NAPL

By Erik Cagle Say what you want about 2002, but very shortly you'll be able to say these two magic words: it's over. By nature, printers are optimists. So are trade magazine journalists. Thus, coming off a dreadful 2001, horribly punctuated by a reeling economy and the September 11 attacks, most industry people were forecasting a much-improved 2002. No one was ready to pop the champagne cork, but a marked improvement was in the offering, with a strong economic rebound catapulting revenues heading into 2003. Better days, like Godot, never arrived. To say 2003 cannot be any worse than 2002 is tantamount to whistling

The Printing Industries of America and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) have entered into an agreement to establish a collaborative relationship to develop printing industry-wide voluntary guidelines to reduce injuries. The Graphic Arts Employers, a committee of PIA that serves unionized printers, has committed $20,000 in resources to begin the project. The alliance agreement will stress outreach and communications with the industry, promote a national dialogue on workplace safety and health, and improve training and education on ergonomics issues. EU Services, Rockville, MD, recently promoted two members of its customer service department to senior account managers. Lisa Fish has been an account manager

PITTSBURGH—Do film-based plates require fewer remakes than digital plates? A survey of 29 companies conducted by the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (GATF) and the National Association for Printing Leadership (NAPL) produced some interesting results. Participants were asked to choose from a list of likely causes of plate remakes and record them for 30 consecutive days. In all, data was recorded on roughly 55,100 plates (42,600 digital and 12,500 film-based). The leading remake causes for film-based plates were plate wear (17.7 percent), voids (8.1), register (6.6), plates not stored (6.2) and changed press (5.5). For digital plates, the top causes were plates damaged on-press (9.1

Efforts Undertaken to Stimulate Digital Printing Business CHICAGO—Digital printing equipment might as well carry a warning label—"Customer education required!"—given how often that need is cited as the reason for the slower than expected development of the market segment. Several new programs recently have been introduced by industry groups and companies to try to fill the void. "Designing4Digital" is a new customer education program launched at Graph Expo last month by the Digital Printing Council (DPC) of Printing Industries of America (PIA). This multimedia "outreach toolkit" reportedly is designed to help printers educate their customers about the benefits and techniques of digital printing, thereby

PARAMUS, NJ—Two of the leading educational associations in the commercial printing industry have teamed up to add more value for their respective memberships. The National Association for Printing Leadership (NAPL) and the Research & Engineering Council of the Graphic Arts Industry (R&E Council) have agreed to a merger. The latter is being renamed the R&E Council of the NAPL, with all members of the R&E Council and their companies enrolled as full corporate members of NAPL. The R&E Council of the NAPL will be managed from the NAPL headquarters located here. R&E Council Managing Director Ron Mihills will join NAPL as the council's

You remember that the Feds released my print buyer and banker hostages. They found my secret camp when a snitch revealed our whereabouts. It was probably that weasel laundry truck driver. I was holding the hostages until the printing industry raised prices by 25 percent. So much for that plan. I'll have to try something else. I'm still being held by the Feds at a brand new Executive Detention Center. It was built for all the Enron, WorldCom and Adelphia Cable executives who will soon be my cell, er, suite mates. This place is the ultimate white-collar prison. The Feds have a management contract with

David Carr is now vice president of the Printing Industries Association, serving Northern Kentucky and Ohio (PIANKO). Carr was recently brought on board to head up the association's efforts to grow membership and to serve and assist existing members. Carr's sales experience spans more than 20 years and his experience in the graphic communications and printing industry goes back 16 years, ranging from prepress to production and post-production. Robert Romero, operations manager at Paragon Printing & Mailing in Austin, TX, has been named this year's "greatest" in sheetfed offset press operations and problem solving by the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (GATF). Romero won the GATF

Back in the mid-1900s, managers had piecework, incentive pay, layoffs, short-hour call-backs and employment schemes reminiscent of the longshoreman's daily "shape-up" they used. There are still remnants of those practices. But, in printing? No way. Well, perhaps in emerging economies in Africa, Asia or Indonesia. Pre-1960, when variants of those employment practices were still around in our industry, by stretching a tad, you could call direct labor a job-variable cost. When a press was waiting for plates, you told the crew to "clock out" and go home. Anybody tried that lately? In the last 30 years? In the '60s we were still listening

The Queen's Award for the overseas sales of book printing presses was presented to Timsons Ltd. at a ceremony at the company's UK headquarters recently. It was attended by all of the company's employees and almost 100 guests. After the reading of the citation, the Lord Lieutenant of Northamptonshire, Lady Juliet Townsend, presented a scroll to Timsons' Managing Director Peter Brown and a commemorative engraved rose bowl to Jane Brown, director and granddaughter of the company founder. Polly USA, previously the independent distributor with the exclusive right to market Polly sheetfed offset presses in the United States and Canada, has been acquired by the

Chicago Press has named Paul Monsen COO. He will continue to serve as the company's vice president of sales, as well. Monsen joined the 75-year-old Chicago-based firm in 1999 and became an officer in 2000. Anthony Parker has been appointed COO of Smyth Companies, Bedford, VA. Parker began his career with Piedmont Label in 1990. He joined Smyth in 1998 after Smyth acquired Piedmont Label. Naperville, IL-based Solar Communications has added two high-level development roles. John Barrett and John Waterhouse have both accepted positions as vice president, business development. Nies/Artcraft Printing, of Saint Louis, has added Rick Blanner to its sales team. Also,