October 15, 2007 - In a rare and exclusive interview, RR Donnelley President and CEO Thomas J. Quinlan spoke with WhatTheyThink about the state of the company and its rebranding, the state of the industry and RR Donnelley’s strategies moving forward.
The full interview is available to Premium Access Members of WhatTheyThink.com by clicking here.
RR Donnelley, the world’s largest printer, reported revenues of $9.3 billion in 2006, with $5.7 billion attributed to Global Print Solutions and $3.6 billion to Global Services, which includes forms, labels and financial print.
In the interview, Quinlan was asked how RR Donnelley’s web offset business was performing. “We really look at our business from a customer perspective rather than a production silo perspective. We are seeing publishers turning to a variety of communications methods to reach audiences and support advertisers.
“PRIMIR did a magazine study in 2006 that reported that the number of different magazine titles in print reached an all-time high and projected continued growth, but at the same time, ad budgets are including more Internet exposure. As publishers use more web-based content, we can support them with direct mail. Others are turning to channels such as event marketing, especially B2B publishers, which we can support through direct mail, commercial print, program graphics and more. The beauty of having this platform and the assets we have is that we can leverage the whole to meet dynamically changing customer needs.
“John Paloian (RR Donnelley’s COO) and I joke that the presses really don’t know what they will be printing when they wake up in the morning. It is a different way to think about the business than people have in the past. We utilize those presses as best we can to be able to print for the customer and again, breaking down silos so you are not looking at books, directories, magazines, catalogs, etc., but rather at the overall customer business communications need. You simply apply the production method that best meets business objectives at any given time.”
The interview was conducted by Cary Sherburne, Senior Editor at WhatTheyThink.com. Topics include:
- Business update
- Criteria for acquisitions
- Integration challenges
- Digital printing strategies
- How suppliers can better work with RR Donnelley
- BPO services
- E-commerce initiatives
- Looking to drupa
The full interview is available to Premium Access Members of WhatTheyThink.com by clicking here.
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