P RINTING I MPRESSIONS

IN JANUARY 2008, InfoTrends and North American Publishing Co. (NAPCO) formed a unique partnership, combining Printing Impressions’ large subscription base with InfoTrends’ in-depth research tools. The result is a new quar- terly tracking program called “Emerging Strategies in Production Print,” aimed at polling print service providers on some of today’s hottest industry topics. To kick off our inaugural survey, we chose a topic that has been gaining a lot of recognition over the past year: “green” printing and sustainability. With many buzz words and views being tossed around by industry leaders, we decided it was time to check the pulse of the industry itself

LIKE MOST privately held firms, American Printing of Rhode Island (APRI) does not disclose financial results to outsiders. But a half-day visit to the 35-year-old firm, which is located in suburban Providence and employs 55 workers over two shifts, clearly revealed an organization bustling with activity—which gives credence to owner Paul Carroll’s claims that the firm’s sales have quadrupled in the past four years and are likely to double again over the next four. What is driving the growth? A company-wide focus on achieving customer satisfaction and an ex-panding expertise in retail signage. “Just about everybody claims to provide great customer service,” he recently

On the last day of this month, I will be 65. And, dammit, I’m still not grown up. I still don’t know what I wannabe when I grow up.

This is sad. I ask myself: “How am I defined?”

Ever wonder how you are defined? It’s scary to think about.

When I finish this column, I will have written 251 “DeWese on Sales” columns for PRINTING IMPRESSIONS magazine. Does that define me as a columnist?

I owned the Marple Crawdads semi-pro baseball team, coached more than 1,000 baseball games and won nearly 80 percent of the games. That’s better than the win percentages of Connie Mack

THIS IS my 250th column for Printing Impressions and, as I predicted way back in my first year—1984—the world population would reach 6.6 billion people. How is it I am accurately prescient? Remarkable! I also predicted the U.S. population would reach 300 million. Yep. I was right about this also. Gee, I’m good. Furthermore, in these very pages in 1984, I predicted the number of Websites and blogs would total about 6.7 billion­—and, I’m pretty sure that I am right about that number. The remarkable thing about that last prediction is that 1984 was six years before the World Wide Web was invented by (Brit) Timothy

THIS IS my 250th column for PRINTING IMPRESSIONS and, as I predicted way back in my first year—1984—the world population would reach 6.6 billion people. How is it I am accurately prescient? Remarkable!

I also predicted the U.S. population would reach 300 million. Yep. I was right about this also. Gee, I’m good.

Furthermore, in these very pages in 1984, I predicted the number of Websites and blogs would total about 6.7 billion­—and, I’m pretty sure that I am right about that number. The remarkable thing about that last prediction is that 1984 was six years before the World Wide Web was invented by

Open the Mail and Say Ahh There can be such a thing as getting too personal. Tailoring the content of a printed piece to the individual recipient has been seen as a positive, but the risk of a backlash grows as people find more of their lives becoming an open book. Privacy can also become an issue in another way with variable data communications. If sensitive information is included in a database provided to a print provider, that data must be secured, and care used, when incorporating it into the printed piece. The March edition of Printing Impressions included a story on database management

More Blogs