WASHINGTON, DC, July 9, 2007 – The Print Council announced the appointment of James Mikol, executive vice president and director of print management, Leo Burnett USA (Chicago, IL), to the Executive Committee of its Board of Directors. Co-chaired by Heidelberg president James Dunn and Williamson Printing chairman and CEO Jerry Williamson, the nine-member body governs the actions of The Print Council.
The first member of the Executive Committee to join from the print-buying side, Mikol directed all creative services for Kraft Foods for nearly 20 years before joining Leo Burnett in his present position. In this role, he manages a group of 85 print professionals producing $250 million in print media. He is a member of the SWOP Advisory Committee and is a past co-chair of Primex. Ben Cooper, Executive Director of The Print Council, has described Mikol as “one of the leading advocates of print in the world.”
“Leo Burnett is among the world’s largest buyers of printing, and Jim Mikol places more printing than anyone else in the advertising industry. He is a strong proponent of the value of printing,” Cooper said in announcing the appointment. “Having someone with his breadth of experience in print buying from the agency side will guide us in crafting tools for influencing the decisions of media buyers in favor of print. He also understands that the heart of our strategy is to develop credible and reliable data on the value of print.”
 Mikol said he would use his experience to help The Print Council gain better insight into the motivations of those who buy print and other media for advertising and marketing communications. “I’ve been very impressed by the work of The Print Council,” he said. “Having been on both the agency and the client side, I believe that the print buyer’s perspective is the most important thing that I bring.” That perspective, he added, would assist The Print Council in sharpening its strategy for encouraging the use of print.
Mikol also pledged to support The Print Council’s efforts to win recognition for print’s rightful place in the media mix. “Print is an extraordinarily viable medium,” he said. We’ve all heard the ‘death claims’ about print’s loss of relevance, but I wholeheartedly disagree with them. Print needs to be repositioned, perhaps, to show how it can be interrelated with other media to surround the consumer with messages at home and at retail.”
”It’s not about one medium any more,” Mikol said. “The need to contact the consumer has not gone away. I have a hard time visualizing a world that doesn’t include print.”
In addition to Mikol, Dunn and Williamson, the Executive Committee of The Print Council is comprised of: Roy Grossman, President and CEO, Sandy Alexander; Vincent Lapinski, CEO, MAN Roland; Martin Maloney, Chairman, Broadford & Maloney Inc.; Paul Reilly, Partner, Compass Capital; and Gina Testa, Vice President, Xerox.