Quebecor World

The Label Printing Industry Association (LPIA), a special industry group of the Printing Industries of America, recently inducted William Smyth Jr., of Smyth Companies, St. Paul, MN, into the LPIA Hall of Fame. The Graphic Arts Education and Research Foundation (GAERF) recently completed a total revision of the competencies that form the basis for instruction in PrintED, a national accreditation program for graphic communications at the secondary and post-secondary levels. In addition, GAERF has begun developing a national exit exam for students in PrintED classes to accommodate its adoption as a state-mandated program. The National Council for Skill Standards in Graphic Communications has announced

BY MARK SMITH Would color management by any other name still carry the same stigma? When it was first introduced, the concept grew to being billed as just short of perfect color in a box. The early offerings might as well have come in a yellow and black box with a "Color for Dummies" label. It quickly became clear that color, the human eye and perception defy description by straightforward mathematics. Or, maybe it's just that expectations were set so high, there was no chance of matching them. To avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, it's worth taking a brief look at

MONTREAL—There has been a management shakeup at Quebecor World, North America's largest printer. Quebecor World CEO and President Charles Cavell has announced that he plans to retire by April of 2003. In addition, Christian Paupe, CFO, executive vice president and chief administrative officer, has informed the company's board of directors that he is quitting in order to explore other opportunities. The decision of these top executives to leave Quebecor World follows the recent changes made by the company to its operating structure in 2002. On September 25, Quebecor World announced the implementation of a new operating structure and senior leadership appointments. John Paloian and David Boles were

The best thing about 2002 is that it's over. A stagnant economy, massive worker layoffs, corporate accounting scandals, fear over chemical and biological warfare—enough to make a newborn want to crawl back into the womb. No one's rushing to pop the bubbly; the toast is "Here's to a better 2003," not "Happy days are here again." And, like the world around us, the printing industry is suffering through depressed sales and earnings, plant closings and staff reductions, cutbacks in capital expenditure plans, as well as personnel changes in the board rooms at North America's largest companies. As 2002 drew to a close, executive

The best thing about 2002 is that it's over. A stagnant economy, massive worker layoffs, corporate accounting scandals, fear over chemical and biological warfare—enough to make a newborn want to crawl back into the womb. No one's rushing to pop the bubbly; the toast is "Here's to a better 2003," not "Happy days are here again." And, like the world around us, the printing industry is suffering through depressed sales and earnings, plant closings and staff reductions, cutbacks in capital expenditure plans, as well as personnel changes in the board rooms at North America's largest companies. As 2002 drew to a close,

BY MARK SMITH There may not be a one-for-one correlation between the business outlook for publishers and the fortunes of publication printers, but the link is obvious. Also, the tough business environment has marketing gurus and industry executives evangelizing the need for printers of all types to "really get to know their customers" in order to succeed. On the whole, it has been a mixed year for the magazine publishing segment. According to Publishers Information Bureau (PIB) data through September, advertising revenues in 2002 have been running 1.5 percent above 2001 totals. Unfortunately, especially for publication printers, the year-to-date ad pages total was

Now in its 19th year, the Printing Impressions 400 provides the industry's most comprehensive ranking of the leading printing companies in the United States and Canada. The listings include company name and headquarters location; parent company, if applicable; current and previous year's rankings; most recent and previous year's fiscal sales; percentage change; primary specialties; principal officer(s); and number of employees, manufacturing plants and total press units. Each year, we continue to refine our list. As was done in several past years, we eliminated greeting card companies and several paper converters because they do not really compete in the commercial printing marketplace. In addition, those

By Erik Cagle Good news! In October, Postmaster General John E. Potter told the Direct Marketing Association's annual conference attendees that, because of its reform efforts that enabled the USPS to remove $2.9 billion out of its bottom line in fiscal 2002, there would be no rate hikes until "well into 2004." The bad news, of course, is that the general economy and volume reductions in mailings made 2002 a challenging campaign for those companies that provide direct mail solutions from the production end. Thus, in noting that there will be no rate hike in 2003 is akin to pointing out, "At least the

BY MARK SMITH Judging the strength of the printed catalog market segment used to be a straight-forward proposition. Catalogers merely had to compare the total dollar value of orders placed with the cost of producing and distributing their print programs in order to determine the financial return. The rise of online shopping is beginning to skew this traditional benchmark. If a shopper initially selects items by perusing a printed catalog, but actually executes the order via a Website and online catalog, which medium gets credit for the sale? Should each get partial credit? Top 10 -- Catalog Printers   CompanySegmentSales(millions)TotalSales (millions) 1Quebecor WorldMontreal$1,071$6,300

By Erik Cagle "Give 'em hell, Harry!" That's the rally cry for both trade publishers and their print production suppliers, who eagerly await the next installment in the Harry Potter series (give 'em hell J.K. Rowling would be more accurate). And why not? The four-book (and counting) children's fantasy series from Scholastic has sold a staggering 150 million copies worldwide (70 million in the United States), and many of the leading U.S. book printers have dipped their toes in the Potter pool. Who needs an Oprah plug when you have a multi-faceted marketing machine that has licensed movies, trading cards, action figures and all