PRINTER news

Winners Take Podium at Georgia SkillsUSA Competition

ATLANTA—The Printing and Imaging Association of Georgia (PIAG) announced the winners of the Georgia SkillsUSA graphic communications competition, sponsored by Heidelberg and held at its Print Media Demonstration Center in Kennesaw, GA. Through a grant from the PIAG Educational Foundation, the first place contestant was awarded $4,500 in scholarships and had the opportunity to travel to Kansas City to compete in the National SkillsUSA competition.

Winning awards were: first place, Alyssa Ailion, a senior at Walton High School in Marietta, GA, who also went on to place second in the National SkillsUSA competition; second place, Victoria Gunnin, a senior at Sandy Creek High School in Tyrone, GA; and third place, Bryan Shipes, a junior at Appling County High School in Baxley, GA.

Cub Scouts Enjoy Printing Field Trip

STUART, FL—Southeastern Printing recently hosted an after hours “field trip” for a local Cub Scout group. Eight scouts and their parents joined Roger Butler, Southeastern’s director of sales (pictured), for a plant tour of the company’s lithographic and flexographic pressrooms, and an explanation of the printing process—from prepress through bindery functions.

In addition, the scouts were also shown the “greening” of Southeastern, through the many eco-friendly processes and procedures the company has in place. They even got a “green” work assignment, when Butler distributed freshly trimmed waste paper strips, instructing each of the scouts to “go home and make something from these.”

At Boston-based LVI Print Optimization, Ken Prittie has been tapped as the company’s new team leader of preproduction. He previously held positions at Universal Millennium, Cenveo and Donahue Printing.

Two promotions have been announced at Waukegan, IL-based Lake County Press (LCP). Bob Theer has been named director of client services, responsible for managing the company’s customer service department, while maintaining his duties as senior account representative. Lee Marcoe has been promoted to environmental health and safety/quality manager.

Two additions have been announced at Wichita, KS-based McCormick-Armstrong Co. Vernon Reeves has joined as a sales account representative based in Dallas. Michael Murphy has also been hired as a sales rep based in the Cincinnati market, and is now responsible for sales in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.

John Lemke has joined The EGT Group, Madison Heights, MI, as purchasing department manager. Lemke comes to EGT from Budco, where he had spent the last 18 years serving as director of purchasing and general manager of the printing operations and bindery.

Andy Brown has joined Seattle-based BIGink, a large-format and creative solutions printer, as senior project manager on the customer service team.

Cranford, NJ-based Plymouth Printing has tapped Keith Dovel as president and COO. Dovel has served as Plymouth’s vice president and general manager since 2006, and succeeds H.D. Auerbach, who was named Plymouth’s chairman and CEO, after a 38-year tenure as president.

Ann Massei is the new marketing director at Chatsworth, CA-based Impress Communications. Impress also reports it is poised for major growth with the infusion of $8 million in new press equipment and capabilities added over the past 18 months.

Claremont, CA-based Phoenix Marketing Services has named Roger Underwood as its new digital sales representative.

Randy Hewitt has been promoted to Padgett Printing’s sales team. Hewitt has worked as a production coordinator since he joined the Dallas-based company in November of 2005.

Ft. Lee, NJ-based American Bank- note, parent of the ABnote Group, has tapped Timothy Wright as vice president of product marketing for ABnote. Wright previously served as vice president of sales at Innovative Card Technologies.

The new pressroom manager at Modern International Graphics, Eastlake, OH, is Jamie Vanoster. He formerly held positions at Austin Printing and Franzen Graphics.

The new national sales manager at Victor Graphics, Baltimore, is J. Michael Roeck. He previously served as vice president of sales for the Midwest with the Banta Corp.

Mark Redshaw has been named the new president of Specialty Print & Mail, a division of Holden Marketing Group, based in Longmont, CO.

Rockville, MD-based Smith Litho has tapped Robert Birkland as its new COO and CFO. Birkland has more than 23 years of experience in the commercial printing industry.

Print in the Mix

Magazine Ads Featuring Web Addresses Boost Traffic
A Magazine Publishers of America study reconfirms prior studies that show including URLs in magazine ads drives readers to advertiser Websites. The biggest lifts came in the women’s services, home and travel categories, where ads featuring Web addresses were 98 percent, 103 percent and 186 percent, respectively, more likely to boost Website visits.

Source: Analysis of 833 print ads in seven magazines representing six distinct magazine genres. Study commissioned by Magazine Publishers of America and conducted by VISTA Print Effectiveness Rating Service. Released June 2, 2008.

Boomers: Print Drives Online Traffic
In a study of online baby boomer trends, 93 percent of the 40+ year-olds surveyed said they have read an article about a Website in print (newspaper or magazine) and have later visited the site online. Baby boomers account for 78 million people in the United States and control more than 83 percent of consumer spending, reminding marketers that media coverage, as part of an integrated marketing strategy, remains an important element of boomer marketing.

Source: ThirdAge/JWTBOOM of 1,800 U.S. adults, age 40 and over, as reported by Marketing Charts, June 5, 2008.

Advertising Inserts Are No. 1 Research Tool
In 2004, the number of adults who entered a store without doing any prior research to help them make educated purchases was 31 percent. Today, however, since consumers are doing their homework, this number has dropped to 17 percent. Their favorite research tools are as follows:

Advertising Inserts — 57 percent
Internet — 50 percent
Catalogs — 38 percent

Source: Vertis Customer Focus: Decade of Data, 2008. Customer Focus is Vertis Communications’ proprietary annual study tracking consumer media and buying behavior across a wide variety of industry segments and media, including advertising inserts, direct marketing and the Internet.

Print in the Mix, a clearinghouse of research on print media effectiveness, is published by the Printing Industry Center at RIT and made possible by a grant from The Print Council. Please visit www.printinthemix.rit.edu and www.theprintcouncil.org