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 By Kevin Keane, IAPHC CEO On sending E-mail to Luddites From former Fifth District Governor Jerry Carter of the Indianapolis Club: "Kevin, I really appreciate the Tuesday News. I am just getting started in this e-mail world, and I love it. I have begun to identify our printing technology class as information on paper, not just ink on paper. We are all learning that we are no longer simply ink on paper creators. We must communicate via whatever method is most economical and expedient." Well said Jerry! One of our senior members sent a thoughtful letter the other day noting that printing presses are still running no matter how much e-mail we may see on our computer desktops. And indeed some presses are still printing money; but, almost certainly the folks with really great growth prospects are those who recognize that they must stand with feet firmly planted in two camps -- one is in the traditional world of ink on paper, the other is in the digital world of information on paper or other media. Managing these combination businesses won't be easy, in fact there will be times when it will seem downright schizophrenic.But the good old days aren't coming back, just ask the Luddites.And another e-thing, Ernie Pyle or e.e. cummings"But ask troops to name the greatest electronic breakthrough, and you hear e-mail, e-mail, e-mail. In communications with the StarTribune last week, Minnesotans stationed on ships and at the praises of the technology that allows them to do something that wasn't as readily available to them and their counterparts in the 1991 Persian Gulf War or any military buildup before that: sit down at a keyboard and 'talk' to folks back home." Sunday Minneapolis StarTribune, March 1, 1998.Last week in Tuesday Morning News we wrote of the startling increase in people online. On the river called Denial, folks may not wish to admit how the communications landscape is changing, forever, again.( e.e. cummings wrote perhaps the best book on the folly of war, The Enormous Room, regarding WWI; and famed columnist Ernie Pyle endeared himself to WWII troops and their families for his Letters from the front.)On Doing the Digital Two Step We noted above the need for operating combination traditional/digital businesses. In a recent issue we wrote about the changing model of print and distribute to distribute and print. Member-at-large Dick Lunde of PrintShift gave us a profound little nugget to think about and share with you. In the new venture (a virtual venture?) of create, distribute and print, the printer needs to go additional steps in her thinking. Because the new model also requires that you be able to provide the printed work: on location, on demand, customized, personalized and variable as required.That's a mouthful and Dick is dead on in his thinking.Kevorked by the Quark, the movie Or, my imposition software is dead in the water, because we just installed Quark 4.0 and it isn't compatible with our existing page imposition software. Thanks to Ike Braun of Friesens in Winnipeg for letting us know about this problem. The good folks at Quark are very up front about the problems discovered with QuarkXPress 4.0 after the final product shipped. Many have been fixed by QuarkXpress 4.01r1 Updater. Our thanks to John Kohnke of the San Francisco Club who heard our plea for material for inclusion in Tuesday Morning News and has provided a wondrous slew of tidbits. It was John who sent us the info about the Updater fix. If you want to contact Quark tech reps online try mactech@quark.com or quarktech@aol.com Xeikon Rolling Out We have been much taken by the Xeikon color press since its introduction. For fun, we keep a stock tracking portfolio of printing related firms in a folder on America Online. It's interesting to read the quarterly and year end results that are posted whether by legal requirement or out of corporate pride. Xeikon's CEO, Mr. Alfons Buts noted that during 1997 his company shipped 325 systems. And since inception in 1994, the firm has shipped 948 worldwide. The report also says: "In June the company launched the DCP/50D -- the world's fastest and widest digital color press.....The DCP/50D is the first and only digital printing system with the ability to produce an eight page signature format, the common format among commercial printers. The company also broadened its distribution channels with the addition of PrimeSource Corporation as a new North American Distributor." O Kinko O Uarco We written often in this space of our interest in the growth of the Kinko's empire and the foray of Uarco into a more retail approach with the Impressions development. Thanks to John Kohnke's gold mine of news bullets we can tell you about two things we'd missed in the swirl of change in our industry. First, the folks at Kinko's continue to advance internationally having recently inked a deal to offer round the clock, seven days a week, full range service with two new Kinko's branches in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, with more Arab world branches to follow. Meanwhile, Settsu Corporation of Japan sold it's Uarco subsidiary to Standard Register of Dayton Ohio. You may recall that Standard has their own foray into retail print selling called StanFast. Growth of the behemoths and Consolidation of the rest. That's the printing biz in the late 1990's.
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