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PRINT World News—for Leaders in the Global Graphic Communications Industry
NPES and the Graphic Arts Show Company (GASC), the producer of the US-based PRINT show, have developed this free resource for leaders in the global graphic communications industry.
PRINT World News is unique as a worldwide overview report for and about today’s graphic communications industry. Each month it will deliver a summary of key stories addressing vital trends and emerging issues from around the globe.
Ralph J. Nappi, President
Graphic Arts Show Company (GASC) and
NPES – The Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing and Converting Technologies
USA
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Headlines
Industry News
"United Kingdom: Revolutionary Espresso Book Machine Launches in London"
"Uganda: Location Inspires Cooperation Among Printers"
"Ireland: On the Forefront of 3D Printing"
"Russia: Publications' Limited Reach Impacts Advertising Revenue"
"Canada: Company Proves Being Green Doesn't Have to Cost Big Bucks"
"United Kingdom: Mergers Create Economies of Scale"
"Trends: HP Pushes Do-It-Yourself Magazines"
"Trends: Black-and-White Printing Goes Green With Soy-Based Printer Toner"
"Strategy: Finding Right Niche Key to Riding Out Storm"
"Strategy: Using Puzzles and the Web to Boost Readership"
"The Future: Print a Blood Vessel—or Even an Organ"
Industry News
United Kingdom: Revolutionary Espresso Book Machine Launches in London
Some people are calling the Espresso Book Machine, which prints and binds books for customers within five minutes, the biggest thing in printing since the Gutenberg printing press. The U.K. bookstore Blackwell says the machine, recently launched at its Charing Cross Road location in London, will eliminate the frustration for customers of finding that a desired book is out of print or just out of stock. Right now, the machine can print up to half-a-million different titles—largely old out-of-copyright books, though the company is working on adding more in-copyright books—and Blackwell hopes to increase the number to over 1 million by the end of this summer, covering an equivalent of 23.6 miles of shelf space. Time magazine has named the Espresso an "invention of the year," and Blackwell sees it as appealing to a wide range of customers, from academics seeking rare manuscripts to aspiring novelists wanting a copy of their self-published works. An idea thought up by Jason Epstein, an American publisher, the Espresso was a key attraction at the recent London Book Fair, and U.S. proprietor On Demand books has already had the machine set up in several countries, including Egypt, the United States, Canada, and Australia.
From "Revolutionary Espresso Book Machine Launches in London"
Guardian Unlimited (UK) (04/24/09) Flood, Alison
Uganda: Location Inspires Cooperation Among Printers
Third World and developing countries need what traditional print providers offer.
Nasser Road in the Ugandan capital of Kampala has become a center for the country's printing industry, which is seeing growing business and plenty of new entrants today. The Uganda Printers Association (UPA) estimates that the number of people employed by the industry has tripled from about 2,000 to about 6,000 in the past decade, thanks to the growing population as well as new markets in neighboring countries. "Electronic communication has not yet grown to the level that would replace printing," says Andrew Kyagalanyi of Print Masters. "If you talk about the Internet for example, how many Ugandans can access it? Companies still have to print newsletters, posters, calendars and reports to reach their audience." The companies along Nasser Road all work in combination with each other, individually providing services such as typesetting, designing, color separation, offset printing, sorting, numbering, binding, packaging, and delivery. "Unlike large printers who do everything from designing to post-press, many small firms do part of the job and depend on others to do the remainder," says Emmanuel Ssozi, business director at Esso Graphics. The cost of entry to the industry can vary wildly depending on whether a business starts out with used or new equipment and what type of equipment they choose, but most of the printers that are at the top of the local printing industry today started out small and grew from there.
From "Uganda: The Nasser Road Printing Booms"
allAfrica.com (04/08/09) Sserwaniko, Frank
Ireland: On the Forefront of 3D Printing
Irish company Mcor Technologies has developed a new variant of 3D printing technology that uses regular printing paper, which is expected to lower costs and make 3D rapid prototyping more accessible to smaller organizations in the future. Large companies such as Nintendo, Dyson, and IBM have already shown interest, but 3D modeling can be used in other areas as well, such as architecture, dentistry, and even the fine arts. "We didn't just want it to be affordable, we wanted it to be eco-friendly. In order to build up a solid 3D model, each layer of paper must be glued together and we formulated a water-based adhesive to act as the adhesive," says Deirdre MacCormack, who co-founded the company with the brothers Conor and Fintan MacCormack. Mcor's Matrix printer uses cutting blades and biodegradable glue to turn regular sheets of paper into prototypes of 3D designs generated by computer design programs. It can sharply cut the costs of making a 3D prototype—e.g., a Matrix model of the human skull would cost eight to 10 euros, compared to 400 to 500 euros for a plastic prototype—and because the models can be fully recycled, storage is no difficulty. Already, the National Federation of the Blind is using it to help educate blind children, says Deirdre MacCormack: "In teaching children how to use money and helping them become familiar with coins, a large-scale model of the euro coin or a 50 cent piece can be printed out so they can get used to the ridges and contours of each individual coin."
From "The Future Looks Good ... on Paper"
Silicon Republic (04/16/09) Boran, Marie
Russia: Publications' Limited Reach Impacts Advertising Revenue
This magnifies the importance of an effective distribution system that many take for granted.
Publications in the United States and Europe have seen their revenues drop because of the influence of the Internet, but Russia's industry is in a similar crisis in spite of a much smaller rate of Internet use. Eighty-six newspapers and 52 magazines have been shuttered in Russia since September, according to Medialogia, a research group that tracks the press. "The advertising market for every media in Russia, with the exception of the Internet, is very difficult at the moment," says David Ferguson, a media and IT analyst with the Russian investment bank Renaissance Capital. "Newspapers are not a national medium for the most part, and those companies that are advertising want national exposure." The size of the country and its poor transportation infrastructure have eliminated the possibility of national daily papers, which means the three state television channels are the extent of the national media. "The crisis will be ruinous for Russian newspapers, as only a small number of printing houses are really business-effective," says Alexander Strakhov, general director of the weekly paper Argumenty i Fakty, the country's largest circulation paper. Advertisers are slashing budgets and shifting their efforts from newspapers to television, which in turn has led media firms to cut salaries heavily. In the meantime, U.S. firms have been looking to buy into some Russian media assets, such as the Internet advertising service Begun, and Ferguson says this interest is "because they are good quality assets—not because they think they will recover in five years, but that they'll recover in five months. Just as advertising fell off a cliff, so it will rebound sharply. The outlook can change in a short time."
From "The Print Media: Plunge in Advertising Decimates Newspapers"
Financial Times (04/14/09) Elder, Miriam
Canada: Company Proves Being Green Doesn't Have to Cost Big Bucks
Sustainability is more affordable than ever and will provide increasing opportunities for those that invest and 'believe' in its future.
The Toronto-area design and printing firm Sallart Studios works hard to be environmentally sustainable in all its capacities as it makes and markets its "eco-branded" greeting cards, mini cards, and paper sleeves and enclosures for business cards and flash drives. The entire chain from sourcing to manufacturing to shipping is designed in a carbon-neutral and sustainable way, according to Sally Reijerse, who founded the firm with Pete Magolon a year ago. The two aimed "to put our environmental stewardship at the helm of our initiative, and build strong environmentally sustainable practices into the company and its products." The company, which now has 10 employees, uses a manufacturing facility based entirely on clean energy sources, and every step of its process is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council and Rainforest Alliance. The company uses waterless printing with vegetable inks and avoids adhesives, all for the purpose of not wasting water or polluting the environment, and the company buys gold-standard carbon offsets and puts a percentage of profits toward the Grand River Conservation Foundation. This may sound pricey, but the high volume of paper products allows the cards to "retail at very comparable prices," says Reijerse. The products also serve as a marketing tool to ensure people know what the company is doing for the environment, and the company has managed to line up large corporate and wholesale customers in North America and is seeking a global customer base by using computer files to send, revise, and approve designs.
From "Colourful but Green All Over"
Waterloo Record (Canada) (04/15/09) P. C1; Simone, Rose
United Kingdom: Mergers Create Economies of Scale
'Communication' management may be the next step in manging the shrinking base of traditional print.
The merger of four print companies in Greater London has helped print management company Lefa Print and Allied Services achieve the needed economies of scale for stable prices, the company says. Lefa has acquired the commercial printers Schofield and Parham, Hartley Reproductions, and Cadence in the past year and a half and consolidated their operations into a single building under the Lefa name. "As a print company we are able to go to our clients and say that we control everything under one roof," says Lefa Managing Director Edward Arthur. "As a print management company, the printer needs to make profit, and you need to make profit, and that reflects on what you offer the client."
From "Merge to Offer 'Good Prices,' Says Print Group"
PrintWeek (04/23/09) Hooker, Adam
Trends: HP Pushes Do-It-Yourself Magazines
Similar to one-off book printing, the ability to personalize with an emphasis on immediacy can pay big dividends.
Hewlett-Packard's new MagCloud Web service allows users to produce glossy color magazines of whatever subjects interest them for 20 cents a page. "There are so many of the nichey, maybe weird-at-first communities, that can use this," says HP's Andrew Bolwell. If the MagCloud service catches on, HP could expand its business of vending its large digital printers to companies that would print the magazine and then ship its inks by the barrel rather than by the ounce. Publishers must write and design their magazines, sending a PDF file to the MagCloud repository. Printing is farmed out to partners around the world, and HP handles billing and shipping for people who order the magazine. Users of the service have thus far printed about 300 magazines ranging from publications on paintings by Mormon artists to the history of aerospace to food photography. Digital presses allow a company to print one copy of 10 magazines or 10 copies of one magazine at about the same cost. The publication process could be eased by technology HP has developed in its research labs. HP has software that uses algorithms to automate part of the design process, arranging photos in a visually pleasing way that is also appropriate for pages packed with text. The MagCloud service might be enhanced with such applications.
From "Do-It-Yourself Magazines, Cheaply Slick"
New York Times (03/30/09) Vance, Ashlee
Trends: Black-and-White Printing Goes Green With Soy-Based Printer Toner
Yet another example of the increasing affordability of 'green.'
Newspapers, magazines, and books have shifted to soy-based ink in the past few years in search of greater environmental friendliness, and now soy-based toner may soon be practical as well. Among the potential benefits are a lower coast for toners, a renewable base commodity instead of non-renewable oil, and easier recycling for paper printed with soy toner as opposed to oil-based toner. A recent test of identical documents, one from a printer using a soy cartridge and one from a printer using a new cartridge, found the printouts to be indistinguishable in printing darkness and resistance to smudging. The soy cartridge was created by PRC Technologies, a division of Maine-based Print Recovery concepts, whose vice president of marketing, Rick Greenlaw, said, "Our interest is in the person willing to go green as long as doesn't it cost them more. Period."
From "Black-And-White Printing Goes Green With Soy-Based Printer Toner, With Promising Early Results"
Baltimore Sun (04/22/09) Ramde, Dinesh
Strategy: Finding Right Niche Key to Riding Out Storm
Being great at what you do is still the primary reason for success and profitability.
Sport Graphics of Indianapolis, Indiana, handled all printing duties for the NCAA Men's Final Four college basketball tournament, including banners, programs, signs, backboard graphics, and other items used in venues such as Ford Field, the GM Renaissance Center, and Fox Theater in Detroit. "The NCAA is very big at things looking the same, so we did it all," says Sport Graphics owner Frank Hancock. The company's clients include the NFL, LPGA, and NBA, and Hancock says that one of Sports Graphics' points of pride is getting jobs done in a timely manner. "Sport Graphics is a get-it-done firm with an eye equally on timing, quality and budget," says NCAA official Greg Shaheen. "We've relied upon them for work of every variety, and without exception, their work has delivered." Sport Graphics has had to keep abreast of industry trends, such as the corporate adoption of digital printing, to maintain its viability. Revenue at the company increased by 11 percent in fiscal 2008 and by 18 percent during the first three quarters of fiscal 2009, says Hancock.
From "Sport Graphics Printing Everything But a Title"
Indianapolis Star (04/07/09) Hunsinger, Dana
Strategy: Using Puzzles and the Web to Boost Readership
Fun with print.
Under the guidance of guest editor J.J. Abrams, creator of such TV shows as "Lost" and "Fringe," the May issue of Wired magazine comes with an extensive puzzle solvable through hidden clues. The first person to solve the puzzle has already materialized: Steven Bevacqua, a postproduction supervisor for the television series "Life," who followed hidden clues using Morse code to find his way to a hidden Web site. Wired editors said one of the reasons for the experiment was to help keep customers interested in tangible, printed magazines in the era of the Internet, particularly when the magazine itself is about digital culture. "Blog posts can effectively summarize a story and give you the takeaway idea," says Wired Deputy Editor Thomas Goetz, but print publications are still better for putting across, "the nuance and effort of understanding the complexity of an idea and why it matters--what the riddles and wrinkles are within an idea." The entire issue was devoted to the idea of mystery as an aid to imagination, while puzzles are embedded in ways that are not always immediately obvious, such as the typos sprinkled through the text of "The Purloined Letter" as viewed on an Amazon Kindle on page 46. Meanwhile, although Bevacqua became the first solver of the master puzzle, there are still sections of the magazine whose mysteries are still unclear, and Goetz indicates there could be additional prizes for future solvers of the master puzzle and perhaps even for those who crack unintended codes: "We're always looking to reward the ingenuity of our readers."
From "A Magazine With a Puzzle Buried Inside"
New York Times (04/20/09) Itzkoff, Dave
The Future: Print a Blood Vessel—or Even an Organ
University of Missouri researcher Gabor Forgacs and regenerative medicine company Organovo are partnering to advance organ printing technology in a bid to help solve problems in transplant medicine, cardiovascular medicine, and tissue repair. "Every scientist has a dream that his or her basic research will be useful someday," says Forgacs. "Often, scientists do not feel comfortable or lack the business expertise to advance their research forward in the market. It's not every day that I am presented an opportunity to translate my ideas into practice." Forgacs uses a custom-built bioprinter about the size of a large refrigerator to lay down small bio-ink particles, or spheres packed with 10,000 to 40,000 human cells. These spheres are then printed on to sheets of organic, cell friendly bio-paper. Once printed, the spheres began to fuse in the bio-paper into one structure in the same way that drops of water fuse to form a larger drop of water. Currently, blood vessels are being manufactured. Further development could lead to printed organs and bioconstructs that reproduce organ function, engineer bones and build blood vessels. "Not every technology and not every team is a good fit, but I quickly recognized that this technology was strong and had great potential in the regenerative medicine field," says Keith Murphy, CEO of Organovo. "Our company can advance organ printing by bringing to the table an understanding of the market needs and the regulatory pathways of medical technology."
From "Partnership Will Advance Organ Printing Technology"
University of Missouri (04/13/09)
Abstract News © Copyright 2009 INFORMATION, INC.
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