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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 GRAPH EXPO and PRINT shows, developed this free resource for the global graphic communications industry.
PRINT World News was created for release in advance of the global PRINT 09 show, held September 11-16, 2009. During the past 12 months, this unique worldwide overview report for and about today’s graphic communication industry has delivered a summary of key stories addressing vital trends and emerging issues form around the globe.
With this final edition of PRINT World News we hope that you have found it to be interesting and useful, and look forward to receiving any feedback you wish to share via e-mail sent to: dvieder@npes.org.
Ralph J. Nappi, President
Graphic Arts Show Company (GASC) and
NPES – The Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing and Converting Technologies
USA
Headlines
Industry News
"Northern Ireland: Firm's Upgrades Lead to Major Contracts"
"Italy: Inventor Attempts to Print Building"
"Philippines: Ink Refilling Proves Profitable"
"United Kingdom: Customer Is King Ethic Pays Off for Printers"
"United States: Old Technology Helps Century-old Book Bindery Adapt to Times"
"Strategy: Blog Used to Boost Subscriptions"
"Strategy: Google Enters Print on Demand"
"Strategy: Publishing Execs Embracing Mobile"
"Strategy: RFID Printers Adapt to Changing Market Needs"
"Trends: Web-printing Attracts Big Players"
"Trends: Nano Ink Used to Print Solar Cells"
"The Future: Printing a Better Nose"
Industry News
Northern Ireland: Firm's Upgrades Lead to Major Contracts
Northern Ireland’s Independent News and Media has seen its recent £50 million investment in new high-tech presses pay off, as the company just signed long-term print contracts with the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mirror, two of the UK’s biggest media companies. The printer is now one of the biggest producers of daily newspapers in Europe and the contracts are some of the longest ever signed in the region—15 years for the Telegraph and seven years for the Mirror, at a time when the printing industry is struggling with plant closures and press shutdowns. The company’s new Colorliner presses are some of the most modern in the world and will now have output of 35 titles with 200 million copies per year using 50,000 tons of newsprint. INM CEO Michael Brophy says the agreements “are a tribute to the people who have built the plants in Belfast and Newry and to the staff who work throughout the night, every night, to bring UK national newspapers to the streets of Northern Ireland.”
From "INM Signs £40m Print Deal With Leading Papers"
Belfast Telegraph (09/15/09)
Italy: Inventor Attempts to Print Building
The Italian company d_shape is pioneering a method of using "structural ink" to create buildings via three-dimensional printing, using a nozzle like a computer printer's inkjet to produce the building within an aluminum frame. The structural ink, which can bind sand or gravel into a material resembling marble, will first be used to build a pavilion on a small roundabout in Pontedera, a town in Tuscany. Blocks printed near the roundabout site will be assembled on-site to produce the Radiolaria pavilion. Inventor Enrico Dini, who holds patents for the technology under the umbrella of the British firm Monolite, hopes someday to use the technique to take on architecture's biggest challenges—such as completing the Sagrada Familia cathedral in Barcelona designed by Antoni Gaudí, which has been under construction for more than 125 years. "We hope to use d_shape to complete the cathedral," he said.
From "First Edition? Inventor Attempts to 'Print' Building"
Building (09/18/09) Abrahams, Tim
Philippines: Ink Refilling Proves Profitable
Improved technology and changing economic and environmental circumstances is making refilling computer printer ink a viable business, with an increasing number of such companies in many countries. "There is a big market for the refilling and remanufacturing industry in the world, including Asia and the Philippines," says Bruce Fuller, director for master development of the Australian firm Cartridge World who joined the recent Franchise Expo 2009 held at the SMX Convention Center in the Philippines. Cartridge World helped pioneer the refilling franchise in 1997, and Fuller said the economic slowdown and increasing economic awareness are likely to be a boon for the business. There are more than 1,655 Cartridge World locations in 61 countries and territories, and the firm is looking for Asian and Middle Eastern expansion. In the Philippines, the company has five outlets.
From "Ink Refilling: A Promising Franchise"
Philippine Star (09/14/09)
United Kingdom: Customer Is King Ethic Pays Off for Printers
U.K. printing business Jak Print and Design has expanded despite a downturn in the marketing sector, and co-owner Andrew Knowles attributes the company's successful growth to its strong ethic that the customer is central. "We're extremely focused on customer service and aim to exceed their expectations by providing high-quality print and design at a very reasonable price with a quick turnaround," says Knowles, who founded the business with his father, John. "A key factor in surviving a recession is adaptability so we completely changed our focus by narrowing profit margins to produce extremely cost-effective products in order to allow local businesses to continue marketing." Jak provides a full color design, print, and leaflet distribution service. The company's design team can deliver a fully integrated service that offers advertising, stationery, flyers, leaflet distribution, Webverts, and Web site design. Jak also operates a publishing service that permits clients to create their own publications.
From "Customer Is King Ethic Pays Off for Printers"
nebusiness.co.uk (08/27/09) Laing, Iain
United States: Old Technology Helps Century-old Book Bindery Adapt to Times
The 125-year-old Engel Bindery Co. is keeping one foot in the past and one in the future, continuing to use a 109-year-old book press, Kluge letterpresses, a 1903 flat Singer sewing machine, and other old-fashioned tools to make hand-sewn books, foil-embossed commemorative cards and other items that are displayed in a gallery on the company’s Web site. Technology has helped the company to diversify its offerings, but it has not changed the way it produces its goods, says owner David Haynie. He uses no computers, scanners, or software in his productions, preferring the Kluge presses that date as far back as 1944. The old machinery produces finer products than can be made with today’s technology, which Haynie says loses quality and craft for the sake of production. Haynie and his co-owner carry each order themselves and do not have an assembly line, and the most automated machine they own is a mechanized glue machine.
From "Engel Bindery Co. Has Done It By the Book for More Than a Century"
Kansas City Star (09/20/09) P. 18; Smithson-Stanley, Lindsay
Strategy: Blog Used to Boost Subscriptions
While many say blogs are part of the reason that the print publishing industry is in decline, popular blogger Andrew Sullivan recently helped boost print subscriptions at The Atlantic magazine by appealing to readers of his blog to subscribe. His article on George W. Bush and torture was on the cover of the magazine, and he wrote that such un-commercial editorial decisions should be supported. “Many readers care enough to want to support media that say the hard things and do the un-commercial things,” he said. “It’s actually wonderful, I think, that new media can support old media in this way.” Within two days of his blog post the site received 75 percent of the subscriptions that the magazine typically gets in an entire month.
From "A Blogger Makes a Pitch for Supporting Print"
New York Times (09/21/09) Clifford, Stephanie
Strategy: Google Enters Print on Demand
Google Book Search will join On Demand Books in a project to print books in the public domain for a modest price using its Expresso Book Machine. Google has scanned millions of books whose copyright protections have expired and posted their text on the Internet to be downloaded for free. Google will now return the books to print at a dollar-a-book profit (proceeds will be donated to charity). Individual bookstores can use the Espresso Book Machine to print the books, which can produce a medium-sized paperback every four minutes. Stores around the world have already signed up to provide the service, including the Northshire Bookstore in Manchester Center, Vermont, the Blackwell Bookshop in London, and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt, and the independent Harvard Bookstore in Cambridge, Mass. On Demand Books CEO Dane Neller says the new partnership could change everything. "We believe this is a revolution," Neller says. "Content retrieval is now centralized and production is decentralized." He also says the new printing method could help private bookstores compete with large competitors. "We think people should be able to find and read these books," says Google's Jennie Johnson. "We don't care how people end up reading them." Neller hopes that users of Google Book Search will find not only the book they're looking for, but information on the nearest bookstore that could print it for them.
From "Google Lets You Custom-Print Millions of Public Domain Books"
Wired News (09/17/09) Singel, Ryan
Strategy: Publishing Execs Embracing Mobile
A survey by the Audit Bureau of Circulations finds that newspaper and magazine executives are increasingly interested in publishing for mobile devices. The survey of newspaper, consumer magazine, and trade publication executives found that nearly 70 percent of them say they are paying more attention to publishing for mobile devices this year than last year. Close to one-third of executives said their publication has "a well-developed plan for attacking and conquering the mobile market" already, 44 percent said mobile devices had boosted their Web sites' visits by as much as 10 percent, and about half expect that mobile traffic to their Web site will rise between 5 percent and 25 percent in the coming two years.
From "Publishing Execs Embracing Mobile"
BtoB (09/21/09) Callahan, Sean
Strategy: RFID Printers Adapt to Changing Market Needs
Intelligent, flexible printers are a vital systems element as the radio frequency identification (RFID) market's focus migrates from the supply chain to closed-loop applications. Printers fulfill a crucial role in enabling RFID applications, especially as companies employ the technology in more applications. "The RFID printer industry will continue to face a difficult economic environment during the next year," predicts Zebra Technologies' Carolyn Ricci. "However, if the industry can educate the market on unique applications that are easy to integrate within the existing IT infrastructure and emphasize the high [return on investment] potential, then customers will begin to view this technology as a method to truly improve operational efficiencies." High-growth RFID markets such as commercial services, government agencies, and the oil and gas industry offer relief from slumps in traditional markets such as manufacturing and distribution. Numerous end users also have moved their RFID focus from supply chain management applications to internally focused systems such as asset or work-in-process tracking, while companies in the healthcare, transportation, hospitality, security, and air transport sectors have started implementing the technology. These new applications have fueled demand for RFID printers with support for a broader range of RFID inlays and greater printer intelligence. Versatile printers that can accommodate the common RFID inlays at a competitive price are still in demand by end users, who also want those devices to be easy to service and combine with existing network technologies.
From "RFID Printers Adapt to Changing Market Needs"
Integrated Solutions Magazine (09/01/09) Albright, Brian
Trends: Web-printing Attracts Big Players
Sept. 14 marked the rollout of United Parcel Service's (UPS) marketing push into Web-based printing, wherein customers can send documents to UPS retail outlets through the Internet to have printed copies made. Web-print services are already offered by Federal Express (FedEx) at its FedEx Office/Kinko's stores. With the new UPS service, customers can digitally design and upload large documents without having to go to a store first. The documents can be stored in a Web-based personal repository and repeatedly tweaked before being printed at one or more outlets of the client's choosing. "It just gives us one more weapon in our arsenal," says Stuart Mathis with UPS unit Mail Boxes Etc. Both UPS and FedEx could grow through online printing, which accounted for 14 percent of U.S. printing industry revenue last year, according to InfoTrends. FedEx Office's Brian Philips says that Web-based printing currently represents over 25 percent of his unit's print revenue.
From "UPS Offers Web-Print Service"
Wall Street Journal (09/14/09) Esterl, Mike
Trends: Nano Ink Used to Print Solar Cells
California-based Innovalight has created an inkjet process to print silicon ink patterns atop silicon wafers in order to make solar cells more efficient. Silicon patterns that improve absorption of high-energy short-wavelength light can boost the efficiency of solar cells, but in the past this required several additional etching steps during manufacturing. Innovalight, by contrast, uses an ink suspension of silicon nanocrystals, controlling the crystal size and printability to make it easier to bind them to the underlying wafer at a lower temperature than needed for conventional cell manufacturing. The company has partnered with the Chinese solar cell manufacturer JA Solar, which intends to add the printing technology to its manufacturing lines and bring the new solar cells to the market starting next year.
From "Nano Ink Boost For Silicon Solar"
Technology Review (09/18/09) Bourzac, Katherine
The Future: Printing a Better Nose
Researchers have been working on an artificial nose that can emulate humans' olfactory sense for 20 years, and prototypes show great potential in lab experiments. CogniScent is developing an electronic nose that can sniff out the presence of various materials, including dangerous chemicals such as phosphine. NASA, meanwhile, has developed the ENose device, which in a pilot study was able to tell the difference between two distinctive cancerous cells. ENose sniffs substances such as mercury, sulfur dioxide, ammonia, and alcohols. The device is designed to sense and indicate when a chemical has hit 33 percent of the maximum allowable level on a spacecraft. In another experiment, Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Harry Tuller is working on using inkjet cartridges that print a film sensitive to odor molecules, which opens up the possibility of mass-produced sensors. Still, the creation of an artificial nose is no small feat, as CogniScent co-founder Joel White acknowledges that "the chemical senses—the sense of smell and taste—are not as well understood currently as some of the other senses, like vision and audition."
From "Artificial Noses Have the Scent of Promise"
Boston Globe (09/23/09) Johnson, Carolyn Y.
Abstract News © Copyright 2009 INFORMATION, INC.
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