|
TMN
11 December 2001
Graphics Industry News with a Piquant Point of View
This is our 143rd issue, thanks for
reading it!
TMN is an online newsletter 'dedicated to individuals in the
printing and graphic arts industry for the purpose of their self
development, their companies success, and the enhancement of the
printing and graphic arts industry in society. It does this
through education, information and research.'*
* From the Mission Statement of the IAPHC
Industry News
As our readers around the globe log on to read this issue over the
next few weeks, many will reflect upon the difficulties of the
year 2001. Whilst our readers have been changed by
unspeakable acts, they remain unbowed. It is too easy for
the purveyors of doom to whisper their insidious bile that this is
the end of the world, as we know it.
For our part, despite the challenges of our times, the graphics
industry is still vital and alive with new possibilities and
combinations. And so, while we dedicate the year nearly past
to the memory of heroes and innocents now gone, we turn our face
to embrace a new year dawning, our heart full of zeal to not
shrink from welcoming the rock and roll of change.
1) How do we ride The Waterfall of Pages?
We recently attended a session administered by worldwide security
experts Kroll, Inc.
They provided the following recap, which you may find
illuminating:
Pages of Test per Disk
3 1/2 floppy Disk -- 327
CD Rom (650 MB) -- 141,727
Laptop Hard Drive (4 GB) -- 909,091
PC Hard Drive (16 GB) -- 3,636,363
Network Hard Disk -- 18,181,820
Server Cluster Network -- A LOT!
Paul Curlander is CEO of Lexmark International, Inc.
Speaking to a gathering in Lexington, Kentucky last month, he
coined the phrase "Waterfall of Pages."
Curlander expects that ever increasing Web access and cheaper
means of printing will shift the manner in which users acquire
documents.
"The ultimate use of pages is by individuals either at the
office or at home," said Curlander. He included
documents such as bills, as well as magazines and books in his
definition of pages.
"As this information comes online and Internet access becomes
pervasive, there can now be electronic transport of this content
directly to the users, who can print or not print.
We do not expect that magazines, newspapers or books will
disappear, but we do think that these things will be reduced so
that many of these pages will be shifted down this waterfall and
printed by or close to the user.
...we would predict that printing in a distributed way, in the
home or office, will increase significantly."
While Mr. Curlander's definition of printing may differ from
yours, still his message makes sense. So how does a
traditional printing person compete against the distributed
printing trendline elucidated by the office or home desktop
printer manufacturer?
We have to harness the digital data bucko!
Pitney Bowes is working to proselytize the benefits of digital
document delivery. They want to teach their high volume
mailing clients how to electronically supplement hard copy
distribution of documents including bills, invoices and
statements.
Pitney markets a print stream conditioning software called Stream
Weaver, which provides print suppression, bar coding and data
stream parsing which allows a client to split the hard copy stream
for simultaneous delivery in paper and electronic form.
Could this apply to the printing market? Creo thinks so.
At the XPLOR Conference in Orlando that wound up early last month,
Ronen Cohen, General Manager of Creo's Print On Demand Systems
Group said: "The addition of full color to digital
printing is driving new applications for variable data printing by
dynamic industries such as the financial and insurance markets.
These industries are starting to implement high value applications
that originate from data driven communications."
In specific Mr. Cohen suggested that the new Xerox iGen3 digital
colour press, will be used to provide color variable data printing
by leveraging the Creo Spire color servers.
We note that in his vision, these new opportunities arise from
'data driven communications.' That is key.
We also applaud Creo's recent announcement that the firm will
create a consultative team to teach people how to use these new
digital animals in a profitable enterprise.
Interestingly, the Graphic Arts Marketing Information Service (GAMIS)
recently released a new study titled "Digital Printing Market
Potential." The study found that printers see digital
printing as complementary to existing pressroom technologies (i.e.
it won't displace conventional offset in the manner that
lithography replaced much of letterpress.) Additionally,
printers reported that more than half the jobs printed on digital
presses were brand new jobs, and not work that moved over from
other conventional presses.
And if one needs one more nudge to look more closely at variable
printing applications -- the study found that print buyers expect
that 29% of their black and white projects will use variable data
printing within the next three years.
It would behoove all IAPHC members to utilize the Knowledge
resident in the expertise of fellow members. If you want to
know how the new Xerox (iGen3) Digital Colour Presses really work,
Clint Davies of the Fraser Valley Club and Xerox Canada can offer
you a thorough introduction. If you want to gain more
insight on the potential of variable printing we remind you of the
powerhouse presentation provided by Helene Blanchette of Xerox
Canada and the Montreal Club at the Toronto Convention. Or
perhaps you are the proud owner of a hot new digital technology
and want to talk to a peer. We had a nice chat this week
with Mark Hagar of Indian Rock Imagesetting in Berkeley,
California and the East Bay Club and learned more about his
digital print journey.
If you would like to network with any of the above referenced
individuals or many more just like them across the Association,
please drop Lesley Addy our Director of Member Services an e-mail
and she will hook you up. laddy1069@aol.com
2) On Nostradamus and other Nattering Nabobs
As mentioned earlier, the negative Neanderthals are all around us
muttering their dire conclusions that Print is Dead. We
think they are nuts.
Which is not to say the news can't be gloomy.
On October 29th, Lason, Inc., (a firm whose mission is to
transform data into effective business communication, through
capturing, transforming and activating critical documents)
trumpeted its new enhanced Internet Procurement website
(http://www.lasonexchange.com/). Yet
on December 5th, Lason, Inc. declared bankruptcy.
Which seems to prove that learning to harness the digital data
stream ain't going to be easy bucko!
Meanwhile, on 20 November the Reuters news service headlined a
story on a dip in the stock price of Creo: "Creo falls
on murky commercial printing outlook."
And in the past month both Random House and Time Warner have
announced plans to exit the e-book business.
So that seals it. Printing is dead. Get thee to a
nunnery. It's all over.
Except maybe it's just beginning.
3) Print may be a tortoise, but it's got legs
From CIO Magazine 1 November 2001:
"Printing does have a future, limited in one way, but nearly
boundless in another. Printing has historically had three
jobs: information storage, distribution and display.
At least in the business context, display has always been the poor
sister; changes in printing technology were bought and sold on the
promise of improvements in storage and distribution.
Today the huge improvements digital technology has made to
information storage and distribution are obvious. Yet no one
has developed a display technology that can rival let alone
improve on papers convenience and comfort level. As a
result, information display has become printing's core competence
and responsibility."
Our wise and thoughtful friend, Thad McIlroy of Arcadia House in
San Francisco spent a part of his Thanksgiving respite penning a
provocative response to the last issue of TMN. He writes
about the apparent demise of the e-book phenomenon:
"I think that like many technologies birthed during the
Internet gold rush, the venture capital vultures and other
business 'leaders' rushed too quickly to the trough. I
continue to believe that as displays get better, and portable
computers ever more portable, we'll be reading more and more
content on digital devices. The big problem with e-books is
the name, with the implicit connotation that we should be reading
lightweight paperbacks on heavy digital readers.
No, that doesn't make sense.
I now refer to 'e-content' rather than e-books, suggesting that
there's a lot of digital information, much of it shorter than
book-length, that makes more sense to be consumed digitally than
it does to be printed before consumption.
And that's very important for printers to understand. The
trend is unmistakable and irreversible."
How do we reconcile two compelling observations, one that says
putting ink on paper to display information is our core
competence, and another voice which opines that there is a ton of
digital content that no longer needs to be reduced to paper
display for consumption?
Maybe the two viewpoints are parts of a larger tapestry.
Surely no same person would argue that there is more information
spewing forth today than ever before. Some of it is best
saved on paper for later and more leisurely consumption.
Some of it no longer needs to be printed to still have commercial
use.
We all know that many business forms have been reduced to bits and
bytes. Everyday, another formerly printed document migrates
to the web because it simply makes sense.
The venerable Bill-of-Lading is the latest form to go digital.
On 28 November ocean container carrier APL announced that it no
longer had need for paper Bills-of-Lading shipping documents.
By partnering with Electronics for Imaging, APL allows exporters
to automatically transmit encrypted negotiable Bills-of-Lading.
The significance of digital Bills-of-Lading on global trading is
likely to be large for reasons of speed of document transmission,
security and because the exporter will get paid much faster.
And therein lies the parable for future success in the printing
industry.
Accept that the old ways are going to change and will change
faster than they ever have before. Understand that the old
ways includes not only print processes but also print products
offered to clients.
Global traders won't sit still waiting for you to change, neither
will your next door customers.
And by the way, there are lots of examples of increasing optimism
about the future prospects for print.
Last month, Allegra Holdings said it would acquire the Insty-Prints
franchise chain, suggesting that it sees opportunities in the
small commercial print segment.
Last week, Check Technology Corporation acquired the assets of
Delphax Systems, a Xerox company based in Toronto. Check
Technology pioneered a digital printing system for the check
printing industry. By acquiring Delphax, Check Technology
hopes to increase its market penetration beyond the check and
financial document printing arena. Obviously, although one
can argue that check printing is a flat growth market segment, a
savvy firm may be able to take digital expertise and parlay it
into other fields and segments, by metes and bounds.
And even those perennially bullish folks at Merrill Lynch have
jumped on the bandwagon.
In early November, Merrill Lynch initiated coverage for the
'imaging sector.' Analyst Shannon Cross said:
"....longer term, we anticipate secular shifts to color laser
printing equipment will drive revenue improvement for EFII,
Lexmark International, and Hewlett-Packard Co."
Funny how we keep referring to firms never before associated with
the printing industry. Maybe things really are changing?
On 26 November, Sir Speedy Inc., announced that 3 of its Dallas
area franchisees are the first print providers in the United
States to offer the PrintMe Networks solution from Electronics for
Imaging. Offering the PrintMe Networks service means that
customers can instantly transmit print jobs to color or black and
white printers via mobile devices or remotely via e-mail.
One supposes that these jobs are truly digital.
One could also surmise that they may be from hitherto unknown
customers who may turn into a font of digitally driven revenue.
And that's not bad, bucko!
4) The Legacy Lasso
One hard reality of becoming digitally driven is that many
printers have way too many boat anchors cluttering up their shop
floors.
But don't take our word for it, listen to two industry experts who
urged a re-fitting and re-tooling of shops in September at Print
01.
"A significant portion of the installed base of printing
production equipment is technologically and competitively
obsolete. This inhibits productivity improvements and the
innovative creation of new products." William Lamparter
"Keeping old equipment is costing printers more money than
ever. Printers must become more productive by replacing
older less productive equipment with fewer models of newer, more
productive equipment. The industry must start using
'competitive life' and not 'productive life' more often."
Dr. Joseph Webb
Hopefully all printers have considered taking advantage of the
current low price of new money to possibly upgrade to a more
digitally productive work place. We also hope that our
vendor community friends will see the relatively low cost of money
as an opportunity to follow Creo's lead and offer truly
consultative suggestions to graphic arts practitioners who want to
make an informed and ultimately profitable decision about adding
any new pieces of gear.
5) Going Vertical or Getting Horizontal
Basketball freaks can relish going vertical, and in recent years
it's been a frequent market strategy for printers -- find a
niche and exploit that vertical market. But what do you do
in a changing landscape?
Maybe you need to horizontalize your strategy -- dig out the
digital dough lying in the opportunity to assist clients manage
and exploit their own digital data streams.
Bowne & Co said in early November that it was its
non-transactional (i.e. non financial market related) printing
revenues, which saved its bacon in the aftermath of the September
11 events. Bowne has made a conscious effort to not be a
vertical niche player and now enjoys 74% of its revenues from
non-transactional printing sources.
Pitney Bowes inked a deal earlier this month to offer the Constant
Contact e-mail marketing manager software package from Roving
Software to Pitney's 750,000 customers, thereby giving Pitney
Bowes customers a chance to stay in constant touch via e-mail with
their own clients. Smart move.
International Paper said that its Shorewood Packaging Group would
be licensing the digital watermarking solutions available from
Digimarc Corp based in Portland, Oregon. IP's packaging
customers will now be able obtain product packaging and other
printed promotions with the Digimarc MediaBridge Technology.
When shown to a kiosk based or Web camera equipped with Digimarc
software, a digitally watermarked package will instantly link to
an online destination offering cross or up selling opportunities,
special promotions, limited offers or product information.
Is that cool or what?
The point of all these examples is that sometimes the greatest
opportunities lie beneath our noses. If we seek innovative
new ways to assist our existing clients to embrace the digital
era, we can broaden our offerings across the entire customer
lineup.
There is nothing wrong with a 'stick to your
knitting' vertical niche approach which says we do one thing, but
we do one thing really well. However, if you have
necessarily developed specific digital expertise that you can
cross market to your clientele, then you may be able to sell the
same expertise over and over to all your clients across the
horizontal board.
Indeed, the entire Industry News segment of this issue of TMN is
replete with examples of firms seeking to do just that. We
hope you'll find an idea or two to implement in your back yard.
Club and IAPHC News
Y'KNOW Requests
Your Knowledge Network Obviously Works (Y'KNOW?)
1) From Luda Paul of the Calgary Club:
"Do you know who I can contact to get a letter quoting the
worth of a Linotype RIP 50 (preferably located in Canada).
The unit is connected to a Linotronic 300 and is being donated to
our program here at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology.
We would like to give the donor a charitable receipt, but need an
official quote from a recognized company." You can
contact Luda via e-mail at luda.paul@sait.ab.ca
2) From Jim Doremus of the New Jersey Club:
"We printed a job for a client and shipped flat sheets out to
Ireland, Indiana. It seems there was a very small but very
important bullet left off the sheet. This bullet needs to be
imprinted on the sheet and I'd like to find someone in the area of
Ireland, Indiana who has a 40" press that can do this for us.
The job was printed on 41,000 sheets of 80# Garda Silk Cover 28 x
40. The sheets will need to be imprinted with a PMS Color
over a dull varnish. If anyone can help, please contact me
at jdoremus@imtechgraphics.com, or phone at 201/933/8002, ext 23.
If I am not available please speak to Phil Pope."
3) From Arthur Mole of the Vancouver Club:
" I am trying to help someone who requires information about
the production of hanging air fresheners much like you would hang
from your rear-view mirror in an auto. These are like beer
coasters, usually printed 1 side with the added fragrance.
The fragrance is added later I believe. Any help from our
Association experts would be much appreciated." You can
reach Arthur via e-mail at moleman@myexcel.ca
4) From Dean Wolter of the Greater Milwaukee Graphic Arts
Association:
I need help locating a printer in Europe for a customer of my
company. Our customer has a need for a printer in Eastern
Europe, possibly the Czech Republic or surrounding countries.
Currently they are unhappy with the quality of production with a
printer they are working with in Minsk.
The publication is bi-monthly, and requires 95,000 36 page self
cover magazines. 4/C throughout, gloss varnish overall.
There are 6 language versions that are all 4/C changes. New
plates would be required for each version, it is not a text only
change. The language versions break down as follows:
Russian - 30,000; Ukrainian - 20,000; Latvian - 5,000; Lithuanian
- 5,000; Estonian - 5,000; and Swahili - 30,000 -- equals 95,000
total.
Size of magazine is 8 1/2 x 10 7/8"
Artwork would be furnished as a PC formatted disk, with the
document created using QuarkXpress v4.1, all supporting graphics
would be included.
The reason my customer wants to work with a printer in Europe is
because of distribution costs of producing it here and then
shipping to the various countries."
You can reach Dean via e-mail at dean.wolter@masgraphics.com
5) From Mike Handlin of the East Bay Club:
"Do you know of anyone in the western US that can copy dot
scan 25 x 37"? I have a client that has a LOT of film he
wants to digitize. Price is of course the largest
obstacle." You can reach Mike at mikehandli@aol.com or
at mikeh@wallerpress.com
6) From David Wieggel of Graphix LLC:
I am a print broker in the New York City area and am searching for
a source to print:
225,000 Catalogs
8 3/8 x 8 3/8" square (alternates down to 7" would be
considered)
40# coated -paper furnished
4/4 process - fashion content
Saddle Stitched
Bulk ship to Midwest
Ideally the printer would have an 8 unit miniweb that can do 24 pp
signature forms.
You can contact David via e-mail at dw@graphixllc.com
7) From Tim Trachtenberg of the Portland Club:
"I need a resource who packs vegetable seeds into the
package. We would provide press ready sheets per their
specifications. They would then convert the sheets, insert
the seeds, and seal the packets (in-line perhaps?) We would
prefer someone on the West Coast if possible." You can
contact Tim via e-mail at tim@adprintcompany.com
8) From Al Zowada of the New Jersey Club:
"I'm looking for a large volume frame company that can supply
frames to accommodate 20 x 24" and 28 x 40" posters.
Also, the insertion/fulfillment of the posters into the
frames." You can contact Al via e-mail at azowada@appliedprinting.com
9) From James Shehen of the Yosemite Area Club:
"We are trying to track down the names of any Roll Fed Label
Manufacturers in North America and abroad. Do you have any
contacts that might know of several manufacturers?" You
can contact James via e-mail at spinlbl@pacbell.net
Platinum Grows Again
Our thanks to the Sierra Nevada Club for their most recent
donation to the Platinum Reserve Fund, which keeps on building
thanks to the generosity of so many IAPHC members and Clubs and
Districts.
International Printing Week Nears
Just a reminder that the Holidays aren't over until you celebrate
International Printing Week (IPW), which will take place January
13-19, 2002. If you need promotional materials please
contact our International Printing Week Chair, Dr. John Leininger
at Clemson University via e-mail at ljohn@clemson.edu.
Also our few remaining IPW key chains are wanting to go home to a
good pocket near you, only $1.00 each. They would be a nice
stocking stuffer for employees or clients. Please let us
know if you want to pillage our remaining inventory.
Celebrate the Power of Print!
IAPHC Mid-Year Meeting Deadlines
If you are planning to attend the IAPHC Mid-Year meeting in Las
Vegas in February (8 & 9) 2002 at the Excalibur Casino we need
to hear from you soon. We need to finalize catering
requirements and to do that means we need to get all our attendees
registered and invoiced for the $40 registration fee. Also,
the hotel deadline for room reservations is January 8, 2002.
Everyone is cordially invited to join us, all we ask is that you
let us know that we can expect to see your smiling face come
February.
If you are planning to attend, or have any questions please e-mail
Lesley Addy at laddy1069@aol.com
International Gallery News
Our thanks to Joe Shanahan of Toppan Printing and the New Jersey
Club for batting lead-off once again this year. Joe's
entries were the first to arrive in 2001, and now he has submitted
the first 9 entries for 2002, the 28th annual International
Gallery of Superb Printing.
More and more firms are ordering Duplicate International Gallery
awards for their 2001 winners. In truth, what better way can
one say to a client -- "Thank you for your past business and
let's do some more!" If you need a duplicate order form
faxed or e-mailed to you please just ask this writer.
Similarly, many of the winners in the 2001
International Gallery are asking for the Gallery Logo digital
artwork which they can put on their company websites, or
stationery or business cards or use for News Releases to local
media. If you would like the artwork (the bugs!) please
e-mail Lesley Addy at laddy1069@aol.com
The 2002 International Gallery Call for Entries is now available
in digital form. Please e-mail International Gallery
Chairman Dan Marantz at dmarantz@aol.com
if you would like the e-mail version. The printed versions
will go on press shortly.
Soon we will have available a new CD which contains the 2001
International Gallery Best of the Best Show; hotlinks to all our
highly valued International Gallery sponsors websites; the Call
for Entries for the 2002 International Gallery; the Toronto
Convention memories show, and other tools for building the IAPHC's
premier program.
New Student Chapter
Kudos to Steve Storkamp of the Central Minnesota Club of Printing
Professionals for having been godfather to the CMPP Student
Chapter which was duly acknowledged and recognized by St. Cloud
Technical College. We wish the students the very best as they
embrace this wacky and wonderful graphic arts universe and applaud
Steve for making the extra efforts necessary to bring the Student
Chapter into existence. If you want to touch base with Steve
his e-mail is sms@cloud.tec.mn.us
and Finally --- Retailer of the Year
As was mentioned at the outset of this issue of TMN, 2001 has been
a troubling year for so many of our families and friends. As
the holiday festivities of many traditions begin in earnest over
the coming weeks, we hope all our readers will take time to bask
in the embrace of family and friends alike, now more than ever.
It is fitting to close this issue with recognition to a good
friend. Walt Gutowski, Jr. of the Grand Rapids Club who
along with his father Walt Sr. and the family firm Swift Printing
were accorded Michigan Retailer of the Year honors in the small
shop category at a November ceremony.
Swift Printing partnered with Genesis Nonprofit Housing Corp to
turn the upper floors of its two historic buildings into 27
apartments for low income individuals with physical and mental
disabilities, people with AIDS and victims of domestic violence.
The company also renovated a third run down building nearby that
is now home to a physical therapy clinic.
Our regards to the Gutowski family, and a warm salute for their
display of the best kind of goodwill towards all.
Happy Holidays to You and Yours gentle reader, and may 2002 bless
you.
Kevin Keane
IAPHC
7042 Brooklyn Blvd
Minneapolis MN 55429-1370 USA
800/466/4274
http://www.iaphc.org/
|
