Compass Capital Partners

Printing Impressions' Printer News Commercial Printing News for 2008

THIS BAD economy thing has made me mad. Rip roarin’, snortin’, fire dirt kickin’ mad. I’m afraid to call it a recession. No two economists can agree on what it is.

Whatever it is, it’s lousy. It’s causing deep, dark depression to pervade the land.

Depression among Americans is up 113 percent this year, according to several sources. Antidepressant sales are up 156 percent, according to still other sources. So, that’s great for the pharmaceutical companies. When the economy turned South, sales of the new impotence pills probably tanked, so thank goodness here come the orders for antidepressants.

Of course, the oil-producing sheikhs and the oil companies

IAM writing this column from Room 316 in the Paoli Hospital in Paoli, PA. I am here as a patient. Bet you thought I’d say, “I am here as a brain surgeon.” This hospital thing stinks, and I’m not in the mood to write a column. But, alas, I am a slave to “showing up.” It was Woody Allen who said, “Eighty percent of success is just showing up.” Woody Allen also said, “The mafia takes in more than $40 billion annually and spends very little on office supplies.” I have changed that to read, “and spends nothing on printing.” I’ve shown up for

IF IT’S about “sales” or “marketing,” I want to make sure you get it here first. It’s important to me because this column is named “DeWese on Sales.” Sometimes, however, I write about marketing and, like many other people in our printing industry, I am at least semi-confused about the difference between sales and marketing.

It has always been my position that “marketing” is a series of activities, like advertising, public relations, publicity, market research, etc., that includes “selling.” I have always believed and espoused in this column that good marketing is aimed at facilitating the selling function. Furthermore, since many printing companies have no

MY PUBLISHER, Printing Impressions, has been trying to discipline me for nearly 25 years. I’ve dealt with at least a dozen different staff editors (mean-spirited goons) over that span. The most recent arrival carries the title of Managing Editor, but I’m forced to salute her as “Sarge.”

This hotshot Managing Editor sent me an e-mail recently, and the subject was “Schedule.” The e-mail listed monthly deadlines for the remainder of 2008. It also listed the topics for my columns for the remaining issues this year.

Can you imagine Sarge telling me, the Mañana Man, what to write and when I’m to turn it in? The

Print Snafu ‘Teases’ Taxpayers PLATTSBURGH, NY—Taxpayers here thought they were getting a major discount when their bills arrived, but a printing error isn’t letting anyone off the hook. According to the Plattsburgh (NY) Press Republican, bills arrived at taxpayer homes with the option of making four installment payments or one lump sum payout, accompanied by corresponding coupons. However, the full payment coupon shows the amount for a 25 percent payment. The paper noted that the full amount is listed on the bill, two inches above the coupons. Cenveo Delays 10-K Reporting STAMFORD, CT—An internal review delayed Cenveo’s Form 10-K annual report filing as

READING, PA—Standard Offset Printing has completed a deal to purchase Lancaster, PA-based Acorn Press. Acorn will retain its name and continue to operate at its present location. Acorn founder Donald Roseman will retire after 52 years while President Scott Reighard will remain in his current role.Peter Schaefer, president of Compass Capital Partners in Exton, PA,…

PARAMUS, NJ—February 6, 2008—NAPL’s Top Management Conference (TMC) has moved back to the East Coast and will be held at the Ritz-Carlton, Grand Lakes, Fla., March 9-12, 2008. The event is designed to provide insightful leadership tips to industry executives in a warm, casual environment conducive to networking and reflecting on the year ahead. Great business leaders have always advocated the value of taking time to get away from the business in order to strategically plan for the business with a clear head, and TMC has been designed to help printing industry leaders do just that. “TMC has always been a great

SOUTHWEST Airlines, in a daring parody on the current Major League Baseball steroid scandal, is running a series of television commercials featuring Nick Pudder, the winner of the Annual Productivity Award: APA ’07. Nick’s fellow office workers are resentful of his special parking spot, his private corner office, his much greater compensation and the boss’ recognition.

Nick is so productive that his dysfunctional non-believer co-workers accuse him of taking “productivity enhancers.” It’s obviously some mysterious potion that is a “steroid for the brain.”

Southwest, naturally, uses Nick’s productivity story on their Website at www.southwest.com . Go there, and you can watch the video, which is funnier

I HEAR from a lot of print sales professionals. The calls are from underachievers, overachievers and the mediocre folks in the middle.

The underachievers and the mediocre achievers want to become overachievers. Lately, I’m getting e-mail and phone calls from overachievers who seek an escape to mediocrity. They say overachievement is too much pressure. I’ll explain.

Overachievers are in the top tax bracket. The sons and daughters of overachievers want new cars, the latest fashions, monogrammed iPods and their own credit cards. Their spouses want club memberships, BMWs and million-dollar-plus homes.

The overachievers’ bosses are forever demanding more, more, more! The bosses lean on the