PGSF Releases Industry Statement

By Adam Dewitz on May 14th, 2008

Last fall the Print and Graphics Scholarship Foundation (PGSF) Education Summit was held during Graph Expo. The event focused on how the industry can attract talent and “apprise the wonderful opportunities a career in print can provide.”

Various ideas were presented including:

• Reaching Generation Y in places they congregate (including social networking sites and the Second Life online virtual world).

• Using association lobbyists to change the U.S. Department of Labor’s outdated descriptions and classifications of the industry’s segments

• Convincing more companies about the value of contributing scholarship money

• Working with local economic development leaders to spend technology-earmarked money to aid print education

• Creating a “Got Milk?” campaign to boost awareness of the power of print

At the summit a committee was formed to start tackling these issues.

Today the committee publicly released their first tangible delivery: a publication that attempts to define the industry. The industry statement The Graphic Communication Industry: A Quick Overview provides a national figures on industry size, the job outlook, educational opportunities, and compensation

.

You can download the publication from here: http://printceoblog.com/media/docs/GraphicCommunicationOverview.pdf

Take a look at the statement and leave a comment with your thoughts.

Posted in Printing Industry News - 4 Comments

Trouble at X-Rite / Pantone?

By Adam Dewitz on May 14th, 2008

Today’s Industry news included a release from X-Rite that current CFO Lynn J. Lyall was leaving the company personal reasons.

This morning I’m receiving email reports that Doris Brown, Pantone’s VP of Marketing has resigned. The only confirmation I have received is from a phone operator at Pantone who stated that “she doesn’t work there anymore.”

Doris has been a champion for enabling everyone from designers to printers to create and communicate reproducible color and has been a key component is recent innovative color systems from the company. This sudden departure leaves me to wonder if trouble is brewing in the new X-Rite / Pantone family beyond what we are seeing in financial press releases and SEC filings.

Watch for more here, and on WhatTheyThink.com as this story develops.

Posted in Printing Industry News - No Comments

New Website Targets Junk Mail with a Push to Revolt

By Adam Dewitz on May 12th, 2008

A new Website has been launched to target junk and promote “Do Not Mail” legislation by “sending over 10,000 boxes of junk mail to congress.” The new site Junk Mail Revolt is attempting to build a grassroots effort:

Voice your support for an opt-out Do Not Mail registry by participating in one of our synchronized mail revolts, in which people from around the country come together to send thousands of boxes of junk mail to Congress. We won’t quit until our representatives on Capitol Hill get the message.

And the message is simply this. We’ve had enough. We’re done having our homes invaded, our privacy violated, our time wasted, our trees decimated, and our landfill space consumed by unwanted (and often unread) junk mail. Listen up, Congress. We’re reclaiming our mailboxes.

Of course most of us within the printing industry know that marketers are taking steps to address these concerns and offer tools to help consumers manage their mail. Maybe it’s time for the direct marketers to use their marketing prowess and launch a competing site. Junk Mail Retort anyone?

Posted in Printing Industry News - 5 Comments

It’s Here - an “Earth-Friendly” Laminate!

By Adam Dewitz on May 12th, 2008

Gail Nickel-Kailing has the scoop on “Earth-Friendly” Laminate over at the WhatTheyThink Going Green — Environment & Sustainability section.

The thermal laminate sold by GBC is based on is derived from a wood-based polymer biodegradable.

Check out Gail’s article all the details.

Posted in Environment and Sustainability - No Comments

Hammer Packaging Thriving on Change

By Adam Dewitz on May 12th, 2008

Dr. Ashok Rao, Dean of RIT’s E. Philip Saunders College of Business has a blog post on Rochester-based Hammer Packaging. In his blog post Rao describes some of the challenges the company has faced in the last two decades:

Since taking over as president and CEO Jim Hammer has fostered a culture centered on the inevitability of change. “Expect it, accept it, thrive on it,” says Hammer. New Hammer associates hear this message when hired and continually throughout their careers. “Our markets have gotten progressively more competitive, and the driving challenge is to maintain one’s competitive advantage. To us that equates to innovation,” says Hammer.

Hammer Packaging has a dedicated “Innovation Department” that investigates how the company can leverage emerging technologies, and has a close relationships with RIT and the School of Print Media. James E. Hammer, president and CEO of Hammer Packaging Corp recently said of his companies partnership with RIT, “We work closely with RIT’s co-op program, especially students from the School of Print Media, and have quite a few RIT alumni working in our manufacturing plant, which also is located on a parcel of land we purchased from RIT. So you can say we have an ongoing connection.”

Posted in Print Service Provider Spotlight - No Comments

Do Not Mail Update

By Adam Dewitz on May 9th, 2008

According to PIA/GATF imPrint the legislatures in Vermont, Hawaii, Maryland and Washington have adjourned for the year without considering legislation on restricting direct mail.

Mail Moves America keeps a list of State Do Not Mail Registry Bills and their current status.

Posted in Direct Mail - 1 Comment

Company Developing Targeted Advertising in Web Printouts

By Adam Dewitz on May 8th, 2008

Format Dynamics, a Denver-based advertising technology start-up has created an advertising platform that enables online publishers to insert targeted advertising into pages printed from the Web. MediaPost has an article on the new platform:

Enter the “PrinterStitial.” Denver-based startup Format Dynamics has perhaps invented a whole new ad category by developing a service that inserts ads into printouts of Web pages, combining the “advantages of online ads with the power of traditional print ads.” Using 18 months of actual “PrinterStitial” results from early publisher adopters combined with data from market researcher MetaFacts, Format Dynamics estimates that U.S. consumers print 61 billion Web pages annually–creating what the company’s CEO Ethan Holien calls a previously “untapped market opportunity, with scale and legs.”

Using “CleanPrint” technology developed by the company, ads are better formated for print media:

When consumers make printouts from Web pages enabled with Format Dynamics’ “CleanPrint,” the technology dynamically reformats the pages to be more appealing to both consumers and advertisers–including text, photos, charts and ads–while completely eliminating such Web-centric features as navigation bars. The PrinterStitials can either be print-friendly versions of ads already on the Web page or completely separate “print ads.”

For many, printing from the Web is a dreaded horrible experience: full color web banners wasting ink and having no context in the static world; page format snafus that waste ink and paper. And generally unpredictable results. This has driven companies like HP to develop technologies that make printing from the Web simple and predictable.

Posted in Advertising - 2 Comments

Apple Ad on Time’s site

By Eric Vessels on May 8th, 2008

Check out the really unique (and funny) Apple ad on Time’s site:

Several things I like about this. It’s a good play from their TV campaign that is ubiquitous. This makes you want to play with sound. It is very engaging from a web standpoint because it essentially interacts with the web page itself. It’s not too long. It’s funny. All around great use of video for a web ad. It also reinforces an argument Mac has been trying to make for some time: you don’t get locked into a mac silo by switching — you can operate with Windoze just like anyone else.

Takes up a ton of space, but I’m betting it was worth a pretty penny.

Posted in Advertising - No Comments

Heidelberger Druckmaschinen Planning Strategic Acquisitions

By Adam Dewitz on May 7th, 2008

Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG is looking to buy companies that complement the companies current product and services according to a report at Forbes.com:

Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG. plans to spend up to a three-digit million euros amount on acquisitions to compliment its services and printing materials businesses, chief executive Bernhard Schreier said.

‘We’re in talks with a number of partners who cooperate with us and who are willing to sell,’ he said.

Last month Heidelberger Druckmaschinen announced it did not expect to reach annual forecast due to declining orders. The company has been criticized for stock buybacks instead of investing in improving operations.

Posted in Printing Industry News - 3 Comments

NewPage Planning IPO

By Adam Dewitz on May 6th, 2008

NewPage Group Inc has filed a registration statement with the SEC yesterday proposing initial public offering of its common stock:

NewPage Group Inc. is the parent company of NewPage Corporation. NewPage Corporation, headquartered in Miamisburg, Ohio, is the largest coated paper manufacturer in North America, based on production capacity, with more than $4.7 billion in pro forma net sales for the year ended December 31, 2007. The company’s product portfolio is the broadest in North America and includes coated freesheet, coated groundwood, supercalendered, newsprint and specialty papers. These papers are used for corporate collateral, commercial printing, magazines, catalogs, books, coupons, inserts, newspapers, packaging applications and direct mail advertising.

In 2005 Cerberus Capital Management LP, a private, New York-based investment firm formed NewPage to acquire MeadWestvaco’s printing and writing papers business which is bought for $2.3 billion. On December 21, 2007, NewPage acquired Stora Enso North America, Inc.

NewPage also made news when it petitioned the United States International Trade Commission to look into improper or illegal subsidies to China, Indonesia, and Korea paper producers. Tariffs were rejected by the ITC last November.

Posted in Ink, Substrates, and Consumables, Printing Industry News - 1 Comment