2008, I asked Kevin to do the research and get us up to date on the new 'direct-to-plate' technology. He gets the credit for finding the system we're using today."

As Norden explained the process, the paper's production area took the same path the photography department followed: Old-fashioned film processing was replaced by a digital, chemical-free system.

"We took a system that required two rooms filled with equipment and needed 15 minutes to create a plate. And we launched a system that needed about one-fourth of the space and turns out a plate in just two minutes."

"The savings in film and chemicals alone will create a return on our investment in less than four years," Munjoy said. "But on top of that, there is no odor, no excessive heat, no noise, no caustic materials."

Norden's research led him to a German firm that developed what he considered to be the most ecologically responsible system. Its installation in Kankakee made The Daily Journal the first plant in the Midwest to use the new process.

"I don't really understand the science, but I think the entire community benefits from this kind of investment," said Michael O'Brien, the chief operating officer for HomeStar Bank and the president of the Kankakee Chamber of Commerce. "It's amazing that a manufacturing plant can exist in a downtown setting and fit in so comfortably," he said.

The conversion to the new system has created one slightly negative impact: There's a little extra traffic around The Daily Journal.

"We get visits from other papers that want to see how we do it," Munjoy said. "Kevin's research has made him a sought-after expert on plate-making systems. He gets a lot of calls and then they want to see it for themselves."