Finishing & Screen Printing

“Diario Libre” in the Dominican Republic: The World Premiere Has Become a Success Story

Monday 29. October 2012 - "Diario Libre" in the Dominican Republic is the first free newspaper in the world to be delivered to households free of charge. Three AlphaLiner inserting systems from Muller Martini and three film-wrapping lines ensure that the two newspaper bundles and up to twelve inserts are delivered to readers as well as the strategically selected distribution points.

At the end of the 1990s, the European media landscape was revolutionized by the success of the emerging free newspapers. Arturo Pellerano, who has long since been linked to the Dominican press industry because his family owned the country’s oldest newspaper (“Listín Diario”), decided to take an adventurous risk. He founded the newspaper “Diario Libre”, the first free newspaper in the world that is distributed directly to households door to door. In other countries, free newspapers triumphed because they were distributed at places with large commuter traffic, in particular at train or bus stations. The peculiarities of the Dominican cities made such a distribution system less feasible. The idea of household delivery was a daring one at the beginning, but it turned out to be the key to an unprecedented success.
Who would have thought that this Caribbean island, which with a population of roughly 10 million people an area of 48,000 km2 is only slightly larger than Switzerland, would become the birthplace of a printing and distribution model that serves as an lesson at the largest newspaper trade fairs?
It has been eleven years since “Diario Libre”, which is printed in tabloid format, was first distributed to households in the Dominican Republic. Today the circulation has reached 155,000 copies. This makes “Diario Libre” the daily newspaper with the most readers and the largest distribution in the Dominican Republic. In the past two years alone, this pioneer newspaper has increased its circulation by 40,000 copies.
50 Percent of Inserts Are Printed In-house
The fact that “Diario Libre” has become a huge economic success is mostly due to the print finishing of this newspaper, which is published every day except Sundays. Thanks to its editorial quality and its distribution strategy, it has become a favorite with both readers and advertisers. The contents of “Diario Libre” are presented to readers in one bundle in addition to an advertising bundle, and it contains up to twelve commercial inserts in various sizes, either as individual pages or in the form of brochures with up to 28 pages.
“The insert business segment has grown in recent years,” says Elius Gómez, “and it is in addition to classic newspaper advertising an important mainstay for our company – also because we print over 50 percent of the inserts ourselves and are therefore able to operate our production systems at full capacity.”
In order to protect the inserts and also because an insert might appear on the front page, the newspaper bundles are wrapped on three film-wrapping machines. “This gives us the certainty that our readers receive the newspaper intact,” emphasizes Gómez.
Three AlphaLiner Inserting Systems, 20 Zones
The inserts are added to the newspapers by three AlphaLiner inserting systems from Muller Martini. “As we were evaluating different systems, we asked ourselves whether we should install a large inserting system,” says the production manager reflecting on the decision. “However, there were two main reasons why we decided in favor of three smaller machines. First, we can now have a backup system. Second, the three AlphaLiner systems, two of which we operate inline and one offline, provide us with a higher level of flexibility with regard to zoning.”
“Diario Libre” is distributed in 20 different zones every day. The inserts may be printed for the entire print run or they could be distributed in only a few zones selected by the advertisers. “The AlphaLiner systems have proven their worth in this respect, as we can optimally prepare the various zones,” Gómez comments with satisfaction.
The mailroom is the key point for the daily production of “Diario Libre”, which begins at 1 p.m. with the printing of the advertisement bundles and ends the next morning at 5 a.m. when the film-wrapped newspaper bundles are dispatched for delivery. “The efficient and accurate print finishing of our newspapers are the nuts and bolts of our production,” emphasizes Gómez.