NAPL

THIS IS my 250th column for Printing Impressions and, as I predicted way back in my first year—1984—the world population would reach 6.6 billion people. How is it I am accurately prescient? Remarkable! I also predicted the U.S. population would reach 300 million. Yep. I was right about this also. Gee, I’m good. Furthermore, in these very pages in 1984, I predicted the number of Websites and blogs would total about 6.7 billion­—and, I’m pretty sure that I am right about that number. The remarkable thing about that last prediction is that 1984 was six years before the World Wide Web was invented by (Brit) Timothy

CHICAGO—The first NPES Industry Summit provided an optimistic view of print’s current and future prospects. A series of speakers concurred that sustained economic growth and smart adoption of technologies to create new value-added services have helped put the U.S. printing industry in its strongest position in years. Ronnie Davis, chief economist at PIA/GATF, noted that U.S. printers’ sales reached $171 billion in 2006, a gain of 3.3 percent over the previous year and a major rebound from a low point of about $156 billion in 2002. He forecasts increases of about 1.5 percent in 2007 and 2.5 percent in 2008. Significant growth is coming from

CHANDLER, AZ—The highest attendee turnout of the decade marked the PIA/GATF Presidents Conference at the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass & Resort here March 4-8. More than 300 people attended the five-day affair, which featured the theme, “Printing Industry at the Crossroads,” and it marked the conference’s largest number of newcomers. Among the highlights of the event was a silent auction, titled “Road Rally,” that helped raise $17,000 for the association’s political action committee, PrintPAC. Another topical subject was a look at private equity partners in the printing industry. The NAPL’s Top Management Conference got underway March 8 in Santa Barbara, CA, with NAPL Vice President and

DOES ANYBODY really, really, ever, ever listen when a recorded message tells you, “This call may be monitored for quality?”

I don’t think so. I don’t believe there are any monitors. Monitors are a fictitious form of marketing communication. The company is just telling us, “We care about quality, and so we are monitoring this call!”

Or, maybe I’ve got it wrong. Maybe they are monitoring my quality. Like maybe they are checking on the quality of my baritone, my diction or my rationale for the call.

Why else would they give me a warning that the call was being monitored?

I’ve been through some tortuous

Friesens Corporation, Lawton Printing, and Corporate Press Join Organization’s Growing Membership WASHINGTON, DC—March 22, 2007—The Print Council, a national business development initiative dedicated to promoting the greater use of printing and print media, today announced that Lawton Printing, The Friesens Corporation and Corporate Press have joined the organization’s growing membership. As new members of the Council, these well-regarded printers will be working with other companies to increase demand for printed materials. Members of The Print Council include commercial printers, paper manufacturers, press, ink and equipment manufacturers, publishers, industry associations, ad agencies, and public relations firms. Through advertising and speaking engagements, The Print Council is

Economics, markets, technology and people; no print-related business can succeed these days without excellence in managing all four of these areas. RESTON, VA—03/14/07—This fall, the 12th edition of EXECUTIVE OUTLOOK® themed, “The Printers’ Success Quartet: Economics, Markets, Technology, People”, coming on the eve of GRAPH EXPO® in Chicago, IL, will give industry executives the knowledge and tools they need to score high on these critical yardsticks. EXECUTIVE OUTLOOK will take place on Saturday, September 8, 2007, at McCormick Place. The year’s foremost printing, publishing and converting trade show opens the next day for a four-day run. “EXECUTIVE OUTLOOK will once again focus on

CHANDLER, AZ—The highest attendee turnout of the decade marked the PIA/GATF Presidents Conference at the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass & Resort here March 4-8. More than 300 attended the five-day affair, including the conference’s largest number of newcomers. Among the highlights of the event was a silent auction that helped raise $17,000 for the association’s political action committee, PrintPAC. The NAPL’s Top Management Conference got underway Thursday in Santa Barbara, CA, with NAPL VP and chief economist, Andrew Paparozzi, telling a record crowd of more than 250 that the printing industry is in expansion, with sales for 2006 growing at their fastest rate in eight years.

For those companies that are best prepared, significant growth opportunities remain; those unprepared will be left behind, Paparozzi cautioned. SANTA BARBARA, CA—MARCH 8, 2007—At a special “State of the Industry” presentation that opened the program portion of NAPL’s Top Management Conference 2007 on Thursday morning, March 8, NAPL Vice President and Chief Economist Andrew Paparozzi told the record crowd of more than 250 attendees that the printing industry “is in expansion. Our sales grew at their fastest rate in eight years in 2006 and will continue to grow, although at a noticeably slower pace. Volume has finally regained pre-recession levels. And we’ve even regained some

Mitsubishi Imaging Center For Education Is Dedicated RYE, NY—Mitsubishi Imaging (MPM) announced the grand opening of its Mitsubishi Center for Education, a state-of-the-art demonstration print shop for use by dealers, printers and graphic arts professionals. Visitors to the center can experience the entire print process, including file production, proofing, platesetting and printing to a Hamada B452 Mark II press. Sakurai USA Hosts Demonstration Day SCHAUMBURG, IL—Sakurai USA recently hosted a Demonstration Day for more than 100 customers, dealers and guests at its North American headquarters. During the festivities, Sakurai dealer Independent Graphic Services, of Montgomery, AL, was presented a sales award for achieving the highest sales

RESTON,VA—02/06/07—With eight months remaining before opening day, approximately 85 percent of the exhibit space at GRAPH EXPO® has been sold, positioning this year’s show to exceed the size of its 2006 predecessor.  But that’s only part of the story. This year’s show will take place September 9-12 in the South Building of the McCormick Place Complex in Chicago, IL.  Complete information is available at: www.graphexpo.com. As of late January, GRAPH EXPO is already tracking ahead in exhibit space sales over last year.  This is a significant trend since the 2006 show was the largest GRAPH EXPO since 2000.   Based on the increasing momentum,