Quebecor World

GREENWICH, CT—Quebecor World announced it has combined its Commercial and Direct Mail groups, creating a gigantic business unit with sales in excess of $1 billion. The combined operations allows Quebecor World to enhance customer service and further facilitate its manufacturing strategy of increased plant specialization and equipment utilization. With the move comes a number of new assignments. They include: Fran Canzano, president of the New England Group (Acme, Universal and Packaging Graphics) will assume additional responsibilities for Northeast Graphics and Infiniti Graphics. The realignment gives the New England Group a broader array of resources and market coverage. Canzano reports directly to Brian Sullivan, president of the

BY ERIK CAGLE Integration is defined as forming into a whole, uniting or incorporating into a larger unit. See: Quebecor World. It is difficult to put the merger of Quebecor Printing and World Color Press into perspective. The M&A shocker that ushered out 1999 has resulted in the largest commercial printing (et al) conglomerate in North America—the largest in the world. When the final receipts for 2000 were tallied, Quebecor World stood at $6.5 billion in sales. Only R.R. Donnelley & Sons, at $5 billion, was remotely close. The difference between the two could form a company that would rank eighth on the Printing

BY MARK SMITH Since the dawn of the digital age in the graphic arts, remote proofing has seemed to be a logical way to more efficiently communicate with print clients. At that point, the Internet was still just the domain of computer geeks and researchers, and terms such as e-production and ASP wouldn't be coined for years. Yet, some prepress pioneers were trying to find effective ways to build electronic bridges to their client sites. The cost of maintaining a digital pipeline to customers had traditionally been a significant barrier to adoption of remote proofing. Given the rate at which high-speed Internet access is

By CHERYL A. ADAMS E-commerce IS changing the name of the book publishing/manufacturing game. Internet customers want their books right away, and they are willing to pay a premium for instant turnaround. In reality—specifically the virtual one—the customer is paying for the convenience of shopping on the Internet. Interestingly, many books sold on the Web aren't usually marked down in price (in fact, book manufacturers admit that most Web products include the "acceptable" retail markup), and buyers pay the shipping charge. But this Internet sale comes with great expectations. The book buyer is willing to pay, but when payment is only a

This is a printing salesperson psychotherapy column. I have to write these every so often because I get bagfuls of letters, gigabytes of e-mails and memory-filling voice mails from distraught and depressed print salespeople. You've got hard jobs, and some of you have stupid bosses and even stupider competitors. These conditions can create considerable anxiety for even the strongest of psyches. The stock market tanked. Mr. Greenspan waited too long to reduce interest rates. The economy has been headed in the wrong direction. The presidential election results in Florida had to be counted, recounted and litigated, and all of the TV coverage sickened

Bowne Reveals Cost ReductionsNEW YORK—Bowne & Co. revealed it will take additional steps in its cost reduction program that are expected to result in reductions in fixed and variable costs of more than $20 million in 2001. The cost-cutting initiatives are further realignments in manufacturing and composing operations, elimination of certain underutilized resources and a roughly 3 percent worldwide staff reduction through attrition, layoffs and reassignments. Bowne estimates that the related restructuring expenses will result in a fourth quarter pre-tax charge to earnings of less than $2 million. The company previously announced $7 to $9 million in annual cost savings, resulting from the combination

If you know the name of a printing company that you think appears on the Printing Impressions 400 list, but you're not sure of its ranking, here's an easy way to locate that firm. Simply find the company in the alphabetical listings on this page. In addition to each company's name and headquarters location, a corresponding number appears indicating that firm's ranking on the Printing Impressions 400. ABS Graphics (Addison, IL) 400 Action Printing (Fond du Lac, WI) 353 Adams Business Forms (Topeka, KS) 96 AdPlex Inc. (Houston, TX) 102 Advance Business Graphics (Mira Loma, CA) 153 AFL Web Printing (Voorhees, NJ)

(Editor's Note: The following was prepared by Compass Capital Partners, the printing industry's most active investment banker. Located in Radnor, PA, and headed by Chairman Harris M. DeWese, it represents only sellers and buyers of printing companies. Since 1996, Compass Capital has completed 47 transactions involving printing revenues exceeding $1.5 billion.) The U.S. printing industry is a bedrock of our economy. Yet, in this day of electronic communication, some are telling us that print-on-paper communication is about to be replaced by alternative media. Compass Capital Partners has been following the printing industry for 12 years. We have made our living from representing buyers and

BY MARK SMITH This year's election proved to be an all too painful reminder that making predictions can be a very risky business. Dating back to the introduction of radio and then TV, a dire future has been predicted for magazine publishing time and time again. All the while, the number of titles and total page counts has continued to rise. So far, the same trend is shaping up for the warnings sounded about the impact of the Internet on printed publications. The Internet actually has had the opposite effect on the market, with Internet-related titles being one of the fastest-growing categories and Websites/companies

Editor's note: Company rankings for the current and previous years are based on figures reported in 2000. Therefore, companies that revised their 1999 revenues may have changed their '99 ranking as compared with the ranking that appeared in last year's Printing Impressions 500. Similarly, the percentage change in sales is calculated on the most recent information provided.2000 Ranking:Previous Year's Ranking:Company:Total Sales (millions):Previous Year's (millions):Change (%):Principal Officer:Employees:Primary Specialties:Web Offset Units:Sheetfed Offset Units:Other:Ownership:Plants:1 1Quebecor World*, Montreal, Canada$6,540.00$6,160.00+6Charles G. Cavell44,000PUB 29%; ADV 20%; CAT 17%; DM 13%3,156985808Public 160*Parent: Quebecor Inc., Montreal, Canada  2000 Ranking:Previous Year's Ranking:Company:Total Sales (millions):Previous Year's (millions):Change (%):Principal Officer:Employees:Primary Specialties:Web Offset Units:Sheetfed Offset Units:Other:Ownership:Plants:2