Offset Printing - Web

Technology-driven sales wins newspaper deals for Evergreen Printing.

BOLINGBROOK, IL—After 44 years at Goss International, President Richard "Dick" Sutis will retire July 31. Sutis will retain his positions as vice chairman of the board of directors of Shanghai Goss Graphic Systems, a joint-venture of Goss International and Shanghai Electric Group in China, as well as a member of the board of directors of Goss Graphic Systems Japan. In recent years, Sutis has transitioned out of direct management control of Goss International and focused on continuing the company's Asian initiatives.

BOLINGBROOK, IL—Goss International has reduced its U.S. workforce by 170, with the cuts taking place in facilities located in New Hampshire, Texas and Illinois. The company was also considering other options including short-term furloughs during the summer for employees in the United States. The staff reduction and additional cost-saving measures are responses to economic conditions, particularly a decline in advertising expenditures, which have adversely impacted the demand for new web printing and print finishing equipment worldwide, according to Goss International CEO Jochen Meissner.

LAS VEGAS—The 2009 Offset and Beyond Conference completed its three-day run on Wednesday here at Caesars Palace. Presented by the Web Offset Association and the Printing Industries of America (PIA), the event featured a host of guest speakers who examined themes such as technology, the future of printing and adapting in troubled times.

Following is a special report from Day 2 of the 2009 Offset and Beyond Conference. Printing Industries of America's Executive Team is reporting from Caesars Palace, where the Conference continues today. What do you do? If your answer is "I am just a printer", you are not likely to be in business much longer in these turbulent times. Tuesday's general session opened with Making the Transformation from Printer to Marketing Communications Provider.

PITTSBURGH—Michael Keene, president and CEO of Minneapolis-based John Roberts, will receive the Web Offset Association's 2009 Harry V. Quadracci VISION Award. Keene, a 2008 inductee into the Printing Impressions/RIT Printing Industry Hall of Fame, will be presented with the honor May 5 during the Offset & Beyond Conference at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The award recognizes a web offset printing industry executive who has "reached an unsurpassed level of excellence and achievement in the industry."

THE WORLD is full of people who grouse about the company they work for, bemoaning the manner in which operations are conducted, and placated by the notion that if they were in charge, things would be done differently. Manny and Jorge Hernandez, who began their respective careers working for other printing companies, could have chosen the grouser tact. But these brothers didn’t just want to be in charge.

IT’S HARD not to automatically view everything through the frame of the current economic climate. In most cases, however, the business challenges companies are struggling with were preexisting conditions that have now been greatly amplified. The trend toward print buyers, at every level, cutting back their order quantities is a case in point.

BIG PICTURE perspective is the ultimate goal of the Web Offset Association’s (WOA) Offset and Beyond Printer-to-Printer Business & Technology Conference. After all, attendees of the printer-driven conference, which takes place May 4-6, 2009, at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, don’t benefit just from talking about web offset, sheetfed offset or even digital printing.

When it comes to forecasting the current sheetfed and web offset markets, the biggest threat isn’t just digital technology, it’s the state of the economy. There are some pretty exciting developments going on in the lithographic printing market this year, but that’s the problem. It’s 2009.