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By Kevin Keane, IAPHC CEO Drowning in Digital? Member Brian Schott, with Admail in Hayward, California sent us a thoughtful e-mail on 31 March asking for a little more emphasis on the ink on paper side of the business. We agree with Brian that the sexy stuff seems to be mostly digital and therefore ask our readers who work for enterprises like Komori or Shinohara or Mitsubishi or Heidelberg or MullerMartini or Standard or Adobe or Creo or xpedx or Unisource or PrimeSource or Pitman to please pass along tidbits as to news from the conventional side of the business to help 'offset' the digital tidal wave. This writer, who long wore the title, World's Worst Duplicator Press Operator (if one alka seltzer tablet helped reduce acidity in the fountain, two must be better -- plop, plop, fizz fizz, oh what a mess this is!) offered a Millennium Mantra in Tuesday Morning News (TMN) of 9 March 1999. Since we have dozens of first time readers who have been added to the TMN distribution list in the past two weeks, we offer the mantra again: Three Rules for Living in the Printing Business Today 1) don't ignore digital, or they'll beat you with bandwidth baby 2) your clients no longer distinguish between copying and printing, nor should you 3) conventional methods still make most of the money, honey And so, in speedy reply to Brian's request for ink on paper news --here's a hot tip: Heidelberger Drucksmachinen AG is testing a 12 unit press in its R & D lab in Germany in anticipation of being able to show the niche press at Drupa 2000. John Dewey, V-P of Sales and Marketing at Heidelberg USA told British Printer magazine that in the US, there are as many 8-10 unit presses sold as there are 4 and 5 unit machines. In the same magazine's April 1999 issue one finds this item talking about small offset printers moving upstream into 4 color work. "... if they are to survive, small-offset printers must offer something extra. An increasing number of printers are finding out that one solution is producing short-run, fast turnaround, four colour process work. Neil Handforth, joint managing director of Ry-Offset Graphics, United Kingdom agent for Ryobi, reports: 'Virtually every Ryobi press that we sell these days is two-colour or above.'" Long Windedness We've seen two comments lately that TMN can be longish. Indeed it can. One reason is our multiple constituencies. We have readers who want only industry news, and others who want only IAPHC news. Combining the two agendas adds length. Some folks have noted that TMN supports the historic motto of the IAPHC to 'Share Your Knowledge', but unlike the monthly Club meeting, it is delivered several times each month. Does it supplant the value of the monthly local gathering? We think not. We quote: "Economist John Schmitt says a study recently discovered that most of the New York City graphic designers using high end computers for their work live within a mile or two of one another -- an area represented by only two postal zip codes. 'They like to see each other and talk to each other,' Schmitt said. They, and others like them, seem to value an exchange of ideas more than the freedom to live 1,000 miles from their company headquarters." From an article titled More Brain, Less Brawn in the Sunday Minneapolis StarTribune, 11 April 1999. The same article offered some projections for the ten fastest declining occupations between 1999 and 2006. Three may sound familiar to you -- printing strippers down 63%; typesetting and composition machine operators down 59%; and proofreaders and copy markers down 27%. The culprit in every case? The impact of the digital day and age. The Mac as Phoenix Speaking of these creative types -- on 8 April, our good friends at TrendWatch reported that more than 17,000 creative firms plan purchases of Macintosh and PowerMac workstations in 1999, but only 3,400 creative firms plan to buy Windows based workstations and 1,600 plan to purchase Windows NT based workstations. The report amplified the resurgence of the Mac. "Apple continues to dominate the creative markets. Since 1997, planned purchases of Macintosh and PowerMac workstations have risen 4.96%, yet during the same period demand for Windows workstations has fallen 19.9%. Also on 8 April, came news from Apple's Cupertino, California headquarters that later this month, Apple is juicing up the speed of its very popular iMac consumer computer with a 333 megahertz model, up from the current 266MHz. No Respite on the Consolidation Trail On 1 April, Cunningham Graphics International, Inc., announced it had completed its fourth acquisition of 1999, when it signed the deal to acquire Goldhawk Reprographics Limited, a full service commercial printer located in London, England. Cunningham, which is based in Jersey City, New Jersey, has expanded its network from the UK to Canada to Singapore and Hong Kong. Given that we expect to receive entries to the 25th Anniversary International Gallery of Superb Printing from all of those locales, we sent CEO Michael Cunningham a personalized International Gallery entry invitation packet last week, when TMN was on hiatus to facilitate a full scale Gallery marketing blitz of printers worldwide. On 6 April, the President and CEO of Quebecor Printing, Mr. Charles Cavell took the unusual step of telegraphing his firm's acquisition plans. In a luncheon speech in Montreal and in follow-up remarks to reporters, Cavell said that Quebecor is talking to two printing companies in Brazil and two in Argentina. All the proposed targets have sales between $50 million and $100 million and would represent, if successfully concluded, additional links in Quebecor's plan to create a network of printing operations across Latin America. Cavell also said that Quebecor is interested in printing firms located in Germany. Quebecor also inked a deal with WAM!NET for digital file transmissions to Quebecor facilities in France. As previously reported to you in the pages of TMN, R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co had announced it was acquiring the direct mail marketing group called Communicolor from Standard Register. Communicolor has 550 employees in plants at Newark, Ohio and Eudora, Kansas. The deal was completed on 5 April. The reference to Standard Register reminds us of another deal announced on 5 April. Xerox and Standard Register said they had entered into a sales and marketing agreement for the co-marketing of business forms. The arrangement establishes an exclusive Xerox certified business forms line in the US market. Big News at the Big Red X We have added a number of Xerox employees, including several employed by Xerox Canada to the distribution list for TMN in recent weeks. One of our far flung correspondents says that Xerox Canada is often seen as having a head start in embracing new marketing directions for the Xerox brand and this has been especially true with the digital marketplace. The rest of the company is intent on catching up however. On 7 April, Xerox embraced e-commerce with a passion as it unveiled an all new web site at www.xerox.com "Xerox is focused on offering its products and services anywhere and in any way that is convenient for its customers, and e-commerce capabilities provide a critical complement to Xerox' existing customer relationship channels," according to Amy Hawman, V-P of Xerox Internet and Channel Marketing Group. On 8 April, in a story out of Frankfurt, Germany, a Xerox Europe spokesman said that the company was moving away from being a 'knowledge duplication' copying business to becoming a 'knowledge sharing' business with a focus on networkable integrated machines. It was noted that IBM had successfully transformed itself from a hardware company into a broader based 'business solutions' provider, and John Simek a spokeman with Xerox in Rochester, New York, noted the similarity when he said, "It's sort of like the IBM direction." The post-2000 Xerox strategy will be revealed in London on April 27 and in Chicago on April 28. On 12 April, three different information-technology research firms agreed that Xerox was the undisputed king of digital copier sales in the US market in 1998. CAP Ventures, International Data Corporation and Dataquest said that Xerox led the digital derby with Ricoh, Sharp and Canon trailing. The three firms estimated that Xerox had between 35% to nearly 40% of the digital copier sales. In a related announcement, on 12 April, Xerox said it will eliminate about 100 jobs in the Rochester, New York area because of sluggish demand for its analog copiers, according to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. Other Industry Tidbits Paper making conglomerate Arjo Wiggins said last week it would be shuttering carbonless paper making facilities in France and Wales. Asia Pulp and Paper weighed in from Singapore on 8 April with the news that soaring paper sales had been able to overcome lagging pricing power for paper and the firm posted an excellent 4th quarter. On 6 April, a joint venture of 4 giants in the paper business was announced with the aim of improving forest productivity. The four companies are Fletcher Challenge Forests (in New Zealand) and International Paper Company, Monsanto and Westvaco Corporation. The venture is a biotechnology initiative, and will be spearheaded by an Auckland biotech research outfit to uncover forestry genomics. The four companies said that as international demand for wood and fiber surges, there is need for genetic improvements in forestry science including higher growth rates to allow more wood to be grown on less land and improved fiber quality to increase efficiency in paper making. At the CMM International Show in Chicago, Imation introduced an intriguing new service to help package printers measure and benchmark press performance based on any color set. The Imation Press Analysis Service is especially useful in package printing where custom color sets are the rule. The new service relies on a spectral based color measurement software tool to create accurate and measurable press targets based on optimal conditions. Besco Graphic Systems (did you know that the name derives from the firm's founding in 1935 as the Bridgeport Engravers Supply Company?) announced on 7 April that it will immediately begin selling the Optronics platesetter and scanner lines as part of Besco's CTP product portfolio. The companies note that the alliance allows Besco and Optronics to work with clients where thermal digital media is preferred. Printware, Inc., will be introducing the dual cassette model of its PlateStream Platesetter line at The Dallas Show next week. Printware says the new model can image paper or polyester media up to 18.1" wide which makes it suitable for four up work on small format presses or even two up on a Heidelberg GTO. The new version is priced at $80,900 US. Deluxe Financial Services said on 6 April that it had signed up another banking group for its check ordering service for the Internet. Dakotah Bank of South Dakota is the latest institution to seek to transfer the check ordering process away from the teller windows. If you can order checks over the Internet can many other forms of printing be far behind? And of course, one already can order business cards, stationery, brochures and other printed products online from an ever increasing array of vendors. CORRECTION: In the last TMN we incorrectly wrote that GretagMacbeth had acquired Viptronic S.r.l., of Brixen Italy, in fact we should have said it is a 'planned acquisition.' Our apologies for the error.
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