Graphic Arts Online Blogs
Post office suspensions at issue
There is an interesting article from The Associated Press that looks at a couple of the 97 post office branches where services have been suspended under emergency suspension processes over the past five years.The article points out that the suspensions have disproportionately fallen on poor, rural communities where the post office plays a vital community role. And where the next nearest branch is ... More
About this blog
Covers the latest trends, opportunities and regulations in mailing and moving printing.
Lessons Learned the Hard Way
There has been a lot of traffic on the NAQP listserv recently about a story entitled “The Rise and Fall of Mallard Press.” The story appeared on WTT in October of last year and is resonating within the quick printer community. I feel that the attention on the listserv is important and thought I should summarize the key points of the article. Mallard Press was an independently owned a ... More
About this blog
NAPL\'s Howie Fenton tackles digital printing, scanning, color management, process control and emerging digital technologies.
Say Social Media 100 Times! Did that make it more important to your business?
What happened: Everyone who reads blogs, e-Zines and yes, magazines, knows that the topic of social media is filling lots and lots of lines all over the country. The central question for business operators, managers and owners to determine is “Is social media important to their business growth?” Answering that question is first on the logic board if you would like your business to s ... More
About this blog
Addresses a wide range of marketing topics, including building an online brand image and creating brand messages that produce qualified sales leads.
On My Honor
A handful of things are going on this year, some of which I plan to celebrate. Others I will pretend not to notice.* That was me! ’50s Boy Scout signaling from one hilltop to another. My pal Chris Twig and I used to use Morse Code and home-made heliographs to send coded messages to each other from opposite hilltops. One that I am celebrating is the 100th birthday of the Boy Scouts of Amer ... More
About this blog
Printing workflow, print process and imaging trends.
Looking at Color
Question: In our color booth I use magnets to hold the “OK sheet” on the back of the booth. Is this OK? Answer: This is absolutely the wrong way to look at an “OK sheet” to the current press sheet. Your eye cannot remember color thus looking at the back of the booth sheet and then trying to remember the color on the sheet that is in front of you is impossible. The be ... More
About this blog
A Graphic Arts Online blog that answers questions submitted by readers on key print production issues.
Verdict's In: Printing Business Models Need to Change
Printing is among the industries highlighted as showing 2009 capacity declines in today’s Wall St. Journal, shrinking roughly 6%, less than textile mills (-7%) more than furniture manufacturing (-5%) . That’s not news to printers, who are buying others or closing–Jackson (MI) Printing bought competitor Champion Printing and Mailing and expanded; Alonzo Printing, Hayward, CA, i ... More
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Industry and social trends affecting the commercial printing sector.
Apple and Adobe Will "Get Over It"
The recent minor storm over the lack of Flash capability on the iPhone and iPad may generate something more useful than rants over Apple putting out a weak product and Adobe being lazy.There is some truth to the fact that the iPad is not yet a finished product, but looking at the phenomenal sales and the huge number of applications available for the iPhone (all of which work on the iPad), it seems ... More
About this blog
Plugged In is a blog by industry veteran, Stephen Beals, ofering his take on the latest developments in print production technologies shedding some perspective on the future of print.
Apple and Adobe Will "Get Over It"
The recent minor storm over the lack of Flash capability on the iPhone and iPad may generate something more useful than rants over Apple putting out a weak product and Adobe being lazy. There is some truth to the fact that the iPad is not yet a finished product, but looking at the phenomenal sales and the huge number of applications available for the iPhone (all of which work on the iPad), it see ... More
About this blog
GAO Forums
Transforming Book Production
With all the hype about the Nook and Kindle it’s easy to ignore the humble paperback. Cheap, portable, recyclable, pass-on-able, and home to millions of titles, the paperback is a staple of every type of bookseller. Still, the instant gratification offered by e-readers can be hard for brick-and-mortar booksellers, or even online giants like Amazon, to meet with hard-copy books that must be ... More
About this blog
Digital Printing is a blog by Noel Ward, giving his perspective on the latest trends in the market and the changing relationship of digital and traditional printing technologies.
Outlook Graphics deal, web printing plant closure, ex-Bowne CEO dies
Died, Dec. 15: Edmund Stanley, 85, who served for 30 years as CEO of New York City-based financial printer, Bowne. News media and coldset/heatset web printer Forum Communications Printing, Fargo, ND, closes its Wadena, MN printing plant, affecting 32 employees as it relocates presses to consolidate operations at its Detroit Lakes, MI plant. Outlook Graphics, Neenah, WI, has signed a long ter ... More
About this blog
Commercial printing business news, printing technology news, and digital printing and printing industry supplier
Happy Holidays from the Forums
2009 saw Forum memberships triple, so that’s a start. We’re still waiting on our conversion to the new format, and when that finally happens, we expect the growth and discussions to make a huge leap forward in the coming year. We thought it would happen much more quickly, but getting new technology up and running isn’t always something you can pin a date on, so we’ve st ... More
About this blog
The GAO Forums cover a wide area of interests for printers, buyers, vendors and service providers. The GAO Forums blog keeps readers up to date concerning the ongoing Forums conversations.
There’s Sales Gold in Them There Hills… er, Email Tracking Reports!
Email tracking data is one of the most effective sales mining tools in your arsenal (although not as handy as a pick axe). This valuable information pinpoints which recipients opened and read your email, and which links they clicked to access your website. How do we define value? Say you send an email to your opt-in database of 2000 current or potential clients. In our experience, it’ ... More
About this blog
Revenue generating growth strategies for North American graphic arts companies in any business environment.
Day 46 of 91 selling days:* Relationship Building 2.0....
*Why 91 selling days? Because the three months of September, October and November are the three most important selling months of the year and those three months contain 91 days. Get it? I was talking with my Dad yesterday over lunch. Both of those events are rarities, so I tried to cherish the moment. We got talking about business and specifically how things have changed since his day (he&#x ... More
About this blog
<p>Selling printing, services, and managing sales</p>
I'm back! Day 43 of 91 selling days...
I’m back! Due to a long series of unfortunate events (mostly technical and none my fault), I’ve been in Blog-atory. Now, thanks to the fast actions of the IT Department at Reed, I can get back to the omnipotence that is my Blog. And if you believe any of what I just wrote, why weren’t you buying printing when I was selling. First, some personal stuff and then on to busin ... More
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Just another NWP - Blogs weblog
Printing Newsbites Print 09
CGS applications unify color space so the dual-engine digital perfector Xerox iGEN4 220 (due first half of 2010) matches color front to back. Consolidated Graphics’ Frederic Printing will likely extend its CGS color controls to its newly installed HP T300 inkjet web press.>> 2009 CIPPI awards were given last evening to seven printers from all over t ... More
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Printing technology trends in digital printing, offset printing, mailing, bindery and finishing seen at the PRINT 09 trade show in Chicago Sept. 11-16.
PRINT 09 Tidbits
Zebra Print Solutions, Research Triangle Park, NC, installed two Oce VarioPrint 6200 digital duplex systems and PRISMAprepare software. xpedx is holding free seminars to help printers understand the financial crisis affecting the U.S. Postal Service and "Do Not Mail" legislation. Digital Edge, Oakville, ON, purchased a K200 DOD system form Domino Amjet. NPES and the Graphic Arts Show Co. honore ... More
About this blog
Buzz and breaking news in the printing industry.
Mulcahy: 'Stay Close to Customers'
How can printing firms drive results in today’s down economy? Do what Xerox does: First and foremost, "stay close to your customers—especially now," advises Xerox CEO Anne Mulcahy, speaking at a luncheon held yesterday in Chicago. Statistics show that most companies that are able to retain 5% of their customers show a 25% bottom-line profit, she says. By contrast, ... More
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Lisa Cross and Bill Esler offer Letters to Editor, reports on the print industry conferences and tradeshows and miscellaneous musings.
Show of a Thousand Small Things
Top questions at Graph Expo: Can I retrofit that? Can I get it used? Can you finance it? This was the show of a thousand small solutions to everyday problems. It was also a show at which major industry suppliers adopted a leadership role. They will take the management chops they’ve developed to redirect themselves for where our industry is headed, and apply this ... More
About this blog
Digital printing and offset printing, finishing, mailing, wide-format production technology,education news and conference news for Graph Expo 2008, the printing industry\'s largest U.S. gathering this year.
How Green Was My drupa?
Not very. With 391,000 attendees and 1,800 exhibitors in 18 halls, the event had the carbon footprint of a small nation. Especially given the continuous output of printed product at stands around the Dusseldorf grounds. PEFC held a conference on sustainability on June 9; FSC held meetings on June 9 and 10. Quite a number of exhibitors made their case for improved performance efficiencies tha ... More
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The global show of paper and printing technologies in Dusseldorf, Germany.
