PA Man Nabbed for Printing Plate Theft
WILKES-BARRE, PA—An employee for a cleaning company apparently tried to clean out a newspaper's supply of aluminum printing plates worth $19,000, but the paper's surveillance cameras caught him in the act.
Eric Redick, 49, was recorded taking the plates from The Times Leader, that newspaper reported. Following an audit that revealed 230 boxes had gone missing during a stretch of several months, the newspaper notified police.
The cameras recorded Redick last Sunday morning while he was removing several boxes of the aluminum plates from the building via a cleaning cart. Police found 23 boxes of the plates inside Redick's vehicle.
Redick allegedly told police he had been stealing the plates for months and selling them at local scrap yards, the newspaper said. He was released on $20,000 unsecured bail and faces a preliminary hearing May 29.
IWCO Platform Boost Includes 22 Digital Printers
CHANHASSEN, MN—IWCO Direct has begun to implement the next phase of its strategic platform enhancements. This includes the expansion of its headquarters campus and the installation of numerous pieces of high-speed equipment here and across the platform. These enhancements are designed to provide customers with significantly increased direct mail personalization opportunities, reduced cycle times and enhanced postal optimization.
A key element of the platform enhancements is the move of IWCO Direct’s Chanhassen lettershop and its second Mail-Gard critical communication recovery center to a 150,000-square-foot building adjacent to its headquarters. The facility is slated to be fully functional by July and will support future expansion opportunities.
In addition, IWCO Direct has completed installation of a new Mitsubishi 3F16 sheetfed offset press here. The 3F16 is capable of producing 16,000 iph and adds aqueous coating to IWCO Direct’s printing capabilities.
The company is also installing 22 Océ VarioStream 8750 digital web printers that will increase its personalization capacity by approximately 35 percent. In total, IWCO Direct will install more than 60 pieces of high-speed equipment at its facilities here and in Hamburg, PA, during the next five months. The added equipment will provide customers with greater personalization opportunities while increasing capacity by nearly 30 percent to 385 million direct mail packages per month.
“These platform enhancements keep us at the forefront of providing leading direct marketers the ability to provide highly relevant direct mail offers in the most timely, cost-effective manner,” said Jim Andersen, IWCO Direct CEO. “We remain focused on providing the high-speed technology solutions that allow our customers to leverage direct mail as a powerful component of their marketing mix.”
RRD Buys EDGAR, Closing Former Danbury Printing
CHICAGO—RR Donnelley (RRD) has signed a definitive agreement to acquire EDGAR Online, a provider of disclosure management services, financial data and enterprise risk analytics software and solutions for both corporate and investment professionals. The deal, valued at approximately $70.5 million, is expected to close during the third quarter of 2012.
“This acquisition continues to expand the range of our digital offering and further enhances our ability to deliver integrated communications solutions,” said Tom Quinlan, RR Donnelley’s president and CEO. “In every segment that we serve we provide a full set of resources for creating, managing, producing, distributing and even monetizing content.”
EDGAR Online has provided XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) services for RR Donnelley’s Financial Services offering since 2008.
In other company news, Donnelley is closing its Danbury, CT, facility, a move that will impact 145 employees, according to Greenwich Time. The newspaper quoted Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton as saying the city received notification from Donnelley regarding the closure, with layoffs beginning in July.
The shop was founded as Danbury Printing & Litho by the late Cecil Previdi, who was an inaugural inductee into the Printing Impressions/RIT Printing Industry Hall of Fame in 1986. Previdi died in 1987, along with five other executives when their Beechcraft airplane crashed in southern Wisconsin.
Vicks Captures Zenger Medal for Cancer Work
NEW YORK—Dwight Vicks III, president of Vicks Lithograph & Printing (Yorkville, NY), has been named by the Printing Industries Alliance’s Franklin Committee as recipient of the John Peter Zenger Medal. The presentation will take place at the 60th Franklin Event celebration to be held on Sept. 19 at The Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers.
The Zenger Medal is awarded to an individual employed in the graphic communications industry within New York, northern New Jersey or northwestern Pennsylvania who has exemplified—outside of his/her professional role—exemplary character in the form of selfless courage, charity, activism or service.
Vicks was nominated for his work in supporting thyroid cancer research, including the establishment of the International Thyroid Oncology Group (ITOG) for which he serves as treasurer and secretary. Vicks’ wife, Jean, was diagnosed with medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) in 1999, at which time very little was known about this rare form of cancer and afflicted individuals were faced with few options.
Because his personal investigation of the disease showed little information about it and the doctors and medical facilities that were researching it and trying to develop treatment protocols were both scarce and geographically dispersed, Vicks decided to cut back on his industry and community involvement and devote all his time, energy and resources to thyroid cancer. In 2005, he resigned his position as treasurer of Printing Industries of America, even though there was an excellent probability that he would have been elevated at some point to its chairmanship.
Through contact with the physicians and institutions, he was able to bring this small medical community together in regular informal meetings to discuss treatment options and clinical trials. In 2007, Vicks was the driving force behind the establishment of ITOG, a non-profit organization comprised of endocrinologists, oncologists, thyroid surgeons and radiation specialists from North America, Europe and Australia. As of this date, the ITOG membership consists of more than 50 of the world’s leading physicians and research scientists who focus on the treatment of thyroid cancer that has metastasized outside the thyroid gland.
In 2011, Vicks was named by Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, one of the top cancer facilities in America, as a member of “The One Hundred” for his unflagging optimism. He has quietly and singlehandedly raised more than $500,000 in the race for an MTC cure and subsequently started a broader fundraising effort called “Team Jean” which is already halfway to its goal of raising an additional $500,000 in 2012 and anticipates a similar target in 2013.
For more information on how to contribute to “Team Jean” or to register for the Franklin Event, contact either Printing Industries Alliance President Tim Freeman at (716) 691-3211 or Vice President Vicki Keenan at (908) 233-4124.
Sotheby's Imprint Taps Heidelberg Technology
BOSTON—Sotheby’s Imprint (SI), a global print management solutions provider, announced an alliance with leading printing press manufacturer Heidelberg. The agreement confirms that Sotheby’s Imprint Premier Platform, a global network of print and distribution suppliers, will exclusively utilize Heidelberg’s offset printing technology. Sotheby’s Imprint and Heidelberg plan to work together to extend established global print and distribution solutions.
“We are extremely proud to associate with one of the world’s most respected and admired print category brands,” said Skip Dyer, Sotheby’s Imprint executive vice president. “This collaboration signifies a shared vision and an unparalleled global solution.”
SI will utilize Heidelberg’s Speedmaster XL sheetfed press platform, along with color control systems Inpress and Image Control.
“Sotheby’s Imprint is in a unique position to influence remarkable change within the print category,” said Harald Weimer, president of Heidelberg USA. “This agreement combines our strengths to deliver a solution with unrivaled global reach, unique capabilities and a proven ability to perform.”
Venerable Newspaper to Print Just Three Days a Week
NEW ORLEANS—The Times-Picayune, one of the nation's oldest and most respected newspapers, announced it will be dropping its daily circulation after 175 years and has plans to issue three print editions per week beginning this fall, according to The Associated Press. It is the largest metro newspaper to drop daily circulation.
NOLA Media Group has been formed to oversee the newspaper and its affiliated Website, NOLA.com. The paper is owned by Advance Publications, which has other properties that will switch to publishing three days per week—including Alabama titles The Birmingham News, The Huntsville Times and the Press-Register of Mobile.
Another paper in the Advance chain, Michigan's Ann Arbor News, dropped its print edition and switched to an online-only format.