Cup-a-Joe

There is a YouTube video making the rounds in the print community lately — and if you haven’t seen it, you need to check it out.  Is it a bit over the top?  Sure, but if you talk to anyone involved with production (print, web, video, etc.) who has to interface with a designer, you just might hear similar stories.  Although I do have a question.  What is the Pantone match for luscious pink?

2010 is almost over and I’m glad to see it ending.  It’s been a tumultuous year for our industry, economy and nation.  Needless to say we’re all looking for a better 2011.  Although it may not make many of us deficit hawks happy, the present tax legislation looks like it’s going to pass, and we won’t be seeing a tax increase at the beginning of the year.  The saving grace of the legislation is small business gets some breathing room with tax credits and the estate/death tax changes, and that we actually had folks working together on this issue.  Granted the “wings” of both parties are not very happy about this — but it’s a step in the right direction.

It looks like more folks than just “us” in the direct mail industry are taking note of the USPS issues.  A recent article in Bloomberg Business week covered many of the key issues facing the post office.  It was a good read for the many who do not understand the real challenges which face our postal service system.

I got a chance to see Jerry Williamson the other night — on the local ABC Affiliate (WFAA).  Jerry was part of a feature on Greenberg Smoked Turkey, a local (Tyler, Texas) provider of smoked turkey.  Jerry, owner of Williamson Printing, spoke of how Williamson provides the turkeys as gifts to their select clients.   Great PR for WPC.

Gotta talk baseball.  For us North Texans, 2010 was a great year.  The Rangers far exceeded everyone’s hopes and made it into the World Series, and more importantly they beat the hated Yankees to get there.  The interesting side note is that they lost the bid to hold onto Cliff Lee yesterday.  Fortunately, they lost to the Phillies, rather than the fore mentioned hated ones.  The real story here is that Lee was willing to take less money than either New York or Texas had put on the table.  Why?  And here’s the real lesson.  Lee sees an opportunity to be part of a rotation (Halladay, Oswalt, Hamels, and Lee) that could break records and put him into a position to be in the World Series – again.  It reminds us that for many employees, it’s the intangibles that are just as important, and in this case, more important than money.

2011 may be the Digital Year for many in our industry.  In talking to a variety of consultants and suppliers the past few months, I continue to be surprised as to the number of firms which have yet to take the step into digital print technology.  And that’s not a bad thing.  If a company has yet to take the step, it’s probably because of two reasons.  First, they did not have the capital, and/or 2.) They weren’t ready to make the business model change.  Both are valid reasons for not playing.  Ask anyone in the digital world, and they’ll tell you that the only way you can play is to understand that it is a different business model and that it takes constant re-investment in technology and equipment.  It’s not for the faint of heart, or folks who are not committed to making a wholesale change.

Last week Google was attempting to purchase Groupon for about $5-6 Billion (Groupon since then has decided to stay independent).  Groupon is a company that is only two years old and carving out new ways to offer local advertising and promotion services. The purchase price for this fledgling company was a number that FAR exceeds the annual profits for the entire printing industry.  Although one has to question whether this could be a good use of funds for Google, or that Andrew Mason, Groupon’s founder, was a fool for not taking the money, we can not ignore the fact that there are new players in the world which was historically dominated by print producers.  read more »

We recently saw the close of TechPress, the Texas Tech’s inplant operation – which was a significant facility.  Over the years, inplants have been demonized and lauded — how you see it just depends on what side of the fence you sit.  Print brokers (for lack of a better word) are seen very much the same way, but like them or not, neither brokers or inplants are going to go away — for a variety of factors.

For more thoughts on this subject, check out this article by NAPL consultant and blogger, Howie Fenton.

At one time, in very recent memory, attending Graph Expo in Chicago was a must for anyone who was serious about being a printer.  You were able to talk to equipment vendors, who were ready to close deals.  You attended workshops to help you better understand the intricacies of the business and the trade which was printing.  For those of us who lived in Texas, it was welcome relief from a long summer. A trip to Chicago and McCormick Place was something to anticipate.

I did not make the trip last year, but decided it was important to make the trip this year to our industry’s annual “overcapacity fest,” as the late Dick Gorelick liked to call it.  Needless to say, it wasn’t the same.  Gone was the heavy iron – Heidelberg did not have a single square foot at the show. Rather than seeing the familiar blue/white logo when entering, you saw the Xerox and HP booths.  Then Kodak, EFI, Ricoh, Canon, and Konica Minolta.  You eventually got to KBA, ManRoland, and Goss – but there weren’t any presses in those booths.  As one of the attendees said to me, “The clicks you hear are not coming from sheets running through presses.

Yet, the same energy and networking and sharing of ideas was still evident.  The overall mood was upbeat and many of the exhibitors I spoke with were very positive about the show.  There was a heavy presence of mailing and ink jet equipment along with various finishing devices.  I did not see as many stand-alone MIS and workflow providers as in the past, and the amount of square footage utilized was much less than two years ago. 

When you walked the floor, it was very apparent that change was everywhere, and that’s not a bad thing.  Overall the show was a very positive event, and in my mind, it’s just another message that print continues to be a viable medium – we’re just going to produce it differently.

North Texas is dealing with the remnants of hurricane Hermine, which translates into a lot of rain and traffic congestion.  I was slowly making my way into the office this morning listening to my usual updates re: political issues.  Of course, the talk was about the President’s upcoming proposal to help stimulate business and the contrarian perspectives from the Republicans.  As with the traffic patterns being brought to a halt by the rain, I see the same pattern with our economy.

Until the rain stops, traffic will not get better.  Until Washington stops messing with taxes and the economy, business will not improve.  It’s the unknown which slows business decisions.  And with all the proposals in the pipeline (tax changes, health care, cap & trade, more stimulus, etc.), business is not about to start spending – and the same goes for the consumer.  So, the question remains, how do we get our leaders in Washington to get it?

Next week many of our industry’s leaders will have that chance by participating in Printing Industries of America’s Print’s Voice 2010 in Washington D.C.   Yes, sometimes it seems futile talking to our Congressman and Senators – but the alternative is that they will never hear about our concerns, and that’s a scary thought.  So, come on in the water’s fine!

If you are waiting for things to get better, it might be a long wait.  There are too many unknowns out there and the folks in Washington aren’t making many of us in small business feel better.  Thus, we wait for things to get better.  The folks with money wait for it to get better.  And we all sit and watch to see who’s going to blink first. read more »

I am continually amazed at the problems we run across in our industry because of unmet (or unrealistic) expectations.  Why do we continue to assume that everyone is a printing expert and they know as much as we think we know?  How often do we run across a job that is rejected because the four-color screen mix did not match a specific Pantone color?  Or the job that was printed on a non-heatset web press did not match a much shorter run job printed sheetfed, or our digital equipment? 

Is there a solution?  Sure.  Print providers must take the time to educate their existing and potential client base.  Not an easy answer, and one many individuals find difficult to accomplish, but what are your options?

I just read Cary Sherbune’s article in Print CEO on Canadian Printer Magazine deciding to no longer use print as a method of distribution.  Along with Electronic Publishing and Graphic Arts Monthly shuttering their operations, this poses an interesting question.  Is it that print can no longer deliver the message, or is it that there is no longer a substantial market within the print community to support magazines?  Or all of the above?

I’ve been remiss in putting my thoughts down over the past week or so.  Is it due to being busy?  Summer doldrums (summer temperatures and haze is upon us)?  Or just lack of “thought?”  Probably the latter.  Regardless, here are some vague thoughts on the world of print and business . . .

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