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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, 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
Headlines
Industry News
"Asia:
Singapore Printers Band Together to Woo Japanese
Publishers"
"Canada:
Self-publishing a Hit!"
"Japan:
Redesigned Covers Draw Young Readers"
"United
Kingdom: Century-Old Binder Adapts to New Times"
"United
States: Amish Newspaper Succeeds the Old-Fashioned Way"
"Strategy:
CBS Reaches Out to Viewers Through Video Ad in Magazine"
"Strategy:
Barnes & Noble Finds New Revenue Streams"
"Strategy:
Fabric Printing Company Launches Web Site to Allow Customers to
Customize Designs"
"Strategy:
Paper Is Resurgent as a Solo Act"
"Strategy:
Superheroes Printed Using Powdered Metal Ink"
"Trends:
OLED? Make Way for ILED!"
"The
Future: Magic Ink Offers Full-Color Printing in an
Instant"
Industry News
Asia: Singapore Printers Band Together to
Woo Japanese Publishers
Companies operating out of
Singapore's Print Media Hub (PMH) industrial zone are working
together to take on the Japanese market, emphasizing the individual
strengths of each PMH company. The purpose-built PMH has more than a
dozen companies ranging from pre-press and post-press to warehousing
and logistics functions. A group trip in July, which included the
option of participating in the Tokyo International book Fair, was
the most recent of the PMH companies' joint efforts. "Traditionally,
individual printers act individually to engage publishers, following
their own schedule," says Thomas Chua, leader of the PMH group and
chairman and managing director of Teckwah Industrial Corp. "But for
this trip we set out our objectives and our approach very clearly
beforehand. We acted as one, using Singapore Print Media Hub as our
brand to pre-arrange meetings with publishers." The cooperative
efforts by the PMH companies enable them to offer one-stop solutions
to potential clients in Japan, which Chua describes as "a difficult
market to penetrate" where companies are not experienced in working
with foreign printing services providers. The Japanese printing
industry has in recent years become more open to outsourcing of
printing, however, and it became the fifth largest export market for
the Singaporean printing industry last year.
From "Printers
Band Together to Woo Japanese Publishers"
AsiaOne (08/12/09)
Wei, Li Dan
Canada:
Self-publishing a Hit!
Technology of print-on-demand make titles,
old and new, easy to acquire for
customers.
Printing companies in the Kingston,
Ontario, area are jumping into the affordable self-publishing
business with new digital printing presses that make short-run
publications far easier and more cost-effective than ever.
Traditional printing is heavy on the setup costs, according to Dan
Graham of the local firm Allan Graphics, forcing low-volume press
runs to charge a high per-unit price. Now, however, print-on-demand,
or POD, allows printers to create books that are all but
indistinguishable from any other in a bookstore, but at a price of
just $7 to $12 per book, compared to the costs in the tens or
hundreds of dollars for small traditional press runs. "With POD, we
work from a computer file," Graham says. "The author sends us the
book on a disk, and we design and proofread it, just like on a
computer -- well, it is on a computer. Then we send the file to our
digital laser printer, push the 'print' button, and out it comes.
You want one copy, we push '1.' You want 38, we push '38.' The unit
cost is the same." The $100,000 Xerox 700 digital press the company
bought earlier this year is what makes this possible, and already
more than a dozen different titles have been printed on the machine,
such as a mystery novel titled "The Fourth Vow" by local author
Peter Timmins. The books are subject to the same high-end binding
process, trimmed and bound with French covers; "We don't want to
produce books that look home-made," Graham says, "or that fall apart
when you open them."
From "New Technology Makes
Self-Publishing More Affordable"
Kingston Whig Standard
(Canada) (08/08/09) Grady, Wayne
Japan:
Redesigned Covers Draw Young Readers
Strategies that bring youth back to
ink/toner or paper is good for all!
A new trend in
the print industry is for publishers to reissue classic literature
with updated cover designs to boost sales, and so far the strategy
seems to be working. Japanese publisher Bunkasha has put images of
teenagers on the cover of three classic novels to promote for a
summer campaign, and editor Masaji Ogawa says it makes the books
more attractive to younger readers who would normally opt for manga
comic books and, because they are limited editions, they also appeal
to collectors. Publishing house Shueisha has for several years been
reissuing classic books with manga covers, and says sales have
increased tenfold. But Hirokazu Egi, manager of Shinchosha
Publishing, is concerned that the trend could get out of hand and
the increasing competition could produce a rash of cover designs
that have little relation to a book’s content.
From
"Classics' Artsy Paperback Jacket Makeovers a Hit"
Japan
Times (Japan) (08/18/09) Martin, Alex
United
Kingdom: Century-Old Binder Adapts to New Times
More
than 100 years after its founding, Bookbinders of London (BOL) is
staying innovative to remain successful under its fourth generation
of family ownership. The current managing director, Ian Bailey, took
over the firm his father and uncle had once led, which had 200
craftsmen on all four floors of its building at one time but is down
to just five staff members on one floor today. "Over the years, we
have had to shrink to survive when times were difficult," he says;
"Now a lot of the building is rented out to offices. Being small
means you can react quickly. We have never over-committed to
something that could dry up, never over exposed ourselves to
something." As the company seeks to grow again, one important area
it is focusing on is short-run digitally printed books, allowing
anyone to become a self-publisher. According to Bailey, "You don't
need to commit to run lengths of 3,000. It is now so accessible, so
cost effective to self publish." BOL, located close to London
Metropolitan University, has also spent much of the past two decades
targeting the student market for thesis and dissertation
publications. It is also set to launch a photobook service online,
and has invested in a Xerox 700 for digital printing. "It is
definitely something that will fit with what we offer. Most people
approach it from the print end, but we have added a press to our
binding expertise," Bailey says, adding, "I would much rather learn
the digital end than the binding end. Our knowledge is in binding,
we have guys that have been here 40 years. I wouldn't want to set up
a bindery from scratch."
From "Reacting to Change Has
Maintained This Firm's Century-Long Tradition of Success"
PrintWeek (08/14/09) Hooker, Adam
United
States: Amish Newspaper Succeeds the Old-Fashioned Way
Recognizing religious and cultural morés
can be an increasingly new way to consider business
options.
The Budget, a 119-year-old Amish-oriented
newspaper based in Ohio that serves as a glue holding together the
local Amish community, reconsidered a plan to go online earlier this
year due to its contributors' objections and has managed to
strengthen its fanbase as a result. Farmers, mechanics, and
preachers contribute plain-spoken news items to the newspaper, which
largely carries ads from Amish businesses and is mailed out to
nearly 20,000 subscribers in the United States and Canada. The
newspaper gets most of its revenue from its $42-a-year
subscriptions, and they have only fallen by a few hundred in the
last year, while the largely Amish advertisers have not been
abandoning the paper for the Internet. "People call The Budget the
Amish Internet," publisher Keith Rathbun says. "It's non-electric,
it's on paper, but it's the same thing." The newspaper, which has
become the foremost means of communication for the Amish, also
publishes a local Ohio edition that serves as a typical community
newspaper produced by in-house employees.
From "Amish
Newspaper Succeeds the Old-Fashioned Way"
Associated Press
(08/17/09) Barr, Meghan
Strategy:
CBS Reaches Out to Viewers Through Video Ad in Magazine
Merging non-traditional print technology
with traditional print is the great way to get a big
ROI.
The fall CBS season lineup will be advertised
in video form in the Sept. 18 subscription edition of Entertainment
Weekly, which will carry an insert with a battery-powered video chip
from the Los Angeles-based firm Americhip, which can handle about 40
minutes of video. Launched in partnership with Pepsi to promote
Pepsi Max, the promotion will be the first video ad to appear in
print, according to CBS marketing president George Schweitzer. "It's
leadership in innovation, which we really stress at CBS in every
part of our company," Schweitzer says. A video player with a 2-inch
screen will be embedded on heavy-stock paper and inserted into the
magazine. The video will start up as soon as the insert is opened.
The insert will only be distributed in the Los Angeles and New York
areas.
From "CBS To Run Video Ad in Magazine This Fall"
CNet (08/19/09) McCarthy, Caroline
Strategy:
Barnes & Noble Finds New Revenue Streams
Barnes
& Noble is launching a new imprint to publish out-of-print
titles as part of its ongoing search for new revenue streams. The
Barnes & Noble Rediscovers imprint will start with 33 titles and
will use customer feedback and online behavior to help choose which
books to publish. The initial books will be hardcover and the
company plans to eventually produce e-book versions as well. Amazon
and Google also have units dedicated to out-of-print books—Amazon’s
AmazonEncore uses customer information to identify books that should
be re-released, and Google has a program that allows publishers to
provide digital files of books that will be partially searchable
online—currently users can follow links to purchase the book, but
eventually they will be able to buy it directly from Google.
From "Barnes & Noble Finds New Revenue Streams"
Seeking Alpha (08/21/09)
Strategy:
Fabric Printing Company Launches Web Site to Allow Customers to
Customize Designs
Considering various non-traditional forms
of print can provide a lot of help during industry transitional
times.
Digital fabric printing company
KarmaKraft.com recently launched its web site, which allows users to
upload their own fabric designs and create digitally printed custom
fabric. Users can produce their own designs without the hefty fees
and minimums that are imposed by some printing houses, and they also
need not be familiar with sophisticated software used in printing
designs, making the service available to novices as well as experts.
There are no color limitations and a variety of fabrics as well as
custom cut and sew services, so users can have custom pillows or
apparel made from their own fabric design. The company uses reactive
dyes for cotton, linen, and silk, and disperse dyes for polyester,
which produce more vivid colors and fabric that is softer and more
washable than the traditional textile pigment dyes.
From
"Design Your Own Custom Fabrics Online"
NewsFactor Network
(08/20/09)
Strategy:
Paper Is Resurgent as a Solo Act
Another example of meshing online and print
for a successful venture.
After the shutdown of the
Seattle Post-Intelligencer (P-I) made the city a one-newspaper town,
the surviving Seattle Times wondered whether it would end up meeting
its demise as well. Five months later, however, the Times has found
its way back to profitability, according to publisher Frank A.
Blethen, partly by picking up most of the P-I's subscribers, with
Times circulation up 30 percent since the P-I's shutdown. Blethen
had insisted on maintaining the unusually large newsroom and
devotion to investigative reporting at the newspaper, which had been
working for years under a joint operating agreement with the P-I
that it had seen as a drain on resources. While newsroom employment
did fall to 210 people from about 375 half a decade ago, it appears
that the cuts have stopped for now, according to executive editor
David Boardman: "We're about at the floor of what we feel we can
have and still put out a Seattle Times we can be proud of. We've had
to be more thoughtful in choosing what we do, but I'm not one to
claim that less is more. Less is less." Meanwhile, what remains of
the P-I has found its own success as a Web-only news source heavily
reliant on unpaid bloggers called SeattlePI.com, which despite
industry analysts' skepticism has managed to keep most of the reader
traffic it had when the P-I still had a print edition.
From
"Seattle Paper Is Resurgent as A Solo Act"
New York Times
(08/09/09) Pérez-Peña, Richard
Strategy:
Superheroes Printed Using Powdered Metal Ink
A
stainless-steel modeling service called Shapeways is offering
customers the ability to create metallic figures of their own design
using a 3D printing machine and powdered metal "ink." Customers use
software such as Autodesk Maya or Render to design an 8-inch figure,
when they submit to Shapeways to build to order at a cost of $40 to
$50 per piece. "The average consumer now gets access to production
technology that was once available only to big companies," says
Shapeways CEO Peter Weijmarshausen. "It used to be you could only go
to a shop and buy someone else's design. Now you can buy what you
design. That's a powerful concept."
From "3-D Metal Printers
Launch DIY Action Figure Service"
Wired (08/09) Hart,
Hugh
Trends:
OLED? Make Way for ILED!
Not too long ago print industry leaders
probably never imagined what relevance "inorganic light-emitting
diodes" would have on their future. What is
next?
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
professor John Rogers has led the development of a new technique for
manufacturing tiny inorganic light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that
enables them to be made with existing tools and with adjustments to
photovoltaics and electronics printers and to be attached to
materials such as glass or rubber. The new manufacturing method
"enables new kinds of 'form factors' that would allow you to put
lighting sources on curved surfaces or in corners, places where you
can't put light sources nowadays," Rogers says. The breakthrough
means that technology currently used in large video billboards can
now be used in flexible and transparent displays to create a variety
of products, such as brake lights that fit the curves of a car or
medical diagnostic equipment that can be wrapped around a patient
like a blanket. The majority of consumer electronics use inorganic
LEDs, which are 400 times brighter per square centimeter than
organic LEDs. Organic LEDs (OLEDs) are easier to manufacture but are
not as robust as LEDs, and must be encapsulated because they are
sensitive to oxygen and moisture. Rogers and his colleagues have
developed a method that creates bright, robust inorganic LEDs that
can be processed en masse. Their approach produces thin inorganic
LEDs in high quantities that are then cut into small pieces by
soaking them in a strong acid. The pieces can be picked up with a
stamp, with holes cut precisely to size for the elements, and placed
on a variety of surfaces, including glass or rubber. The pieces also
can be placed sparsely enough that a bright layer of them is almost
transparent. "Because you can get away with very low coverage by
area, it opens up the possibility of making something that's
see-through," Rogers says.
From "Brighter Idea for Bendy
Displays"
BBC News (08/21/09)
The
Future: Magic Ink Offers Full-Color Printing in an
Instant
Magic ink or innovative thinking for
everyday application? Think of the
possibilities!
Engineers at Seoul National
University in South Korea say they have found a way to duplicate the
iridescent properties of many insects and bird feathers in order to
create inks that can create a full-color page in a split-second. The
engineers' M-Ink product, made of magnetic nanoparticles with a
solvation liquid and resin, can be used to produce any
visible-spectrum color, according to engineer Sunghoon Kwon. The
nanoparticles can be aligned with an external magnetic field to
produce the same sort of light interference that gives bird feathers
their iridescent color properties. "If you want to control the angle
of the magnetic field [to create curves in the image, for instance]
you can combine multiple electromagnets," Kwon says. The solvation
liquid creates repulsive forces to prevent the nanoparticles from
clumping together magnetically, and an ultraviolet light pattern
cures the resin to lock the desired colors in place.
From
"Magic Ink Offers Full-Color Printing in an Instant"
New
Scientist (08/25/09) Barras, Colin
Abstract News © Copyright 2009 INFORMATION,
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