A new offset printing complex went into operation in Azerbaijan Publishing House on 10 October, and since then official newspapers “Azerbayjan”, “Respublika”, “Khalg”, and “Bakinskiy Rabochiy” have been published in color.
“Azerbayjan” Newspaper assistant editor-in-chief Amil Novruzov told the Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety that there is a price difference in new prints, but refused to be more specific. “Colored printing is more expensive than black and white printing. The publishing house will calculate the expenses and then will let us know,” he said.
“Khalg” Newspaper Senior Secretary could not say anything about the expenses of new newspaper prints. “We have recently shifted to the new print, and therefore we don’t know how much more the prices will go up,” the secretary said, refusing to elaborate.
It is anticipated that “Azadlig” Newspaper will also be published with new methods. “Azadlig” Newspaper Director Azer Ahmadov said this and added that the newspaper leadership has not approved a decision yet because of certain problems. “Colored printing equipment has been operating for five or six days. The equipment has not started working with full capacity yet. And with what technologies these colored newspapers will work, what kind of format the pages of the newspapers will have and how much colored print will cast haven’t been defined yet. We’ll decide concretely after these issues are clear,” said Ahmadov.
“Zerkalo” Newspaper Editor-in-chief Elchin Shikhli said that they have been using colored print at times if not constantly, “Colored print equipment will operate with full capacity in Azerbaijan Publishing House at least after 2-3 months. We have published ‘Zerkalo’ Newspaper colored in a different publishing house. We publish ‘Zerkalo’ colored whenever we like. Therefore, it is not innovation for us.”