Everything I know that is really worth knowing, I learned from someone else. That's it! I'm out. I'm outin' myself. You thought I was a great thinker and now you find out that I'm just a great listener. Oh, I suppose I had a few original thoughts in the old days—after a few fingers of Jack Daniels. The really great thinking, however, always came from someone else. It coulda been from Peter Drucker on marketing or management. It mighta been from Socrates or Plato on human behavior. Sometimes it was the shoeshine guy at the airport on the subjects of politics or the economy. Plentitimes
Hi, it's me, just checking back in to see whether you had the opportunity to read my first column in the November issue of Printing Impressions. Did you have a chance to try out the direct mail program I outlined, designed to reduce the number of expensive and often ineffective cold calls your sales professionals are making? If so, let me hear from you. Sharing your successes may encourage others to take advantage of similar approaches and will be a tremendous help to the industry at large as we all work to find our way in the digital world. Is print dead? This question has
Ready to roll, presses in 2006 will be driven two-thirds by “now-or-never” consumer spending and first-in-history “wealth effect” redemptions of real estate. Previously sidelined intergenerational wealth, plus inbound repatriation of a more than $800 billion trade deficit, will push gross domestic product (GDP) growth to more than 6.5 percent, versus 3.8 percent growth in 2005 and 4.4 percent in 2004. A whopping $13.1 trillion should be the unprecedented GDP! More than one-half of both the consumer spend and the trade deficit proceed will likely be related to real estate (HM ‘06 Number 4) which, arguably, is not real product growth, but rather a hedge
Open House Offers Look at New Gear ROLLING MEADOWS, IL—Spartanics held its fourth annual open house in suburban Chicago recently, featuring the North American debut of the new Spartanics Klemm laser cut diecutting system. Two participatory forums were offered to attendees on the subjects of "Introduction to Digital Diecutting" and "Feed Users Forum." Finishing Safety Standards Adopted The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has approved ANSI B65.2-2005, Graphic technology-Safety requirements for binding and finishing systems and equipment. This standard revises and replaces the 1999 edition, and is currently available from NPES. The standard addresses mechanical safety issues such as motion controls, guarding against hazards, and warning
Unless someone pulled a rabbit out of a hat in the final days, the first session of the 109th Congress ended without completion of postal reform legislation, which has been stalled in the Senate. It has been delayed because of a dispute between Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Kit Bond (R-MO) over a proposed amendment to include a requirement that rates be "fair and equitable." While the language is identical to that in the House-passed bill, Collins, as well as the Postal Service, object to the amendment. Ironically, the legal impact of the amendment is unclear one way or the other. While there are those
ATLANTA—Koch Forest Products, a subsidiary of Koch Industries, will pay $48 a share to acquire paper manufacturing giant Georgia-Pacific (G-P). Included in the transaction are all assets of G-P, including its North American and international consumer products segments, as well as its building products, packaging, paper and bleached board segments. The deal has an equity value of $13.2 billion and a total enterprise value of $21 billion. The price paid to shareholders represents a premium of 39 percent based on the closing price of G-P common stock on November 11. The transaction is not conditioned on financing. Debt financing has been secured by Koch through Citigroup.
More than 20 years ago I sat in a committee meeting of printers and magazine publishers in, as I recall, Hershey, PA. The conversation turned to Just-in-Time raw paper inventories. "What are the benefits of stocking paper inventories?" someone asked. "We get a price break from the mills and paper merchants that our printers can't get," a publisher piped up. "It's a safety cushion to protect against shortages and railroad or trucking mishaps," a printer rejoined. "Well, what are the detriments—the disadvantages—of having a 30- or 60-day backlog of paper sitting idle in the warehouse?" was the next question. "Insurance premiums." "Property taxes." "Taking up
by chris bauer Managing Editor If just looking at the sales figures of the top 400 printers in North America can tell us anything, 2005 has been a pretty good reporting year for the printing industry. Of the 400 companies on our annual list, 258 have seen an increase in sales for the past fiscal year. Additionally, 125 of those 258 have seen double-digit increases. Not bad for an industry some have pegged as gasping for its last breath. Here is a look at some printing firms that are on the fast track to success—and details on how they are getting to the front
BY MARK SMITH Technology Editor Marketers, it would seem, are every bit as intrepid as mail carriers. It will take more than a modest rate increase to keep the mail from going through, as the prevailing outlook for direct mail in 2006 calls for continued growth. Success will be database driven, with messaging getting ever more personal. By the time the ball drops in New York's Times Square, more than $161 billion will have been spent this year on direct marketing in the United States, projects an independent study commissioned by The Direct Marketing Association (DMA). According to its "U.S. Direct Marketing Today: Economic
BY MARK SMITH Technology Editor When it comes to physical format and production processes, catalogs and magazines have always been more alike than different. The introduction of the "magalog" concept extended the overlap to content and intent, albeit in a limited fashion. Now, as the industry looks forward to 2006, there are a lot of common threads in the business issues facing these two market sectors. Postal rate increases obviously are a challenge for much of the printing industry, but these two sectors bear the brunt, along with direct mail. Paper issues—including pricing, availability and sustainable manufacturing—also cut equally across both sectors. Their customers
