Monthly Archives: August 2011

Supplementary benefits

By , Friday, 26 August 2011, Be the first to comment

The bank holiday weekend is almost upon us. In response to what
appears to be the new normal in summer weather trends, my thoughts are turning
to woolly jumpers, thermal socks, and perhaps a scarf and hat.

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Harrods inspires with powerful print format

By , Wednesday, 24 August 2011, 6 Comments

Something arrived in the post at PrintWeek Towers
today that provided a fresh appreciation of one of print media’s unique selling
points.

The package came from Harrods, and included its
customer magazine (172pp of glossy, thick-papered loveliness) along with a copy
of ‘Harrods Times’ a 44pp A3 format faux newspaper product, complete with
silver foiled masthead.

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Magazines: rude health versus emergency room

By , Tuesday, 23 August 2011, Be the first to comment

Magazines have been all over the news of late, at least
in media land.

The latest ABC figures for consumer magazines released at
the end of last week are something of a mixed bag. Overall, circulation nudged
up by 0.1% – growth of any kind is surely something to be celebrated given the
economic vibe during the first half of the year and PPA boss Barry McIlheney duly did just that, pointing out that the
figures underline the unique ability of magazines to create a real emotional
connection with audiences “through their trusted and engaging content.” I’ll
second that.

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Google makes catalogue move. Or catalogs.

By , Thursday, 18 August 2011, Be the first to comment

Coming soon to a tablet/smartphone* near you -
Google Catalogs.

As is immediately obvious from the above spelling,
this is currently a stateside only thing (or at least, it appears to be from
the information I’ve been able to glean thus far).

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Perfect binding storm

By , Wednesday, 17 August 2011, 1 Comment

Finishing is on my mind at the moment, not least
because here at PrintWeek Towers we’ve been beavering away on our Finishing
Report, which will be published with this week’s issue.

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Bringing in new profits

By , Tuesday, 16 August 2011, Be the first to comment

It was encouraging to see Communisis’ profits moving in
the right direction in the group’s recently-announced interim results.

A 27% jump in operating profits is no mean feat in
anyone’s book, the caveat being that a chunk of this improvement, some �500,000,
came from cutting corporate costs. As demonstrated by fellow plc St Ives in an
earlier era, there’s only so far you can go when boosting profits the
cost-cutting way.

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And now for the good news

By , Wednesday, 10 August 2011, Be the first to comment

The Lateral Group story is proof that something positive can emerge from wreckage created by another person.

Howitt was a perfectly good business that was brought down by the ambitions of its then-chief executive to set up a greenfield gravure facility. I have a sudden urge to find the picture I took of a horse grazing on the proposed site of said facility, the horse developed something of a cult following during the saga. It should have had its own fan club. I could have printed t-shirts, posters, bumper stickers…

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The go-to guys for short-grain

By , Monday, 8 August 2011, Be the first to comment

My Help Line files will need to be updated following
York Mailing’s acquisition of Pindar’s web offset business.

Who prints short-grain? Is one of those questions that
pops up fairly regularly. The 40pp short-grain Lithoman III included with the
acquired Pindar facilities has reinforced York’s position as the dominant
provider of short-grain web offset printing in the country. It’s existing facilities include 48pp and 32pp equivalents.

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We all have a choice about who we deal with, and how

By , Thursday, 4 August 2011, Be the first to comment

A user-generated
thread on the PrintWeek forums gave me pause for thought about the things that
printing companies most often bend my ear about when it comes to their dealings
with print managers.

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Printing: advanced making stuff

By , Tuesday, 2 August 2011, Be the first to comment

At the BPIF AGM last month, outgoing president Rupert
Middleton talked about the need for printing to be recognised as the sort of ‘advanced
manufacturing’ sector that government departments get excited about and are
actively interested in.

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