Heidelberg

GRAPHIC PRESS -- What's in a Name?
August 1, 2001

For John Zamora, it means being able to launch a new company with $40 million worth of new equipment. BY ERIK CAGLE John Zamora pretty much had it all, but even if he didn't, he surely had enough. At the age of 54, Zamora boasts a happy marriage and three grown children, a stable full of his precious race horses, a reputation as one of the best salesmen in the commercial printing industry and several million dollars in the bank. By most definitions, that stands as a successful career and life—the reward being countless leisure hours at the race track, travel or any

Summer Is the Time for Generating Hot Sales -- DeWese
August 1, 2001

In case you haven't been outside lately, it's August; the temperature is 97° and the humidity is 97 percent. These are the Dog Days of summer. These days are about lethargy, lemonade and lots of air conditioning. Lots of your brother and sister print salespeople just stop working in August. Why not? The boss is at the shore. Some salespeople rationalize that the print buyers seem to have crawled underground. These salespeople say, "Why should I work?" Most of the buyers are backpacking in the mountains or scuba diving in the cool waters of the Caribbean. Well, I aim to do something about all this

Upfront 8-01
August 1, 2001

Line & Tone, Target MergeNEW YORK—A little more than a year since it acquired Finley Digital Photographics, Line & Tone, based here, announced that it is merging with Target Graphics, of Boonton, NJ. Target Graphics and its art creation subsidiary, MediaLogix, are now wholly owned subsidiaries of Line & Tone. The transaction will see Line & Tone move its Parsippany and Mahwah, NJ, operations into Target's Boonton facility. Quad/Graphics Expanding PlantsPEWAUKEE, WI—Gammerler, a manufacturer of in-line finishing systems, announced it has been chosen by Quad/Graphics, headquartered here, to supply overhead conveying systems for Quad plant expansions in Martinsburg, WV, Saratoga Springs, NY, as well

PRINT 01 PREVIEW -- Power of PRINT
August 1, 2001

BY CAROLINE MILLER If there appears to be one technology that is going to steal the show at the eight-day PRINT 01 trade show held at Chicago's McCormick Place, September 6-13, it is going to be the digital imaging (DI) press. "No matter what you think about the DI press, pros or cons, you no longer can ignore the impact of DI technology. We've identified at least a dozen manufacturers that will exhibit a DI press, reports Bill Lamparter of PrintCom Consulting Group. The buzz surrounding color digital presses began last year at DRUPA and not much has changed since the German show.

Digital bytes 8-01
August 1, 2001

TOKYO—Following 17 years of research and development, Elcorsy announced it has sold the first production model of its ELCO 400 press, based on Elcography technology. This "electrocoagulation" process is said to turn liquid ink into gel with electric fields generated by small wires located across from the imaging cylinder. The press was installed by Toyo Ink, a technology partner of Elcorsy, and reportedly will be used to print instant newspapers at popular music shows and international sporting events, as well as personalized color schoolbooks. (www.elcorsy.com) RESTON, VA—The Committee for Graphic Arts Technologies Standards (CGATS) has defined an open, variable-data exchange standard, called

Inserting Equipment — Inquiring into Inserts
June 1, 2001

BY CHRIS BAUER Although it may not be as flashy as a star-filled TV commercial during the last episode of "Survivor" or halftime of the Super Bowl, many companies are finding refuge from high advertising costs in a weakened economy by going a more traditional and cost-effective route—newspaper inserts. In a recent Wall Street Journal article, Livonia, MI-based Valassis Communications, a leading printer of coupons and newspaper inserts, reported it is reaping financial benefits from the slowing economy. As advertisers look for ways to lure customers into their stores with sales and other ways to save, Valassis is providing much of the printing of

HOPKINS PRINTING -- Recipe for Success
June 1, 2001

BY ERIK CAGLE You won't see Jim Hopkins' face on the cover of Fortune magazine. His commercial printing company, Hopkins Printing, isn't likely to challenge Quebecor World, R.R. Donnelley or any other top 10-performer as an industry sales heavyweight. Hopkins Printing manages to fly under the radar screen, and chances are you've never heard of the 27-year-old, Columbus, OH-based establishment. Then again, Hopkins Printing has never laid off massive numbers of employees. You won't see any major restructuring because of missed quarterly revenue reports or disappointing stock valuation performances. His upper management team isn't a revolving door. There are no angry shareholders, no elimination

NEWSPAPER PRESSES -- Pressing Issues
June 1, 2001

BY MARK SMITH It's the nature of the business for newspaper editorial departments to move from one crisis to the next. Unfortunately, market factors in recent years have forced their back offices to regularly function in crisis management mode, as well. Declining readership, drops in advertising revenues, the Internet threat (or opportunity), industry consolidation, volatility in newsprint prices, and more have made it a challenging business environment. The one bright spot has been the ability to maintain healthy profit margins. These business pressures have translated into an ever-greater need for flexibility on the production side. Newspaper plants can provide a competitive edge by

A Printing Hooray for eBay
June 1, 2001

BY ERIK CAGLE Way back in the early days of the Internet, around the dark ages (late 1998), someone asked me, "Exactly what can you find on eBay?" Well, anyone who has visited the Internet auction Website behemoth will return volley by posing the following question: "What can't you find on eBay?" It seems that anything which can be stuffed in a box and have postage slapped on it would fit the description. Ah, but that's not entirely true. Automobiles, viking ships, even internal parts of the human anatomy (one such lot was quickly quashed by the site) can be found there. Founded