September 1, 2000
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printCafe Day? Ole!

August 29 was proclaimed printCafe day by San Francisco's Mayor, the unsinkable and inimitable Willie Brown Jr. The folks at printCafe celebrated Seybold SF by announcing an alliance with the Kelmscott Communications network of graphic arts companies. IAPHC member Bob Bierwagen, VP of Product Management for printCafe said: "The goal is to have a common platform for estimate requests and order processing, regardless of whether the transaction is initiated inside or outside of Kelmscott." Firms in the Kelmscott network include: Watermark Press in San Francisco; Commercial Printing in Medford, OR; Printing Control in Seattle; Maximum Graphics in Chaska MN; Spangler Printers in Kansas City; Anderson Printing in Hollywood CA; Orange County Printing in Irvine CA and Hollis Digital Imaging in Tucson AZ.

PrintCafe also inked Australia's largest commercial printer PMP Communications to a multi-year subscription agreement in mid-August. PMP has some 20 facilities throughout Australia and New Zealand and is said to control some 25% of the Australian market for print services.

Flamenco'ed and Flambe'd: The stiletto shiver of Print e-commerce

The numbing tattoo of the digital drumbeat of print e-commerce (some would say the digital dirge) keeps resounding. At Seybold San Francisco Httprint.com said it had purchased printconnect.com based in Boston. A month ago, Collabria's PrintCommerce platform won the prestigious 2000 GATF InterTech Technology Award and was the only such product so honored. "Collabria has proven the potential of e-commerce through eCatalog. It provides a solution that enhances existing relationships between printer and their customers." said one of the InterTech judges. Sprockets.com which was a hot pick at Seybold Boston was showing it's latest beta version of its web-based collaboration software at Seybold San Francisco.

Meanwhile, within the hallowed halls of dot.com academies, all kinds of square dancing is swirling. WAM!NET seems to have turned towards a new focus almost exclusively on the entertainment industry in the United Kingdom. Previously it saw the graphic arts, the medical world and entertainment as all being ripe fields for its file transmission solutions. Maybe it ran into the phenomenon described by the good folks at TrendWatch who reported in late June in TrendWatch Fast Fact #80 that only 1 or 2 % of printing industry establishments say they are using any of the dot-coms.

Does this augur well for the dotcom firms or suggest that many may simply auger right into the terra firma six feet under?

One response is to listen to the caller at the square dance and change partners. Or at least marry up with new ones. Our good friends John Fleming at printLeader Software and Steve Ciesmier at Pagepath Technologies passed along news that they have formed the Odyssey Initiative, an alliance of their two companies aimed at furthering coherent integration of print-related workflow activities on the Internet. And of course 16 print management and e-commerce firms have elected to form the PrintTalk community to define 'best practices' and develop common and open communication interfaces between their products. Among the 16 are Collabria, Impresse, MediaFlex, Noosh and WAM!NET. A major push of the group is to implement the Job Definition Format.

Nonetheless, there are some who assail the advent and the plenitude of dotcoms.

For example we received a letter dated July 6, 2000 from the Chairman of printlynxx.com who wrote:

"In a frenzy, print dotcoms busted out of obscurity with massive advertising campaigns. Today, these venture capital start-ups are dropping like flies, leaving broken promises and dissatisfied customers. The print industry rejected them. Venture capitalists stopped pumping money into them. Printers learned that paying a third party dot.com for business they already have is foolishness. And, print buyers discovered costs skyrocket when printers pass dot.com up-charges back to print buyers. Where now are the promises? Where are the cost savings? Where are the so-called experts who promised to strengthen the relationships between printers and their print buyers?"

The letter goes on with colourful riffs and a few embroidered flourishes that might give a lawyer pause, so we decline to further quote.

But is the man correct? Or, mayhaps he doth protest too much?

According to the folks at NPES in a news release dated July 25, 2000: "Future success in the graphic arts industry will be determined largely by businesses offering "media agile" color solutions to their customers. Digital workflow adoption in the printing, publishing and converting industries continues to require and foster closer collaboration among print creators, specifiers, prepress service providers and printers. Although hundreds of companies have made considerable investments in technology and marketing, the goal of end-to-end color management has remained elusive."

Similarly for the past five years or so, successful graphic arts practitioners have seen the need to re-purpose content provided by the client. The transformation of print content to content that reaches any audience in any medium, (web, audio, video, personalized direct mail, and etc) and in any language, anywhere in the world confirms that the reality of a global economy is here today. Call it media agile or cross media re-purposing, but just do it!

And the big fellas are doing it. On August 11 while announcing it was pumping $13.5 million in capital investment into its Secaucus and Carlstadt, New Jersey print facilities, Bowne & Co talked of the need to further develop its distributive print network. Bowne Chairman Robert Johnson said: "This investment reinforces our customer focused approach and our continuing commitment to technology, providing us with greater capacity and flexibility in order to service a greater variety of print projects on the presses most appropriate to the job.

On August 29, the Book Publishing Services Group of R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company announced that it would use PDF as the standard file format for digital prepress processes across its entire book manufacturing platform. The firm said it will use Prinergy, the workflow solution from CreoScitex to process PDF files. PDF of course, is a technological link to fulfill cross media publishing needs. Files converted into PDF can be used to communicate through multiple channels using offset and digitally printed books, e-books, customization and web distribution. PDF is also platform independent meaning clients can view their products anytime, anywhere, and means proofing can be done online instead of by viewing hard copy proofs.

In our view, the agile graphic arts professional will not decline opportunities to become a trusted, multi media, cross platform, global partner for all key clients.

And to maximize this agility, one will need to pay heed to dotcom this and dotcom that. It is abject futility to deny the impact of the 'Net.

To offer a different voice cementing this notion of the Internet requiring YOU to become an agile change agent, let's consider the business forms industry, a market segment that is certainly under pressure and one that finds the future worrisome.

"Drupa 2000 showed two major trends that offer both challenges and opportunities:

* Forms production will gradually migrate from conventional forms presses to digital printers that add both fixed and variable information and images to blank sheets or webs of paper. The cost of digital printing will decline, the population of digital color printers will grow and digital color quality will improve. These trends will fuel the migration of forms and other business document printing to digital devices.

* Forms production is merging with other document specialities and industry segments. The traditional printing segments such as forms, general commercial printing, quick printing, in-plant printing and data center printing are losing their distinct roles because of the wider range of new press capabilities. Many digital color printers can produce invoices, statements, direct mail, promotional brochures, advertising flyers, catalogs, books and business cards. Most of the forms type presses at Drupa 2000 could run commercial printing, direct mail, and packaging materials as well as forms. Drupa 2000 points to the evolution of one large business document printing industry that will include forms, quick printing, data center printing and sizeable parts of general commercial printing. This is where digital equipment will gradually assume a dominant role, on demand production will become very common, and many orders will flow from customers directly to printing devices over the Internet or other digital links."

Ivars Sarkan writing in PaperTronix magazine.

Agreed! Pass the lineament, and put on your dancin shoes.

Industry Blurbettes

Paper Pricing Power

The long slump in the outlook for paper prices seems to be nearing its cyclical end. On August 30 Asia Pulp & Paper, the largest paper maker in Asia outside of Japan said that profits at its largest unit rose four fold because prices were 56% higher in the second quarter. The current issue of Britain's Printing World magazine quotes Jefferson Smurfit deputy Chairman Dermot Smurfit: "The paper industry now has the ability to manage the paper price cycle." Referencing the fact that the industry had suffered negative returns in nine of the past ten years, Smurfit said: "Shareholders will no longer tolerate the returns they are getting from this sector. Now papermakers will not produce paper unless they have the prior demand."

To be sure, another aspect of pricing power is concentration on the supplier side.

The continued trend of takeovers in the paper industry was affirmed again last week as on August 30 the takeover of Consolidated Papers by the Finnish-Swedish group Stora Enos was approved by shareholders. A day earlier the Finnish paper powerhouse UPM-Kymmene said it had signed an agreement to takeover Repap Enterprises Inc in Canada, a deal valued at more than $900 million. Repap makes coated papers. And of course, the industry is still evaluating the impact of the mid-July announcement that Georgia-Pacific will acquire Fort James Corp in an $11 billion dollar deal.

Spray on Plates? Film at 11?

Surely they jest. But maybe not! CreoScitex announced on August 23rd that it will offer the first public demonstration of its SP plateless digital printing technology at Graph Expo in Chicago in late September. The demo will be a basic one color job. The plate cylinder will be coated with Agfa's LiteSpeed material and image with Creo laser head. Once the job is done, the cylinder is cleaned and is then readied for the next job. In theory this is all achieved on press without the need for conventional printing plates.

Ironically, Agfa has just marked a very successful first year as an independent company and a key driver was the sale of film. Pretax profit increased by some 97%. Laurence Roberts, marketing director for Agfa in Britain was quoted: "It is amazing. Today, the sales of film are still growing, albeit a little more slowly, despite CTP."

Other Tidbits

PagePath Technologies announced in mid-August that it received the product of the year designation from PrintImage International (the former NAQP) for its MyOrderDesk package. The firm has beefed up MyOrderDesk by adding automatic file encryption which allows users to provide the extra security of encryption prior to transfer over the Internet.

iPrint has signed a blizzard of deals with professional sport teams over the past few weeks. Among the teams are the Washington Wizards, the Washington Mystics, the Dallas Mavericks, the Detroit Lions and the Seattle Seahawks. Under the various deals iPrint may produce promotional items like calendars, sports bags, t-shirts and caps. Is the keyword "may?" iPrint bills itself as an online print shop, but it sometimes seems like an online ad specialty firm would be more accurate. Reminds this writer of the days when a gent named Vern Buchanan sold a bunch of American Speedy franchises to young turks with lucrative pro hockey or pro football contracts. Not too many of those bulked up boys are still in the printing biz however.

Adobe was all over the place at Seybold San Francisco with announcement after press release. On the other side of the continent however, it was sealing a deal to acquire Boston based Glassbook, Incorporated. Glassbook is a developer of consumer and commercial software for the eBook market. Whatever else the deal may signify, it is noteworthy when Adobe decides increase its role in the world of eBooks. The Glassbook Reader provides an enhanced user interface that uses key features such as text to speech, two page view and display rotation. Coupled with Adobe's PDF expertise this deal bears watching.

Xerox got some bad news on August 30 when Canon Inc, said its new 50 page per minute color copier will cost only $90,000. Xerox has a faster machine -- 60 ppm, but it sells for $160,000. Important, because Xerox has been counting on color copiers to help boost it out of the doldrums, and now Canon has undercut it with a machine costing some $70,000. Ouch.

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