At drupa, KBA’s RotaJET 76 Digital Inkjet Press Will Reveal Deep Roots in Web Offset Production

Published April 26, 2012

KBA’s venture into digital printing with its new RotaJET 76 inkjet web press has origins in a market that the company knows well: high-volume offset web production.

At drupa, Social Media Will Help Xerox Share the Experience

Published April 23, 2012

When Xerox exhibits at drupa, its presence won’t be limited to stand A62 in hall 8b. Throughout the show, the company intends to maintain an equally high profile in the realm of social media as it attempts to viralize not just its own drupa experience but the pulse and the intelligence of the event as a whole.

KBA Prepares for drupa in Confident, Customer-Focused Frame of Mind

Published April 16, 2012

Every four years, the international printing community gathers at drupa and asks itself a question: How are we doing? The Koenig & Bauer Group (KBA) believes that if every vendor’s experience over the last few years had been as positive as its own, the collective answer would have to be: Never better.

High-Profile Industry Figure in Latest Role: Frank Steenburgh, a.k.a “DocuFrank,” Joins NDP as Partner

Published April 16, 2012

It would be impossible to speak for very long about the evolution of digital printing without bringing Frank Steenburgh’s name into the conversation.

Print: Seen! Lean & Green the PrintCity Alliance Theme for drupa 2012

Published March 19, 2012

Pat Henry interviews Helmut J. (John) Dangelmaier about PrintCity's initiatives for drupa.

Post Print City Pre-drupa briefing with Océ's Roland Stasiczek

Published March 12, 2012

Pat Henry sits down with Roland Stasiczek, Director of Marketing, Continuous Feed Printers, Océ Printing Systems to discuss the Océ briefing presented in Munich.

Geographics: Portrait of a Printing Company with M&A in Mind

Published March 12, 2012

Ever since he founded Geographics in 1976, Norvin Hagan hasn’t tried to purchase another company—until now. Read why he’s ready to complement organic growth with the kind that comes from a well planned and executed acquisition.

manroland's Peter Kuisle Recaps Their Recent Web Systems Announcement

Published March 5, 2012

Pat Henry, at the recent Print City Alliance pre-drupa event in Munich, grabs Executive Vice President of Sales & Service Peter Kuisle and asks him to recap the manroland web systems announcement.

PrintCity Alliance Builds Momentum for Strong Showing at drupa 2012 (Part 2)

Published February 28, 2012

By exhibiting as a group at drupa 2012, the members of the PrintCity Alliance hope to present a continuum of solutions that visitors will find well adapted to the new realities of the print marketplace. Previews of some of their show offerings are here.

PrintCity Alliance Builds Momentum for Strong Showing at drupa 2012

Published February 21, 2012

At drupa 2012, the PrintCity Alliance will emphasize and promote the future of print from its usual location on the Messe Düsseldorf fairgrounds. Last week, some of its members gave a preview of what awaits visitors to Hall 6.

Expect a Stepped-up Pace of M&As in 2012, for All the Right Reasons

Published February 6, 2012

No matter what is happening to other print industry metrics, M&As are trending up. This can be to the advantage of many printing companies seeking growth or a path to staying in operation.

SpyderLynk’s SnapTags Strive for Acceptance

Published January 30, 2012

There’s a notable gap between consumers’ understanding of QR codes and their willingness to use them. A company called SpyderLynk has a solution aimed at helping image-based mobile marketing to fulfill the potential that has eluded QR codes.

Kodak Means to Stay the Course in Graphic Communications Throughout Chapter 11 Reorganization

Published January 20, 2012

Kodak will continue to advance its graphic communications business as it tries to emerge from bankruptcy, treating its digital printing, plate, and workflow operations as keys to survival and future success.

Cathedral Corporation: Portrait of a Printing Company with M&A in Mind

Published January 16, 2012

Technical innovation and customer care are the main ingredients in the recipe for growth at Cathedral Corporation, which now aims to accelerate its expansion with the well-planned acquisition of another printing firm. President and CEO Marianne Gaige describes her objectives in this interview.

Harald Weimer Shares About Stepping in as Heidelberg's New President

Published December 9, 2011

Patrick Henry and President of Heidelberg Harald Weimer discuss his background with the company and his recent appointment as incoming president of Heidelberg.

For Three Firms That Grew by Acquisition, the Art of the Deal Came from the Guidance of Their Professional M&A Advisors

Published October 24, 2011

Even experienced fishermen know that there are times when they shouldn’t cast a fly without the help of a fishing guide. A guide knows where the best fishing holes are and how to land the prize fish in them. It’s much the same with mergers and acquisitions in the printing industry. The best catches are made when the principals rely on the skills of deal-savvy M&A advisors.

Alleging Breach of Contract, Kodak Files Suit Against Collins Ink

Published October 21, 2011

The commercial dispute between Kodak and Collins Ink Corporation has escalated into a legal wrangle with Kodak’s filing of a lawsuit that charges the inkjet ink manufacturer with breach of contract.

Promising to Protect Customers, Kodak and Collins Ink Corp. Part Ways

Published October 14, 2011

With each vowing that customers won’t be harmed as a result of their estrangement, Kodak and Collins Ink Corporation have come to the abrupt end of a 10-year deal whereby the latter supplied the former with inkjet inks for Versamark digital presses.

Pouring Another "Cup O Joe": Lenders Talk About Lending (Part 2)

Published October 10, 2011

As everyone knows, the recession has made business financing hard to come by. In this two-part “Cup O Joe,” lenders to the printing industry report that loan products are available and discuss how printers can obtain them.

Low Prices, New Features Mark New Crop of Kindle Devices from Amazon

Published September 30, 2011

This week, Amazon unveiled four aggressively priced content delivery devices: one, a multimedia tablet aimed squarely at Apple's market-dominating iPad; the other three, the latest iterations of Amazon's popular Kindle e-reader.

"Too Good" Was (Almost) the Phrase for Print Production Technologies at Graph Expo (Part 2)

Published September 28, 2011

Whatever may be happening to the demand for print, Graph Expo 2011 made one thing abundantly clear: never before have printers had as many options as they now possess for adding beauty, charisma, and value to a piece of paper.

"Too Good" Was (Almost) the Phrase for Print Production Technologies at Graph Expo (Part 1)

Published September 23, 2011

Whatever may be happening to the demand for print, Graph Expo 2011 made one thing abundantly clear: never before have printers had as many options as they now possess for adding beauty, charisma, and value to a piece of paper.

Whole is Greater than Sum of Parts in KBA-Donnelley, Xanté-Memjet Joint Ventures Announced At Graph Expo

Published September 13, 2011

"Convergence" in the graphic communications industry can mean many things, but at Graph Expo, it describes what happens when vendors pool their R&D resources to create production solutions more formidable than anything they could have devised by themselves.

Remarks by Heidelberg Chairman Provide Appropriate Context for Opening of Graph Expo

Published September 12, 2011

Opening-day remarks at Graph Expo by Bernhard Schreier captured the tone of the event and offered a restrained but still optimistic outlook for global print markets.

Pouring Another "Cup O Joe": Lenders Talk About Lending (Part 1)

Published August 22, 2011

As everyone knows, the recession has made business financing hard to come by. In this two-part "Cup O Joe," lenders to the printing industry report that loan products are available and discuss how printers can obtain them.

NexSteps for NexPress as SX Platform Debuts

Published August 11, 2011

Kodak's NexPress SX digital color production platform is a reminder that while inkjet systems have tended to snare most of the attention from the graphic arts trade media of late, there’s still plenty of technical innovation to write about on the toner-based side as well.

Espresso Machine in NYC's SoHo Brews not Coffee but Print-on-Demand Books

Published August 9, 2011

The new Espresso Book Machine (EBM) at McNally Jackson Books is an experiment in non-traditional publishing that just might represent the start of a new paradigm for bringing books to market, one independent bookseller and one print-on-demand title at a time.

PrintCity Alliance Promotes Poll for Print Lovers

Published July 29, 2011

PrintCity Alliance is running an online survey that invites print fans to count (and measure) the ways they love the medium and its role in the graphic communications mix.

What Would You Do for $5? Want To Find Out Why the Answer Matters to Graphic Communications?

Published July 22, 2011

Have you heard about Fiverr, “The place for people to share things they’re willing to do for $5”? If you’ve ever wondered what the five-dollar phrase “digital disintermediation” really means, Fiverr is a cyber bazaar full of answers.

Deconstructing Deals That Didn't Happen (Part 2)

Published July 19, 2011

Some M&A transactions in the printing industry fall apart before they reach the signing stage. Other deals, however, come undone after the ink is dry, and often for reasons that should have been obvious all along. New Direction Partners looks at how to stay out of the latter trap.

A Slightly Belated Happy 125th Birthday to the Linotype, Ottmar Mergenthaler’s Miraculous Machine

Published July 13, 2011

The recent Independence Day holiday weekend passed largely without notice of the 125th anniversary of the introduction of the Linotype Type Casting Machine on July 3, 1886. But awareness of this amazing device could rise with the upcoming release of Linotype: the Film.

“Monster Machine,” a.k.a. Kodak PROSPER 5000XL Digital Color Inkjet Press, Takes Center Stage at Mercury Print Productions

Published July 6, 2011

On June 30, Mercury Print Productions cut the red ribbon on a Kodak PROSPER 5000XL digital color inkjet press that had already printed in excess of 20 million impressions and was said to be well on its way to producing many millions more.

GCSF Underwrites 29 Young Scholars of Design and Graphics; Alan Siegel Accepts “Champion of Education” Award

Published June 24, 2011

Twenty-nine students have received a total of $40,000 in grants from the Graphic Communications Scholarship Award and Career Advancement Foundation, an organization that has disbursed nearly $300,000 for graphics education since 2002.

2011 NYU Prism Award Goes to RRD’s Thomas Quinlan; Alumni Award Is Presented to NAPL's Joseph Truncale

Published June 21, 2011

The New York University (NYU) Prism Award Luncheon celebrated its 25th anniversary today by conferring the honor for which it is named upon Thomas J. Quinlan III, president and CEO of R.R. Donnelley and Sons Company. Also honored was Joseph P. Truncale, president and CEO of the National Association for Printing Leadership (NAPL), who was named the recipient of the 2011 Alumni Award.

Deconstructing Deals That Didn’t Happen (Part 1)

Published June 21, 2011

M&A transactions sometimes fall through. Poor judgment, misinformation, adverse business developments, and personal antagonisms can drive principals apart despite the mutual advantages of deals that should bring them together. This two-part article examines how and why they fail.

In 600 Square Feet, A Whole Wide World of Craft Printing

Published June 16, 2011

“My middle name is Franklin, so I had to become a printer.” And so Dave Moody did, honoring a family heritage and perpetuating the traditional arts of printing on vintage but very busy letterpress equipment.

Canon and Guests Investigate “Success with Print” in NYC

Published June 10, 2011

Canon brought its “Success with Print” educational series to New York City on June 7. The session was one stop on a 15-city tour aimed at helping printers locate new growth and profitability in a market where these opportunities are becoming increasingly hard to find.

Sacks, Bensen, and Heidelberg Accept Educational Tributes at 2011 Gamma Gold Key Award Ceremony

Published June 4, 2011

On June 2 in New York City, Bob Sacks, a.k.a. “BoSacks,” became the 114th recipient of the Gamma Gold Key Award. Also honored for exceptional support of education were Annette Wolf Bensen and Heidelberg USA.

Despite Help from Friends, Historic Print Shop in NYC Faces Possibility of Permanent Closure

Published June 1, 2011

Supporters of New York City’s historic Bowne & Co. Stationers are rallying to save it, but against what appear to be very long odds. Its parent organization has closed the storefront at 211 Water Street, stunning fans of the printing office and its extensive collections of antique types, type specimen books, and equipment.

A Visit from a Chinese Publishing Delegation, and a Thought about “the Human Factor” Behind the Numbers

Published May 11, 2011

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to brief a group of visiting Chinese publishers and printers on the state of the industry as experienced by their counterparts in the U.S. Our discussion highlighted the similarities that link China’s and America’s publishing sectors amidst profound market shifts in both countries. It also illuminated a few notable differences that distinguish our industry’s attitude toward change from theirs.

“The Freedom Press” Makes Art of the Art of Printing

Published May 6, 2011

“Heavy metal” is the printing industry’s affectionate term for presses. It also denotes the material that accounts for 95% of what a conventional printing machine is made of. Now, a sculptor has unconventionally added bamboo, cork, oak, and rope to the equation—and the result serves equally well as an art object and as a functioning example of the thing it represents.

Judge’s Ruling Threatens Some Reforms at McCormick Place; “Disappointed” Reaction from Graphic Arts Show Company

Published April 28, 2011

It was to have been a new deal for exhibitors at Graph Expo, Print, and scores of other trade shows at Chicago’s McCormick Place: a set of legislative reforms aimed at making it easier and less expensive to produce events at the lakeside expo and convention center. But, a recent ruling by a federal judge has overturned some of those changes and may keep them from being retained.

Plant Tours: Excursions to Nowhere?

Published April 26, 2011

We came across this post about printing plant tours while researching something else. The writer is a consultant who sells branding, marketing, and design services, and he’s clearly somebody who’s spent a lot of time inside printing plants.

In Brooklyn, Duggal Visual Solutions Becomes Extramural Classroom for Students from NYCCT

Published April 21, 2011

Students in the department of Advertising Design and Graphic Arts (ADGA) at New York City College of Technology (NYCCT) saw high-end digital printing in action on a recent field trip to Duggal Visual Solutions in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Devil in the Details: Issues and Answers in M&As

Published April 21, 2011

A successful M&A transaction is the sum of many carefully fashioned parts. This month, New Direction Partners and Margolis Becker delve into the details with comments on how deals can be influenced by client concentration; plant ownership; non-compete agreements with salespeople; acquired management teams; post-acquisition price increases; and personally guaranteed debt.

Report Explores New Digital Dimensions of the News Media

Published April 13, 2011

Did you know that seven of the top 25 newspapers in the United States are now owned by hedge funds? Facts like this abound in The State of the News Media 2011, recently released by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. It’s must reading for anyone trying to make sense of what digital technologies are doing to the market for mass communications.

Stories from the Farthest Shores of Sheetfed: Five Printers Share Their Experiences with KBA’s Mighty Rapida 205 (Part II)

Published April 8, 2011

Five printers representing nearly half the installed base of KBA Rapida 205s in the U.S. say that the performance of this 59.5" x 81" press is as impressive as sheet size. They speak assuredly of the big improvements that the industry’s biggest press has made, or is fully expected to make, to the foundations of their businesses.

Professionals Seek New Bearings at Publishing Business Conference & Expo (Part 2)

Published April 7, 2011

Today, thanks to digital production technologies, anyone can publish a book, and the same goes for magazines. How mainstream book and magazine publishers are confronting new business models in which nearly anything (and anyone) goes was a thread running through many of the presentations at this week’s Publishing Business Conference & Expo in New York City.

Stories from the Farthest Shores of Sheetfed: Five Printers Share Their Experiences with KBA’s Mighty Rapida 205 (Part I)

Published April 7, 2011

The smallest format it can print is a bigger piece of paper than most sheetfed plants have ever handled. It’s hard to avoid superlatives when describing KBA’s 59.5" x 81" Rapida 205, the world’s largest sheetfed offset press—especially when five printers representing nearly half of its installed base in the U.S. say that its performance is every bit as impressive as its sheet size.

Professionals Seek New Bearings at Publishing Business Conference & Expo (Part 1)

Published April 5, 2011

Delivering worthy content to receptive audiences remains a cornerstone concept in the publishing industry, but it’s almost the only certainty left. Keynote speakers at this week’s Publishing Business Conference & Expo in New York City tried to identify additional strategies for staying relevant, compelling, and profitable in a game where digital alternatives to the older models write new rules every day.

The Social Network: Enter Heidelberg

Published April 1, 2011

In typically methodical fashion, Heidelberg has embraced the social media. Through these channels, grouped for convenient access here, the graphic equipment manufacturer hopes to enrich its dialogue with the marketplace by getting a better handle on what Heidelberg customers are saying to each other about its products and services.

Heidelberg Plays Host To SkillsUSA Competition

Published March 28, 2011

Congratulations to the winners, and a tip of the hat to their host. Two weeks ago, Heidelberg turned its Kennesaw, GA, Technology Center into a venue for a statewide competition in SkillsUSA’s search for the nation’s rising young stars in graphic communications and advertising design.

Pouring Another “Cup O Joe”: the Essentials of M&A Valuation

Published March 16, 2011

"What's my company worth to a buyer?" Easy to ask, but not so easy to answer correctly. This month, New Direction Partners and Margolis Becker explain the multiple-of-EBITDA formula that's used to determine pricing in many conventional acquisitions. They also discuss asset-based valuation for tuck-ins and note the commission structures that sellers can expect to receive in M&As of this type.

The Social Printshop: Your Friends to Your Wall, via Facebook

Published March 7, 2011

There’s not much crossover between the parallel universes of print and the social media, but Benjamin Lotan is out to change that—once Facebook poster at a time. He’s the creator and the proprietor of The Social Printshop, an online service that lets habitués of Facebook and other social networking sites celebrate their relationships in hard-copy form.

Another “Windmill” Just Keeps on Turning

Published February 26, 2011

If a sturdily-built iron letterpress is carefully maintained and properly operated, shouldn’t it last forever? Well, forever is a long time. But so is five decades, the span of years across which Florida printer Buddy West has operated the same Original Heidelberg letterpress at Panama City Publishing Co. in that town's St. Andrews district.

Wake Up and Smell the Coffee: Straight Talk about M&As in A “Cup O Joe”

Published February 16, 2011

The partners at New Direction Partners join financial management firm Margolis Becker for the monthly Cup O Joe, a conference call with printers on a selected topic. With the help of NDP partners Peter Schaefer and Jim Russell, Cup O Joe tackled the topic “Acquiring A Company from an Owner’s Perspective.” Some excerpts are presented here.

Scannable Valentine’s Day Stamps Say “XOXO” in QR

Published February 11, 2011

Nobody ever called QR codes pretty to look at. But then, nobody has taken QR codes to heart in quite the same way as Chunghwa Post, the postal system of the Republic of China (Taiwan). For Valentine’s Day, the agency has turned the stark black-and-white of these print-leveraging symbols into a palette of pastels with an underlying message of love—a sentiment that’s welcome in the mailbox on any day of the year.

GrCI at Cal Poly Installs Cutter Donated by Heidelberg

Published February 8, 2011

“In our DNA” is a bit of corporate-speak that we’re all probably tired of hearing, but every now and then, it really does express the depth of a company’s commitment to a principle or a cause that it takes seriously. Heidelberg, for one, would be fully entitled to use the phrase to describe its support for industry education—just ask the Graphic Communication Institute (GrCI) at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly).

OSHA to Flagrant Workplace Safety Violators: Prepare to Be SVEPt Up

Published February 7, 2011

Last year Congress deliberated a bill that would have significantly increased penalties for workplace safety violations uncovered by OSHA. To the relief of business advocacy groups, the bill didn’t become law, but this doesn’t mean that the agency hasn’t been stepping up its efforts against unsafe workplaces in other ways.

Coming Soon: “Gutenberg’s Buyers Guides,” Purchasing Directories for Printers—in Print

Published February 4, 2011

The U.S. printing industry has been without commercially produced, regionalized trade directories since the Graphic Arts Blue Books ceased publication in print last year. But, printers gazing wistfully at the empty space on the shelf where the old Blue Books used to go should dust off that space and keep it open—a new set of hard-copy purchasing guides is on its way from north of the border.

Report: Heidelberg To Challenge “Performance” Digital Presses with Hybrid Litho/Digital Offering

Published January 31, 2011

As it stages its re-entry into the digital print equipment market, Heidelberg is out to make high-end digital presses from other suppliers “irrelevant.” That, at least, is the word used and the conclusion reached by the UK trade publication PrintWeek in a recent report on Heidelberg’s emerging digital strategy.

In an M&A Deal, Time Is on Your Side—Until It Isn’t

Published January 24, 2011

Knowing when to do the deal is probably the trickiest judgment call in any merger of printing companies. Correct timing is a must for both parties, but choosing the right moment to step forward into the M&A marketplace rests with the seller. It’s a decision that calls for introspective as well as strategic thinking.

Experts Probe for Answers in Panel Discussion on “The Future of Book Publishing” at NYPL

Published January 14, 2011

When did the market for printing’s most time-honored product—the book—become so difficult to read? A cross-section of publishing experts tried to sort out the issues in a panel discussion earlier this week at the New York Public Library, courtesy of Kodak.

Can We Deconstruct This Postal "Restructuring"?

Published January 10, 2011

Below is the text of a press release issued last week by the U.S. Postal Service. It is headed, "Postmaster General Restructures U.S. Postal Service/Layers Eliminated, Officer Ranks Reduced." As an ordinary user of USPS services, I have two questions about what I'm reading.

Pitney Bowes Unveils “Volly,” A Cloud-Based, Secure Digital Delivery Service

Published January 7, 2011

Imagine the cloud-based equivalent of a consumer’s physical mailbox—a virtual receptacle where the user can accumulate and manage bills, statements, coupons, catalogs, and almost anything else he or she is accustomed to receiving from business mailers, but in purely digital form. It soon will be a reality. Pitney Bowes calls it Volly.

Virtual Press Clips: Print Firms in the News

Published January 3, 2011

Reborn for the new year is Virtual Press Clips, our periodic roundup of news items about printing companies in the general media. The object is to show that print firms continue to be esteemed and respected as good business neighbors by their hometown newspapers and local other media outlets.

As You Like It: Spending on Branded Content Remains Robust, with Print Tapping Profitably In

Published December 27, 2010

The production of branded content—media created by businesses for marketing and customer relations—is a $47.2 billion industry in the U.S., and print still accounts for the largest share of the spend. Marketers believe in it, recipients trust it, and that spells sheer “contentment” all around.

Deck the Halls with... New Year’s Resolutions for the M&A-Minded

Published December 20, 2010

In the time-honored tradition of ending the present year with resolutions for improvement in the year to come, New Direction Partners offers guidance for print company owners who may find themselves on one side or the other of an M&A transaction in 2011.

Kodak Puts in A Good Word for Print Before, During and After the Advertising Age “Media Evolved” Conference

Published December 16, 2010

In the minds of media professionals whose the icon is the iPad, how much attention can print and other traditional channels expect to command? Speakers at this high-level event indicated that no matter what media are used, the quality of the content is what spells the difference between virality and oblivion for the brand message.

A Short Course in the Fundamentals of M&A

Published December 3, 2010

New Direction Partners has taken its M&A consulting on the road in a series of presentations. In these briefings, NDP offers an overview of the business climate for mergers and acquisitions, along with practical advice for owners pondering the next step in the life cycles of their companies.

The “Right Size” is the Same Size: Heidelberg Offers Another 40" Press in the Speedmaster CX 102

Published November 30, 2010

Believing that there’s room in the 40" market for an addition to its Speedmaster line, Heidelberg rolled out the Speedmaster CX 102 in a customer event at its U.S. headquarters earlier this month. This newly engineered machine is said to transfer the best features of Heidelberg’s XL-series presses to the 102 format, its most successful product category.

Enter the Dragon: A Chinese Press Manufacturer Probes the Market at Graph Expo 2010

Published November 23, 2010

By bringing just one offset press to Graph Expo 2010, it accounted for one-sixth of all offset presses at the show and one-third of the conventional (non-DI) printing machines on the floor of McCormick Place. That would be an unusual distinction for any exhibitor of press equipment, but it seems to have worked out well for Gronhi Graphics International, the U.S. arm of a Chinese vendor seeking a reputation and a toehold in the American market.

Conventional Print at the GASC Shows: What Was, Isn’t, and Will Be

Published November 12, 2010

The Graphic Arts Show Company (GASC) events were due to reach an inflection point, and it seems clear that at Graph Expo 2010, they reached one from which there will be no turning back. The break in the connection between showing heavy printing equipment and selling it made Graph Expo 2010 a watershed event. No longer do press manufacturers makers need elaborate displays of machinery at the GASC shows in order to achieve the marketing impact they desire.

That Book of Business You’ve Acquired: Could It Be Missing Some Pages?

Published November 2, 2010

How do you know that business you just bought is going to keep earning what you’ve been promised? What questions should you be asking, what contingency plans should you be building, and what hang-ups should you be looking out for? The partners at New Direction Partners have some answers for us.

The Turning Point: Graph Expo as Watershed for Digital Production

Published October 19, 2010

As Graph Expo made abundantly clear, there’s no longer any segment of the industry that can’t be addressed by digital solutions that will work as least as well as conventional lithography, at least in shorter runs. The industry’s embrace of digital production is now complete, and all that’s left to debate is how long it will take the pockets of resistance to get on board or go away.

As Graph Expo Goes Digital, Where Exactly Is It Taking Us?

Published October 6, 2010

We’ll be happy to stand corrected if our count is wrong, but, after prowling the show floor of Graph Expo 2010 in search of lithographic printing equipment, we came up with only four fully assembled offset presses. Where did the heavy iron go? That’s not all that makes this year’s event seem a bit eerie when contrasted with the Graph Expo and Print shows of years past.

Joe Davis of Consolidated Graphics is “Print CEO of the Year”

Published October 3, 2010

How Valuation Answers the Question, "What Is Your Printing Company Worth?"

Published September 28, 2010

What is your printing company worth? Emotionally speaking, everything. But, owners contemplating the sale of their companies have to answer this tough question in an objective and a financially realistic way. Here are three common approaches to business valuation.

HP Seeds the “Cloud” at IPG Innovation Summit

Published September 24, 2010

HP is convinced that locked inside smart phones, tablets, and other web-connected devices are billions of pages yearning to be printed. On September 20, HP’s Imaging and Printing Group (IPG) showcased its latest solutions for liberating personal and business printing at an “innovation summit” in New York City.

In first joint showing, Canon and Océ offer glimpse of their integrated capabilities

Published September 14, 2010

Canon Expo was the first opportunity since their recent merger for Canon and Océ to show their new team face. Patrick Henry was there to report back on just how well the two companies are working together and leveraging each other's strengths.

A Printing Office: Franchise Printer in New Jersey Takes Stand Against Hunger in Its Hometowns

Published September 3, 2010

The New Jersey towns of Summit and New Providence are among the most upscale in the state. Household incomes are high, home prices remain strong, and local amenities are first-class. Nevertheless, some residents of these affluent communities are going hungry—an inequity that the area’s AlphaGraphics franchise is working to eliminate.

Heidelberg Windmill No. 35345E: It Probably Was Your Grandfather’s Printing Press

Published August 27, 2010

The picture above was taken not in a printing museum but in the letterpress department of Taylor Corporation’s Tatex subsidiary in Waco, TX. Somewhere in the room is what’s believed to be the oldest Heidelberg press still in operation in the U.S.

A Printing Office: the Philadelphia “Blog Tax” That Never Was, but Is

Published August 26, 2010

“On the whole, I would rather be in Philadelphia.” It’s what W.C. Fields was rumored (falsely) to have chosen as the inscription on his gravestone. For present-day bloggers in the City of Brotherly Love who remember it, the line carries as much irony as any of the late comedian’s celebrated wisecracks. That’s because the city of Philadelphia wants them to pay what has been incorrectly labeled a “blogging tax”—a development reported by Philadelphia Citypaper last week.

A Printing Office Joins Print CEO

Published August 24, 2010

A Printing Office, WhatTheyThink’s blog for small to medium printers, is now serving this audience under the auspices of PrintCEO. Patrick Henry, managing editor of A Printing Office, will continue to post news and commentary for this segment at PrintCEO, which contains a complete archive of material previously published at A Printing Office.

Show Me the Money? Don’t Look at Us, Say the Banks

Published August 24, 2010

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. By now, the economy should have picked up, printers’ prospects should have improved, and the banks should have responded by letting some sunlight into their vaults when borrowers from the industry came calling. What happened? Although the nation’s general banking crisis may be over, says Tom Williams, partner, New Direction Partners, there’s been little improvement in the availability of credit for business and equipment financing.

Virtual Press Clips: Print Firms in the News

Published August 18, 2010

Sales of a children’s book, The Adventures of Snooky Under the Sea, raise money in the fight against sarcoma, a deadly form of cancer. But the title made news in a curious way when another “Snooki” tried to register her moniker as a trademark for printed matter and books.

Lawsuit Hits Print Company Exec Pursuing U.S. Senate Seat in Wisconsin

Published August 10, 2010

Running a small print services company is tough. Running for high public office against a richer opponent is tougher. Now imagine trying to do both under pressure from a civil lawsuit by an unhappy business partner. That, according to press reports, is the can of worms confronting Dave Westlake, a co-owner of High IQ in Watertown, WI, and a Republican candidate in Wisconsin’s U.S. Senate primary election next month.

JAQK Cellars: Wine from A “Press” in More Ways than One

Published August 6, 2010

Joel Templin, Craig MacLean, and Katie Jain, founding partners, JAQK Cellars; David Dees, national sales manager.
Last night, in a tasting at a wine boutique on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, the creators of a new line of premium wines from the Napa Valley made their first bid for attention in the New York metro market. Those who dropped by to sample—including one lady with a live lobster in her tote bag—were intrigued not just by the complexities of the eight varietals on offer, but by the distinctive appearance of their gambling-themed bottles. Tumbling dice. Suits of cards. Points from a roulette wheel. An embedded poker chip. Tightly executed color images on offset-printed paper labels and screen-printed wraps. Meet JAQK Cellars, a brand that comes to market with an exceptional pedigree in graphic design and package printing.

Printing Industries Alliance Declares “Major Victory” for NYS Printers as State Budget Passes with Critical Tax Exemption Retained

Published August 5, 2010

New York State’s budget was 125 days late when it finally was passed on Tuesday, but it contained something that printers throughout the state considered well worth waiting for: their continued exemption from the sales and use tax on printed and mailed promotional materials. Printing Industries Alliance (PIA) said that preservation of the exemption is a major victory for printers in New York State. In a message to his members, Timothy Freeman, president of PIA, called the exemption “critical for our industry. It is a significant competitive advantage for New York State printers.”

Reaching Out to Workers, Levi’s Opens A Working Print Shop for Community Use in San Francisco

Published August 4, 2010

Workers of the world, unite. You have nothing to lose but your fear of getting printer’s ink on your jeans. As a revolutionary slogan, it probably wouldn’t rouse the masses to the barricades, but Levi Strauss & Co. is hoping that the universal appeal of ink on paper will draw visitors to the craft print shop it has set up in San Francisco. A temporary installation, the shop is part of a marketing campaign through which the apparel maker aims to demonstrate solidarity with America’s working people.

OK, Whatever, but Was the “Ink” Low-VOC?

Published July 30, 2010

(detail from original art)
We’re only passing this along, folks. Headbäng, a music blog for heavy metal fans, reports that Watain, a black metal band from Sweden, recently commissioned the printing of a poster in human blood. The job was perpetrated—uh, we mean produced—by Metastazis, a photography and graphic design firm started in Paris and currently based in New York City.

Committed to Internal Growth, Sandy Alexander Adds Capacity and Capability

Published July 30, 2010

We hear it constantly: the industry won't return to normal until printers start investing in their businesses again. But at one printing company in New Jersey, they never got the memo about capital investment being on hold. Sandy Alexander of Clifton isn't waiting for economists to tell it that the time finally is right to add capacity and services. The company - with a staff of 230, one of the largest printing employers in the state - has already spent $7 million on new production machinery this year, and its quest to equip itself for growth isn't over yet.

The Ace Group Puts QR Codes To Work for Calvin Klein in Attention-Grabbing "Uncensored" Campaign in NYC

Published July 27, 2010

The fashion designer Calvin Klein is famous—or notorious—for advertising that pushes the limits of public taste with highly eroticized imagery. But, in terms of marketing effectiveness, the strategy has its limitations. Last year, the company raised eyebrows in the SoHo district of Manhattan with a five-story building poster depicting four young, semi-undressed models striking poses that struck some as orgiastic. The shock value was obvious, but, as with all media novelties, the shock eventually wore off. What to do for an encore in a jaded media market that Calvin Klein is largely responsible for jading in the first place?

Shorewood Packaging To Close Plant in Newport News

Published July 23, 2010

The Virginian-Pilot has reported that Shorewood Packaging intends to close its gravure printing operation in Newport News, VA, in October. The closure will shutter the plant and result in the loss of 35 jobs.

To This Print Company Employee, “Iron” Means “Horseshoes”

Published July 21, 2010

When he isn’t pitching horseshoes with deadlier accuracy than probably anyone else in the world, Alan Francis works for a printing company. Francis is the subject of a front-page profile in the print edition of today’s New York Times.

Is Your Vocabulary Commodious Enough To “Save the Words”?

Published July 20, 2010

A friend who dropped a chunk of my writing into IWriteLike tells me that the answer is H.G. Wells (1866-1946). The good news is that I correspond stylistically with an author of the 20th century—I wasn’t sure that I was this far along on the timeline of the English language. The fantastic news is that the answer wasn’t Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873), poet, playwright, novelist, and inspirer of the famous Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest.

Preparing to acquire: the basics of due diligence (Part 2)

Published July 20, 2010

In Part 1 of this primer on evaluating acquisition targets, Paul Reilly and Peter Schaefer of New Direction Partners reviewed the questions a prospective buyer should ask about the things that make the seller's company productive: its plant, its equipment, and the state of its relations with employees. Their discussion continues with advice for assessing the outcomes of that productivity: the quality of the financial results; the condition of the customer base; and the nature of the relationships that the seller has with its suppliers.

Virtual Press Clips: Print Firms in the News

Published July 19, 2010

“This man is an author. He writes stories. He has just finished a story. He thinks many people will like to read it. So, he must have the story made into a book. “Let’s see how the book is made.”

NYS Printers Get Good News on Sales & Use Tax

Published July 13, 2010

Printers in New York State are a step closer to seeing their legislature preserve a sales tax exemption that would have been extremely costly for them to lose. Tim Freeman, president of Printing Industries Alliance, reported the progress to his members yesterday:

June Swoon for Small-Biz Confidence

Published July 12, 2010

A much-quoted survey of small business owners said that the economic confidence felt by this segment leveled off in June to halt a two-month rise. The dip, although not large, reflected increased unease about the near-term outlook for smaller firms.