EAST BRIDGEWATER, MA -- 05/23/2006 -- Harte-Hanks a global direct and targeted marketing solutions provider, announced today that it has expanded and enhanced its digital printing capabilities by acquiring certain assets of PrintSmart, Inc., a full-service print-on-demand (POD) provider, located here. As a vendor to Harte-Hanks for the past five years, PrintSmart has provided Harte-Hanks certain POD services to the East Bridgewater, MA, digital print and fulfillment facility of Harte-Hanks, which serves an array of vertical markets. POD or digital printing enables direct mail pieces and other marketing collateral to be personalized for a single individual recipient, based on a variety of business rules set by a sender organization. In a digital print piece, items may have any number of elements -- use of the recipients' name, headlines, artwork, copy text, for example -- changed to increase the relevance of the printed item to the recipient. "The 'communications on demand' digital printing needs of our clients continue to increase," said Jim Davis, corporate officer and senior vice president for direct marketing at Harte-Hanks. "Our ownership of certain PrintSmart's POD assets will help us keep pace with new capabilities, equipment and processes which optimize the opportunities for print on demand. This investment reflects our company's data-driven, digital strategy -- in database, in analytics, in strategy, in interaction -- in support of optimizing customer relationships for our clients." Harte-Hanks offers in its direct marketing business a full range of interactive marketing offerings, among them Harte-Hanks Postfuture®, a leading e-mail marketing service provider; the Technology E-mail Database, a component of the Harte-Hanks CI Technology Database; Web site and interactive advertising design, hosting and search marketing applications; electronic fulfillment; multichannel database design and data management in its Allink® and Advanced Data Quality solutions; as well as digital printing. "Growth in POD at Harte-Hanks reflects an established market trend to reduce inventories of printed materials, increase personalization and effectively utilize new four-color digital printing technologies," Davis said. Industry sources expect the digital print marketplace in the United States to grow at an annual rate of 12% to achieve total revenues of $60 billion by 2009. By 2020, the industry spend on POD is expected to exceed that of commercial print. [Sources: Infotrends/CAPVentures, 2006] According to Harte-Hanks, the acquired assets of PrintSmart will be combined with the East Bridgewater, MA, digital capabilities of Harte-Hanks, which are linked to a second East Coast POD center of Harte-Hanks in Jacksonville, FL. As a result, Harte-Hanks digital print capabilities now feature POD equipment of all the top digital print manufacturers, including Xerox, NexPress, Heidelberg and Oce. "Combining this equipment with our traditional offset printing capabilities provides a distinct advantage to clients," said Matt Pollock, managing director of the East Bridgewater facility. "Offset can be blended with POD for unique, cost effective solutions which offer the combined benefits of economies of scale and 'just in time' inventory replenishment, if needed." "Organizations and institutions often dispose of 25% or more of their printed inventories, but when paired with POD inventory replenishment, initial print quantities can be smaller -- substantially reducing waste," Pollock said.