The industry’s quick and small commercial printers include “some of the industry’s most innovative and fast-growing companies,” says Andrew Paparozzi, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist at The National Association for Printing Leadership (NAPL). Now NAPL is expanding its services for this key industry segment with two new newsletters and a conference created exclusively for quick and small commercial printers.

The new eight-page quarterly Quick and Small Commercial Printers Trends Reportcovers the latest economic news and industry trends as relates to printers with annual sales below $3.5 million, including data and interpretation from regular surveys and interviews of printers in this segment. It is produced by the NAPL Research Center and sponsored by Xerox.

Introduced this spring, the new NAQP News is a six-page quarterly management newsletter with columns and articles specifically aimed at meeting the needs and exploring the issues executives and managers of quick and small commercial printing companies face daily. Both newsletters are mailed to NAPL members in this category.

“Executives and managers of quick and small commercial printing companies—many of them hands-on owner-operators—face difficult daily challenges during this time of industry change and economic uncertainty,” says NAQP Managing Director Mitch Evans. “We’ve created these new publications to help them navigate today’s challenges successfully as they grow and seek to achieve greater profitability.”

The Owners Conference, immediately preceding GRAPH EXPO, delivers speakers, printer panels, and vendor programs exclusively for the quick and small commercial printer, including the popular Ideas Exchange and Annual Supplier Showcase.

Built on the theme, “Embracing Change: Finding New Paths to Profits,” the information-packed 2012 conference will be held at the Doubletree Hotel Magnificent Mile in Chicago, Oct. 4-6. It will also be the setting for the annual PrintImage Excellence Awards, showcasing the outstanding output of the smaller printing company. All Owners Conference attendees also receive complimentary show floor admission to Graph Expo, Oct. 7-10 at McCormick Place South in Chicago.

“The program for this year’s conference has been put together by a group of knowledgeable quick and small commercial printer members who have used their frontline experience to identify today’s most important industry issues and assembled speakers and panelists who can address these topics from a real-world perspective,” says NAPL President and Chief Executive Officer Joseph P. Truncale, Ph.D. “Those who attend will return to their offices with innumerable takeaways they can make use of immediately.”

Topics covered at the 2012 program range from Equipment Financing and Agency-Printer Relationships to Social Networking and Exit Strategies. Already scheduled for this year’s program: Bill Farquharson of Aspire For, John Foley of Grow Socially, Joe Manos of MindFireInc., Barb Pellow of InfoTrends, Nancy Proffitt of Proffitt Management, Frank Romano of Rochester Institute of Technology, and Julie Shaffer of Printing Industries of America.

For more information about the 2012 Owners Conference, contact NAPL Vice President/Member Relations Dean D’Ambrosi at (800) 642-6275, Ext. 6314, or [email protected], or go to www.napl.org/2012OC