EDITOR'S notebook

* Big fish are devouring smaller ones to bolster revenues and gain market share. Industry behemoths like RR Donnelley, Consolidated Graphics and Deluxe Corp. continue to grow through acquisition. During the past 12 months, Donnelley acquired U.K.-based The Astron Group to bolster its global document-based outsourcing business, and later purchased catalog and direct mail specialist Spencer Press. Consolidated Graphics kicked off 2005 with a blockbuster deal for Kelmscott Communications and then closed out the year by buying a trio of affiliated companies, including Nies/Artcraft. Check and forms printer Deluxe Corp. spent 2005 assimilating its earlier purchase of New England Business Service (NEBS). And last month EarthColor snapped up Applied Printing Technologies. These M&A transactions illustrate, though, just how difficult it is to grow organically in the printing industry today. Look for some other whopper deals in 2006 among PI 400 printers, and don't even rule out hostile takeover attempts of struggling companies—like Robert Burton's successful, but ugly, quest to assume control of Cenveo Inc.