Printing Industry Blog
IDEAlliance Makes A Little Knowledge “Just Enough”
By Patrick Henry on Wednesday, February 25, 2015
IDEAlliance has a handy information resource it calls the Just Enough Video Knowledge Bank. It’s a visual glossary of print and publishing technology terms that offers exactly what the name says: “just enough” information about these topics to get a conversation started or to serve as a starting point for deeper research.
Toxic Sales Training
By Wayne Peterson on Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Some of what passes for “sales training” is just plain dangerous. Actually, I would label it: Highly Toxic. It is toxic to sustained improvement, to sustained sales growth, and to the careers of those who recommend, endorse, buy and implement it. It is chosen with the very best of intentions, but it is worse than ineffective. It isn’t harmless; it is poisonous and sometimes deadly.
Yes, You Do Need Stinking Badges
By Wayne Peterson on Thursday, February 19, 2015
It isn't difficult to identify when a business development process is missing or badly damaged. Here are five telltale signs.
Regis Delmontagne Comments on Outlook for U.S. Shows
By Patrick Henry on Wednesday, February 18, 2015
We heard from Regis Delmontagne in response to a post about the impact of the drupa decision on the timing and planning of U.S. printing trade shows operated by the Graphic Arts Show Company (GASC). Delmontagne was president of the National Printing and Equipment Association (NPES), as it was called during his tenure, from 1976 to 2005. He also was president of GASC in the years when the Print and Graph Expo shows reached their peaks of attendance and exhibitor participation.
Canon Solutions America Celebrates Its Second Anniversary
By Richard Romano on Tuesday, February 17, 2015
As you may have read elsewhere on WhatTheyThink, last week, CSA—né Océ—celebrated its second anniversary with a much-needed (for those of us encased in the frozen tundra of the Northeast) event in Boca Raton, Fla. CSA execs shared updates in the various business groups (Enterprise Managed Services Division, formerly Business Services Division; Large Format Solutions; and Production Printing Division).
Producers of drupa Explain Three-Year Plan
By Cary Sherburne on Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Sometimes, trade shows don’t even have to open before they start making news. Yesterday, officials of Messe Düsseldorf, producer of the drupa expo, held conference calls with journalists to explain the drupa committee’s decision to shorten the interval between the events from four years to three starting in 2016.
Timing Change for drupa Flutters Pages of U.S. Trade Show Calendar
By Patrick Henry on Friday, February 13, 2015
Like a pair of planets with intersecting orbits, the drupa and Print expos are going to cross paths on the calendar in 2025 and overlap in six additional years after that through the end of the century.
New High Definition Nozzle Architecture for HP Inkjet Web Presses!
By Cary Sherburne on Thursday, February 05, 2015
Today HP announced breakthrough inkjet printhead technology to be incorporated into its Inkjet Web Presses in 2016. Summary information here with more to following in a detailed article from David Zwang on Monday.
Who’s Epicomm and what have you done with NAPL/NAQP/AMSP?
By Cary Sherburne on Monday, January 19, 2015
Today, the alphabet soup of NAPL/NAQP/AMSP, one of our favorite industry associations, is getting rid of the unwieldy name generated by a series of mergers and acquisitions in favor of brand-new branding as Epicomm. I spoke with Ken Garner, CEO of Epicomm, to learn more about the what and the why.
We Remember Robert Howard
By Frank Romano on Monday, January 12, 2015
Robert Howard, the genius behind the dot matrix printer and the direct imaging press, among many other technologies, passed over the holidays. He was 91. Chairman Bob, as he was called, was surrounded by his wife Kit and family
Nous sommes CTD
By Patrick Henry on Monday, January 12, 2015
In the midst of the grief and the loathing that last week’s terrorist attacks in France stirred in all of us, there was one small scrap of comfort that touched close to home: the fact that no innocent people were killed at the print shop where the Charlie Hebdo gunmen made their final stand.
A few clarifications from Benny Landa
By Cary Sherburne on Thursday, December 18, 2014
Following our publication of the latest update from Landa Digital Printing, published last week, I spoke with Benny Landa to clarify a few things.
More on Ricoh's Acquisition of PTI Marketing Technologies
By Cary Sherburne on Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Last week, Ricoh invited a group of press and analysts to a discussion about its acquisition of PTI Marketing Technologies. As our readers will remember, Ricoh made an investment in PTI in 2012 and has since trained its sales force on selling PTI solutions, including MarcomCentral and FusionPro (FusionPro is sold as a standalone and also is embedded in MarcomCentral). During the session, Coleman Kane, President & CEO of PTI Marketing Technologies, and Ted Takahashi, Ricoh’s Senior Vice President, Production Print Global Marketing Center, shared thoughts and comments and answered questions.
Adobe Creative Cloud: Moving At the Speed of Light
By Cary Sherburne on Tuesday, October 21, 2014
An Update on Océ Products from Canon
By Adam Dewitz on Friday, October 10, 2014
The week before Graph Expo, I was invited to Océ's Global Commercial Printing Business Days at its Customer Experience Center in Poing, Germany. This event include in printing company executives, press, and analysts from all over the world for a preview of Océ's new and upcoming products as well as insight into its market strategy. It also served as the launch for the ImageStream 3500 production inkjet system that Océ unveiled in May.
BoSacks Speaks Out: Where's the hope for magazines?
By Bob Sacks on Monday, October 06, 2014
An interesting professional sobriety hit the magazine business last week that was a long time in its maturation. The MPA moved us off the teat of accounting for print ad pages as our franchise enabler and instead offered a solution of cross-media oversight. Concurrent with this move was the decision to no longer make public the accumulated printed ad page stats. This move attempts to take the consistently depressing news about declining page counts off the front page and to make them available only to MPA members and their affiliates.
Commentary on HP Splitting into Two Companies
By Cary Sherburne on Monday, October 06, 2014
The annocument from HP that it will split into two different companies is not unexpected, given the public discussion and rumors about spinning off or selling the personal systems and printing business, including the recent failed merger with EMC.
The Future Has Been Disrupted...What Now?
By Eric Vessels on Friday, September 26, 2014
Dr. Joe Webb and Richard Romano, authors of Disrupting the Future and Getting Business, are out with their latest release This Point Forward. I just finished reading it and wanted to let you know what I think and share some details on the WhatTheyThink teams activities at this years Graph Expo.
RetailMeNot's report tells retailers to "stop doing something old," referring to us
By Dr. Joe Webb on Thursday, June 19, 2014
RetailMeNot's report and the infographic are essential reading for print business owners because they offer a media executive's perspective on the nature of print. The executives perceptions of digital media are quite clear: "Seventy-five percent believe that digital consistently delivers better ROI – or "promotional performance" – at a lower cost than non-digital."
BoSacks Speaks Out: Magazine Revenue and the numbers.
By Bob Sacks on Thursday, June 05, 2014
The magazine industry only produces revenue by having a product worth selling. I am happy to report that the industry still produces tens of billions of dollars in revenue. But as an industry the count of sales of magazines has been declining in both newsstand copies sold and subscriptions bought.
