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By Kevin Keane, IAPHC CEO The IAPHC's website CraftNet was briefly off line late last week due to ownership transition issues at the firm which hosts the servers where CraftNet resides. The successor firm acknowledges its error. The problem was in no way attributable to Renaissance Web Creation nor the IAPHC, but we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience. Strum and Drang So far as we have learned, no IAPHC members were severely harmed by the devastating storms that swept through Oklahoma and Kansas recently; nevertheless they have been affected in one manner or another and our thoughts and concern go out to them, and their families and friends. Clueless in Craft This writer took some time off last week to spruce up the homestead in advance of a family gathering. Unfortunately, a plumbing problem became a harsh tutorial in our utter lack of skill in the areas of flooring, tiling, plumbing, electrical and even painting. Which got us to thinking about this reality -- even with the huge advancement of technology for the masses and even as the cost barriers continue to drop, do-it-yourselfers still need the intervention of skilled Craftsmen once in awhile; otherwise their own self styled handiwork may just look like crapola! Interesting then, that the last Federal Express delivery for Monday 10 May brought an International Gallery entry from Cedar Graphics in Hiawatha, Iowa. Enclosed was a note pad with this legend: "Those of us in the printing business know better than anyone what a powerful effect opposites have on each other. What was once a cherished craft passed from hand to hand has now, thanks to modern technology become equal parts art and science. Our job is to manage the dynamic that occurs when art and science meet on the pressroom floor. If we do it well, and we'd like to think we do, the result is spectacular." Perhaps a corollary to this wisdom is to be found in the ancient guild tradition of skilled artisan passing knowledge to the apprentice. Maybe one key for success in a rapidly changing printing industry is to become the teacher to one's apprentices. But the definition of apprentice must change to include not only fellow workers but also one's clients no matter where located. No client wants to produce a crapola printed piece, it is through our intervention as partners in the process that new opportunity is born. Stealthed? Boomeranged by a Rebar. - From an article titled Danger: Stealth Attack, in the 25 January 1999 issue of Forbes magazine: Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen stood before a group of Intel senior executives in September 1997 to tell them how upstarts capture business from established firms. Low-cost steel mini mills he said, stole 40% of the business from stalwarts like Bethlehem Steel and U.S. Steel by starting in the junkiest market segment, reinforcing bar, and working their way up from rebar to sophisticated sheet steel. Christensen showed a slide depicting the trend. Intel Chairman Andrew Grove listened intently. He'd already begun pointing Intel toward a PC market segment it had previously scorned. 'I was looking at his slide,' Grove recalls, 'and I had this creeping feeling that he was really talking about the introduction of low-cost computers. It is our rebar.' Is the printing industry being stealthed? Last week, Andrew Grove told the cream of US newspapers that they have to change or die. In remarks to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Grove said: "Three years from now, traditional newspapers are going to face an obvious profits squeeze. You will know when it's almost too late." In British magazine Printing World, 3 May 1999, in an article titled The Diminishing Water Hole, Rod Hayes writes: "Almost as if by stealth, the structure of printing has changed, one of the most noticeable aspects at Northprint, the exhibition geared mainly towards mainstream commercial printing, was the complete absence of single colour presses for sale. Although high quality B3 multi-unit presses were there in abundance, by far the most dominant manufacturer was one which only concerns itself with digital printing. Xerox's presence, along with its fast growing rival IBM, signalled that new methods and ideas are going to tear the heart out of conventional approaches to printing." Also last week, Royal Farros, CEO of iPrint.com was interviewed on the Tech 99 segment of CNBC. When he blithely stated that in the $100 billion dollar commercial printing market 15 to 20 per cent of all jobs must be routinely re-run due to printer errors, the remark was unchallenged. iPrint is of course the online printshop that was started by several former Deluxe executives a few years back. It uses outside vendors including Business Cards Tomorrow to produce the actual printing. Farros also said he would likely take the firm public later this year. dotcommania? Whether or not iPrint is successful is not the point. In a stealth attack, low cost competitors come into a market to attack the soft underbelly of the whale. Today, ELetter, another Internet based start-up company launched a service to automate mass mailings of letters or postcards for even the smallest companies. According to the news release: "ELetter drives down costs by automating the entire system with software. In addition, using digital printers avoids the costly process of setting up offset printing presses for each job, a source of higher costs from manual printing processes." CEO Manish Mehta said digital printing is cheaper for printing 50,000 or fewer pieces than standard offset printing, and his firm targets printing runs of 10,000 or fewer copies. Now, virtually anyone INSIDE the printing industry knows that the re-run rate quoted by Mr. Farros or the price points for digital versus offset printing quoted by Mr. Mehta are gems of pure fabrication. But in a stealth attack, a campaign of disinformation can acquire a life of its own especially to people OUTSIDE the industry. And ELetter is not alone in trying to change the way mailings are done. The United States Postal Service is testing Mailing Online, as part of its PostOffice Online internet service. Mailing Online can accept a customer's direct mail piece and mailing list directly from the customer through the web site. The data is then forwarded to a Boston area commercial digital printer who prints, folds and distributes the mail piece to the mailing list. In the face of all this anecdotal evidence of stealth attacks on some of the bread and butter of traditional printing, it is really remarkable to read a news release dated 11 May from TrendWatch: "According to the '1999 Trendwatch Digital Asset Management Special Report' there are significant barriers to the adoption of digital asset management (DAM) systems. For example, only 5,800 creative and printing establishments (out of a universe of almost 100,000) plan to purchase these products in 1999." The release goes on to note that the market (our industry) perceives that DAM systems require significant change in the way things are being done now -- shop owners view these changes as negative and are reluctant to disrupt their existing workflow. Yet in the Enterprise or Reprographics printing market there seems to be much less reluctance to move forward aided by technology. On 3 May Printware, Inc., announced the installation of one of its PlateStream computer to plate systems at Lason, Inc's San Francisco office. The PlateStream is a key component of Lason Online, a new Internet system to deliver structured corporate-identity documents such as business cards, stationery, envelopes and memo pads. "We're delighted Lason selected a Printware system as the key element of such a progressive Internet print delivery system. 'Hands-off' printing like Lason online represents the future -- part of our vision of automating print with computer-to-plate. Lason Online is at the confluence of two of the hottest trends in printing today: Internet job specification and computer to plate, said Dan Baker CEO of Printware, and a first time International Gallery of Superb Printing judge next month! It remains a puzzle that while so many new tools to allow us to partner with our apprentice/clients, still as an industry we bridle at change. On 29 April PagePath introduced its turnkey digital delivery system for the printing industry. Document creation and subsequent file delivery problems such as missing fonts, re-flow, image errors, MIME bloat, misdirected or corrupted files and inadequate customer order specifications are among those said to be eliminated by Pagepath Technologies new LAUNCH! v-Docs Internet file delivery system. Available as a flat month-to-month subscription plan, LAUNCH! v-Docs uses the printing plants existing computer system and Internet connection, supports both Mac and Windows and includes a free license for an unlimited number of personalized LAUNCH! Internet 'Senders' along with a web page allowing the printer's customers to download the Sender software. In a time of plenty, it may be difficult to raise one's head to observe the portents. Yet the evidence keeps mounting of stealthy activities in our back gardens. Other Industry Tidbits 1) The consolidation factor is another stealthy impact on the face of traditional printing. Master Graphics Inc reported on 6 May that its operating income for the first quarter was 10.1 per cent of sales. While one can quibble at the definition of operating income, 10 per cent is a handsome number. As we reported in an earlier TMN, Consolidators slashing prices because of the greater leverage afforded by the healthy operating income ratio has not yet been seen as a club to drive less well heeled competition into submission. But the day could come. 2) And the pace of consolidation and the size of the mergers real and imagined continues -- on 29 April The Globe and Mail, Canada's business newspaper reported that Quebecor Printing Inc may be considering a takeover of either World Color Press or Big Flower Holdings. Either deal would make Quebecor the largest commercial printer in the world. CEO Charles Cavell said the firm could afford a C$2 billion acquisition. 3) Meanwhile Moore North America said on 4 May that it had entered into an agreement with Applied Printing Technologies through which APT will become Moore's preferred provider of commercial printing services for an 11 state area in the Northeastern region of the US. Look for more of these of alliances as firms seek partnerships that allow them to market position as having become full service providers of all media, anywhere, at any time. Past Second District Governor Joe Benoit runs the Moore plant in Albany, New York and North Jersey Club president Howard Feinman works at APT in Moonachie, New Jersey. Both gentlemen have seen the marketing advantages of participating in the International Gallery and in 1998 APT won the PrimeSource Corporation Best of Show Award. 4) Neenah Paper now has its web site up and running. It is unique as it is an e-commerce site allowing individuals the option of ordering small quantities of 300 of Neenah's most popular cut size items plus matching envelopes, as well as selections of perforated business cards; announcements; tri-fold mailers and label stock. The site can be found at http://www.neenahpaper.com Neenah is the sponsor of the Best Small Format Project Award in the 25th Anniversary International Gallery just as it was for 1998. 5) Unisource Worldwide announced on 10 May that it had received an unsolicited written proposal from Georgia Pacific to acquire Unisource. Somehow this seems like a more logical deal than the previously announced merger with UGI Corporation which is in the energy business.
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