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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
Headlines
Industry News
"Australia: Waterless Printing"
"PRINT 09: 'Media Days' Looks Ahead to What's in Store"
"Bermuda: Small Business Fuels Growth or Print Shop"
"Spain: Library Partners With Private Sector for Print-on-Demand"
"Turkey: Changes Lead to Restructuring of Print Sector"
"Asia: Greening Print"
"Ireland: Chocolate+Printing=Profits"
"Strategy: Book Publishers Make a Move Toward Mobile to Attract Teens"
"Strategy: Adaptation Key to Success"
"Strategy: eBooks Could Be a Boon for Printers"
"Strategy: Carbon Neutrality Possible to Achieve"
"Strategy: Wind Power Blows Savings for Printer"
Industry News
Australia: Waterless Printing
Sustainability is not a passing fad and will continue to evolve and become a permanent issue for suppliers and printers alike.
The printing company Print Point Australia has turned to waterless printing to eliminate large amounts of water and toxic chemicals from being released into the environment. In waterless printing, technology cools printing plates from within, eliminating the need for harsh chemicals. Allan Rhodes, owner of the Brisbane-based company, has been in printing since he was a 15-year-old apprentice, and he has began using waterless printing in 1998 after looking into its popularity in Japan. While the idea has not caught on generally in Australia yet, the success of Print Point Australia points up the concept's viability, and it produces superior quality products while maintaining a much safer workplace as well. "The environmental advantages of using this technology as well as the superior quality it delivers sets it apart from ordinary printing technology," Rhodes says. The company, which has done everything from point-of-sale materials to elegant cookbooks, recently won the Heidelberg Award for excellence in sheet-fed printing from the Printing Industries Association of Australia.
From "Fine Print Turns Green"
Courier Mail (AU) (06/13/09) Bruce, Victoria
PRINT 09: 'Media Days' Looks Ahead to What's in Store
The Graphic Arts Show Company held an extended press conference in June where a number of print vendors previewed their offerings at the Print 09 event, and one of the trends highlighted at the conference was that the importance of digital technologies, especially inkjet, is growing in high-volume production applications. Kodak announced a new line of continuous inkjet (CIJ) printers, the Kodak Prosper family, as well as the continued availability of its Versamark CIJ press line. Digital printing systems also were previewed by Ricoh, which showcased its Pro C900s, a printer/scanner/copier that can distribute electronic documents. EFI's featured products included new Fiery print management systems supporting VDP and Adobe's PDF Print Engine, and the Digital Storefront Web-to-print e-commerce solution. The president of DiMS! organizing print emphasized at the press conference that persuading printers to install an end-to-end business management system will be the company's goal at Print 09, and said that DiMS constitutes "holistically" designed elements that share a common, foundational technology in a single software package, offering seamless integration. MGI Digital Graphic Technology has been building digital printing systems for 27 years, and a company executive said that it will highlight three new products—two digital presses and an inkjet spot UV coater—at Print 09.
From "'Media Days' Looks Ahead to What's in Store at Print 09"
What They Think (07/01/09) Henry, Patrick
Bermuda: Small Business Fuels Growth or Print Shop
Bermuda-based print shop VistaPrint has transformed itself into a thriving international business that primarily caters to small enterprises or individual professionals. Most client companies usually have 10 workers or less. Although the average VistaPrint client spends only $50 annually, the company achieves tremendous revenues through the vast volume of orders it receives. VistaPrint can fill orders rapidly and efficiently through the use of the Internet and proprietary technology. VistaPrint has enjoyed three consecutive years of solid earnings growth, and earnings have expanded 25 percent or more year-over-year over the last 10 quarters.
From "Small Business Fuels Growth of Print Shop"
Investor's Business Daily (06/11/09) P. B3; Hoover, Ken
Spain: Library Partners With Private Sector for Print-on-Demand
One company's loss of revenue can be another's gain especially when the business model experiences a substantial shift to print on demand.
Spain's Hispanic Digital Library has rolled out a print-on-demand service that allows Web surfers to purchase printed copies of 85 works from among the archive's 18,000 available volumes. The library is the first European institution to offer such a service. Library director Milagros del Corral announced on June 22 that the program was initiated with the goal of "giving users the opportunity to, instead of printing page by page, receive in their homes the printed and bound work." The service stems from a partnership between Spain's National Library and the Bubok online-publishing Web site. Del Corral described the library's printing and digitalization processes as "a very good combination that is being adapted to each type of work, to consulting and reading, to allowing you to work without [setting] your eyes on a screen or enlarging and unraveling abbreviations" when necessary. Bubok CEO Angel Maria Herrera projected that "between 10 and 20 titles" will be made available each month, though she anticipated that this estimate will grow because "technological needs are going to set the pace." Del Corral said that the print-on-demand service will offer reproductions "of all those original works that accept a printed format, including the publications of the National Library," without requiring editing and in seven unique sizes to align the printed copy with the original volume. Production costs are included in the final price of each copy, which could go as high as 80 euros.
From "Spanish Digital Library Launches Print-on-Demand"
TMCnet.com (06/22/09)
Turkey: Changes Lead to Restructuring of Print Sector
Yet another story of the strong potential of digital printing and variable data print.
The printing sector in Turkey, which expanded vastly over the past 15 years, is being hit hard by companies' adoption of new technology and creation of small in-house printing shops. Zekeriya Acar of Acar Group, who is also the founder of a printing industry educational foundation, said that the number of printing houses in Turkey had fallen to 6,000 from last year's level of 9,500. "Within the last 15 years, everyone and his uncle imported printing machines and established printing houses, creating an excess supply in the sector," said Acar, who noted that the creation of digital billing and invoicing has also harmed the printing industry. Acar expects that digital printing houses will have a 25 percent share of the industry by 2012 as they encroach on offset printers' practice. He recommends that companies ensure they can keep up with new technological conditions and that they refocus on exports and competitive differentiation.
From "New Technology Hits Printing Sector"
Hurriyet (06/16/09) Öztürk, Özgül
Asia: Greening Print
Printer manufacturers have been working to produce environmentally friendly products for the many different companies currently seeking to "go green." Environmental friendliness in printing starts out at the product design stage, where manufacturers try to cut down on the resources needed to produce the equipment in the first place. "With the rising cost of energy, this quickly translates into tremendous savings for companies," says Lim Kok Hin of Canon Singapore. Kasai Yasuhiro, director of the regional product management division at Epson, says that the company designs its printing products with "stringent energy and resource consumption targets, in relation to performance." New designs seek to be more efficient with their resource usage. Cutting down on the time the printer is powered up to create a printout also helps reduce energy usage. Companies are also cutting down on waste by better support for duplex printing and by supporting reuse and recycling programs for products such as toner cartridges.
From "Printer Vendors Push Green for Cheap"
ZDNet Asia (06/23/09) Solomon, Sol E.
Ireland: Chocolate+Printing=Profits
Unique applications of "print" provide interesting options for those not usually affiliated with the traditional print world. Why shouldn't that be us?
Working with a new technology dubbed "chocolography," Ireland-based Print Delicious can print personalized messages with edible icing on milk or Belgian chocolate for customers ranging from corporations to wedding planners seeking a memorable way to send a message. The company is run by Sandie Stanley out of a spare room above the pub in County Wicklow and her husband, and already the company has pulled in a list of corporate customers such as 3Mobile with the chocolography technology she learned about on the Internet. The Stanleys had been running pubs in England and Wales before opening their current pub back home in Ireland, and while Sandie dialed down her bar duties for a few years after having children, she started looking for a side business to occupy her time once the couple's twins hit nine years old. "Eventually, on the Web, I came across a company in New York called The Chocolate Printing Company which created chocolography and, thinking there was nothing like it in Ireland, my stomach flipped," she says. "It was just brilliant—a business that utilizes chocolate—particularly as Irish people are the third-highest consumers of chocolate in the world, after the Swiss and Austrians. Finally, after a lot of research and a trip to see how a similar system works in London, we went to New York for a closer look and liked what we saw and decided to take the plunge." After paying $42,000 for the chocolography system and purchasing exclusive rights to the technology in Ireland, she had a new business underway with a less stressful lifestyle than working full-time in pubs had been. Already, Print Delicious has won a Small Firms Association award for Best New Emerging Business. Sandie says, "I really love what I do, and I get to work with chocolate and play with pictures. What more can I say but 'Happy Days.'"
From "Making a Mark in Chocolates"
Irish Times (Ireland) (05/26/09) McDonagh, Michelle
Strategy: Book Publishers Make a Move Toward Mobile to Attract Teens
The convergence of message, media and mobility is rapidly changing the way WE do business. Are you in?
Book publishers are attempting to tap mobile devices and social networks to market their products to teenage readers. "Mobile marketing efforts may be the 21st-century way to market to consumers, and teens are a logical first place to try things out," notes Carolyn Pittis of HarperCollins. "They are so eager to receive information and resend it to friends and talk about it." HarperCollins is promoting a book by TV reality star Lauren Conrad using 2D bar codes on the back of book jackets, which can be scanned by cameras on handsets and let users link directly to supplementary Web content such as video interviews with the authors. Meanwhile, Penguin has launched an online network on its Web site offering book-related entertainment, including book club discussions and author interviews, for readers of all ages. Simon & Schuster has rolled out a social networking site for readers 14 to 18, where registered users can read free electronic books and talk about them with authors and other teens. Simon & Schuster Children's Division publisher Jon Anderson says the site makes it easy for teens "to buzz our books by spreading the word to their peers on other networks and sites."
From "Book Publishers Make a Move Toward Mobile to Attract Teens"
USA Today (06/18/09) Minzesheimer, Bob; Memmott, Carol
Strategy: Adaptation Key to Success
The best at the print business manage to tap into an emotion or value that makes print a secondary issue. Is anyone really buying print?
Since taking over as CEO at the online photo finishing company Shutterfly four years ago, Jeffrey Housenbold has moved the company away from the rapidly commoditizing business of 4x6 photo prints by seeking more innovative print products. "I came in and looked at who our customer was, [and asked] what are our core competencies?" he says. "How do we compete against large players, like Wal-Mart and Walgreens and Yahoo!?" Looking to "become design-forward and appeal to a higher-end customer," the company has moved toward printing personalized photo books and stationery and has built a substantial lead over competitors. The strategy guiding the company was the concept that Shutterfly is "not simply printing pictures but helping people share life's joy and stay connected through this new medium called the Internet," says Housenbold. "You have to talk about how you can win, not just survive. And then the employees rallied. And we innovated, and we launched new photo books and new cards and stationery, new ways of sharing." The manufacture-on-demand strategy means the company needs not keep an inventory of books on hand, just ink and paper, but it can produce an end product that gives people "the pride of authorship" and frequently "a fairly unique and personal gift," Housenbold says. Meanwhile, the digital-press technology the company uses enables Shutterfly "to create low run, high variable data content in a very quick turnaround, with low costs," allowing the company to pass value along to consumers.
From "Shutterfly's Reinvention Strategy"
Forbes (06/17/09) Barret, Victoria
Strategy: eBooks Could Be a Boon for Printers
Springer has announced that its Science+Business Media Group would start printing 11,000 science and technology eBook titles for library patrons at North American academic institutions that license its eBook service. Springer reports the successful completion of testing in a MyCopy pilot implemented at 30 licensee sites of its eBooks. Registered library customers will be able to order a softcover edition of a Springer eBook at the academic libraries in the United States and Canada that have bought Springer eBook Collections. The University of Illinois Library in Urbana-Champaign was one of the sites in the pilot project. "This project represents a very innovative way in which to look at both publisher and library services for electronic content in the future," says electronic resource librarian Wendy Shelburne. Lightning Source also has been expanding its on-demand printing presence by placing with Espresso Book Machines, which offers publishers the choice to make available volumes stored in the Lightning Source digital library for printing, binding, and delivery at point of sale in minutes.
From "Springer Printing eBooks"
Graphic Arts Magazine (06/24/09) Esler, Bill
Strategy: Carbon Neutrality Possible to Achieve
As quick as sustainability was thurst upon us so will a challenge to companies that 'green wash' their sustainability claims. More and more companies will be asked to verify and prove their sustainability claims.
In what it claims is a world first, Australian printer Focus Press is offering customers a completely "carbon neutral" service. David Fuller, owner and managing director of Focus Press, says to achieve "carbon neutral" status, the impact of every link in the supply chain has been taken into account, from the water used to grow the soybeans to make the ink, to the petrol put into the trucks to transport the finished product to the customer. "We now have a measurement of embodied carbon for every product. No other printer in the world has done that yet," he says. "Government and corporate (customers) are asking for more information regarding sustainability and that is definitely affecting the supply chain."
From "Sydney Printer Offers Customers Carbon-neutral Service"
Australian (06/01/09) Jackson, Sally
Strategy: Wind Power Blows Savings for Printer
Commercial printer Phoenix Press of New Haven, Conn., is installing a 121-foot, 100-kilowatt turbine from Northern Power that costs $500,000 in a bid to reduce costs and even generate revenue. The company will get a $263,000 grant from the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund and $150,000 from the federal government to help defray the costs of installation, bringing the company's share to $87,000. The owners of Phoenix, brothers Brian and Kevin Driscoll, intend to sell the excess electricity produced by the wind turbine to the local utility on nights and weekends. Brian estimates he will recover his investment in less than three years.
From "Wind Power: Can It Make a Profit?"
Forbes (06/22/09) Vol. 183, No. 13, P. 34; Fahey, Jonathan
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