Compass Capital Partners

Oh great! This is just what we needed. More competition! New competition! The news item was all over the trade press during PRINT 05. This time it's our federal government. They bought a new five-unit sheetfed press. They paid cash. A few million for a new press is nothing to our officials in Washington, DC. After all, Congress just passed a Hurricane Katrina relief bill that is paying some cruise lines $2,500 per person per week to house Katrina victims. I don't mind that so much, but the weekly rate is about three times the regular price when the ships are actually cruising. Then there was

Journal Shutters Dixie Web MILWAUKEE—Dixie Web Printing, the New Orleans-based printing arm of Journal Communications hit by Hurricane Katrina, will not resume operations, the company announced in its third quarter report. Journal Communications said the decision was made due to softness prior to the storm, and the fallout resulting from Katrina—building damage, operating losses and uncollectible receivables. About 100 jobs were lost at Dixie. Graphcom Joining CGX Family HOUSTON—Consolidated Graphics (CGX) has inked a letter of intent to acquire Graphcom Inc., of Atlanta. The transaction was expected to be completed within 60 days. The deal speaks to CGX's long-term strategy for expanding its geographic footprint, reports Joe

Daly, Frontenac Seek Specialties CHICAGO—Private equity investment firm Frontenac and Ronald Daly, former president of RR Donnelley Print Solutions, have created a business partnership to acquire and grow specialty printers and other print solutions companies. Daly worked with Donnelley for 38 years. EPI Cos., Display Printers Merge MARIETTA, GA—The EPI Companies, based here, has acquired Display Printers, a manufacturer of printed merchandising displays. EPI specializes in marketing support for corporate clients, including creative services, traditional and digital print, logistics, premiums and online solutions. Unions Pressure Schawk CHICAGO—With its Union Network International (UNI) Congress taking place here, about 100 labor delegates, union leaders and activists decided to pay an

Read this entire column and you could score $1,000 or a great Mañana Man golf shirt. Come on now. It's only 1,381 words. Our industry gets a bad rap. I know. It depresses some of you who are embarrassed and lie. You tell your friends and family that you're in IRS audit and collections, or in the sludge reclamation business, or you are involved in swamp- land real estate sales. Your mama can handle your brother being sent to the big house for 15 to 20, but would go into cardiac arrest if she knew you work for a printer. Print buyers take us

Did Ya ever have a conversation, leave it and then wish like hell you'd said one more thing? That thing, that remark, was probably the best or funniest or the most important point. One more brilliant, scintillating point—and you forgot to say it! You slap your forehead and say, "Whoa doggies. Where was that comment when I needed it?" Or when she said, "You're the first, the last, my everything." All you could muster was, "Well, darlin', I love you more than my Harley!" You shoulda said you love her more than your '86 Ford F150, you big dummy. Or, if you really,

In late May of this year, just a month before my 63rd birthday, I realized that I had denied myself the luxury of a mid-life crisis. A lot of my friends and business associates had some sort of mid-life crisis. Their stories of a fast break from the routine boredom of their ho-hum lives sounded exciting and fun. My opportunities for some mid-life fun just passed me by. I was always too busy doing a deal, writing a column, making a speech or trying to keep up with my 30 ballplayers—cleaning the men's and women's port-a-potties and making sure we had enough game balls

I was soaking in my spa reading the March 16th edition of Time magazine. The jets were pulsing hot massaging surges and I was thinking, "It doesn't get any better than this." But, then again, I'm old and easily satisfied. I read a column by Patricia Marx about the famous and enormously publicized runaway bride. The column made me laugh out loud and when I finished reading, I said, "Wow! I wish I'd written that!" I'm an envious cuss and it always sparks my petty jealousy when someone does something that I do better than I do. (I know that last sentence was lousy,

Cenveo Plans Cost Savings ENGLEWOOD, CO—Cenveo announced a comprehensive plan to reduce operating expenses and streamline management functions, a plan that includes the elimination of about 125 jobs—mostly managerial positions. Through these moves, the company expects to save $9 million in 2005 and generate annual savings of $20 million. After having his May 6 formal proposal to take over Cenveo rejected, veteran print executive Robert Burton of Burton Capital Management informed the troubled printer that he will seek a special meeting of shareholders with the intention of removing the existing board members and replacing them with a slate that will "affirmatively act in the best

I am writing this column on April 6, 2005. It's about 5:30 a.m. and I have got to finish this thing because Attila the Editor and his nefarious henchman, Chris Bauer, the managing editor, are insisting that they need it today so they can lay out the May edition of the magazine. Reread that last sentence with a whiny insistence in your voice and you will hear what I heard when they called to check on my progress. It's been 61 days since I quit smoking cold turkey and this kind of pressure isn't making it any easier. Now I can't drink—too many empty calories

This is a column about women in the printing industry. I believe that women have far more to contribute than the men in the industry presently allow. I believe that women are, generally, under-recognized and underpaid versus their co-workers who speak in tenor, bass and baritone. Too few females hold senior management positions. Many great ideas go unheard because we live in a man's world. But you know all that. I have written about it before. My friend and arch nemesis column writer for another magazine, Dick Vinocur, characterizes himself openly as a "babe magnet." "BABE MAGNET?" Then I saw two gorgeous 30ish