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Sat, 11 Oct 2008 08:17:07 GMT

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re: A textbook case

Steven Kiernan — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 10:14:02 GMT

So, the music and film industry are losing money hand over fist to peer-to-peer file-sharing. Print industry: shed a tear for these struggling sectors, and save a charitable thought for those poor record label bosses and studio execs being forced onto the breadline. All those young stars and starlets having to do reality TV or sell the rights to their delivery room photos to OK! just to cover the repayments on their Humvees – makes you think those families in Frome, Beckton, Fife, Walthamstow et al had it easy.

But there’s always a silver lining, even if has been laced with arsenic. Just like the Quebecor bad-news boom in late 2007 and early 2008, the spate of recent closures in UK print has amounted to a bumper month for printweek.com – as any Daily Mail journalist would tell you, there’s nothing like stories on the decline of British industry, family values, immigration policy etc, to whet the nation’s media appetite.

On the file-sharing issue, it has apparently reached cataclysmic proportions and the government is set to stop talking and actually act – it has signed up the nation’s six biggest service providers (BT, Virgin Media, Orange, Tiscali, BSkyB and Carphone Warehouse) to warn and then potentially blacklist repeat download offenders.

The upside? The providers will be sending out throusands of threatening letters to discourage file sharers. Perhaps the increased print volumes added by these new mailshots won’t be enough to prop up British print to any great length, but it’s something. And it’s another case of the internet driving more production, rather than that old chestnut ‘online will be the death of print’.

As for sending scary warning letters, the stick is has its benefits. But if they want to throw a bit of carrot into the bargain, I wonder if anyone’s talked to iTunes about transpromo?

Climbing the walls

Press Minding - All the news that’s fit for print — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 11:46:15 GMT

Here's an interesting research note - Nanomarkets predicts revenues from what what it calls "building

Printing press for solar cells

Electro-ramblings — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:14:05 GMT

Nanosolar has created a press capable of printing up to 1GW's worth of cell structures a year, it says.

re: The Sky ain't the limit

William Mitting — Thu, 22 May 2008 13:07:13 GMT

To my mind the best use of personalisation is the Tesco Clubcard statement. A massive, I think 14m +, quarterly mailing including vouchers with money off for the main items that particular customer buys. Its printed up at Polestar Nottingham and contains a frighteningly large number of combinations.

re: The eye of the storm

David Dilling — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:37:13 GMT

Firstly, I like your title for this blog!

When you see charts like this in the states;

graphicstart.com/viewarticle.php

... you see that this is a serious down-turn for the printed newspaper. It is similar in the UK;

"Paper readership dips 5m in 15 years"

www.guardian.co.uk/.../pressandpublishing

However, it is not the end of the printed newspaper. Revenues are/will increase again when focusing more online and cross branding the two products, print and Internet to feed each other. Supplements and the likes will continue to grow and print plants- modern ones at that, will be still needed.

re: There's a bug in my salad days

colin gillman www.ukdp.org — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 14:30:27 GMT

Tell me about it. Why only today I found that I had sent myself a filthy spam email and knew nothing about it. We love print, but online is useful as a working tool. It's just not secure enough to reliably trust.

re: Kindle to put out the flames of e-readers?

Dylan Mills — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 16:27:18 GMT

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos told listeners of the company’s fourth quarter earnings call that retailer was having trouble keeping up with the demand for the Kindle:

"The Kindle, in terms of demand, is outpacing our expectations,” Bezos said. “It is also, on the manufacturing side, causing us to scramble. We’re working very hard to increase the number of units that we can build and supply per week, so that we can get back—our goal is to get into a situation as quickly as we can where when you order a Kindle, we ship it immediately… We are super-excited by the very strong demand.”

Season Greeting Card

Season Greeting Card — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 15:58:30 GMT

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re: Cross-media competition gets cross

Matthew Parker — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 13:19:53 GMT

Sadly, I'm not convinced that the trend to local will benefit the smaller printer. I see two reasons for this: firstly, much of the push to more targetted markets will be driven by knowledge of the consumer, not by postcode; secondly, the move to more local (or niche) content is being steered by very large companies who will use single supplier solutions,not a multitude of smaller suppliers.

The opportunities for the small commercial printers lie in targetting local clients who value supporting their local industry, having a lower carbon footprint and potentially having more face-to-face contact. And also in developing unique selling points over their competition.

Matthew Parker

www.printandprocurement.com

re: He thinks it's all over

will pollard — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 12:04:25 GMT

My print version of Printweek has arrived. Lawrence Wallis writes on drupa-

"the convergance of media within a publishing universe will surface as a major theme"

You know what? maybe it already has. In an Apple strategy document some time ago possibly. Hey, this is only a website, i expect more detail over the coming months.

Of course there would be nothing wrong with a Wallis blog as well as the print version.

Season Greetings Card

Season Greetings Card — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 04:18:25 GMT

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re: He thinks it's all over

will pollard — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 14:00:46 GMT

I think steve Jobs may be influenced by the interest in PDF as an iTune. As I can follow it on iTunes U it is possible to load a document, that is text and soforth as we know it, but few people do this. Sound and video, that's it mostly. Only USA universities so far, bit of a swizz.

By the way, why is it so hard to find Lawrence Wallis on this site? He recently was pretty sensible about the web and the role of print. But can only find this

www.printweek.com/.../Vices-virtues-internet

more convergance required surely?

re: Crystal ball gazing

Lucy Edwards — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 15:37:54 GMT

1. What do you believe will be greatest opportunities for printers to grow their businesses in 2008?

From an internal point of view, printers should aim for leaner and more efficient organisations. Investment in front-end technology and Six Sigma improvements will speed up manual processes and reduce wastage. In addition, printers can create new opportunities by strengthening their green credentials and CSR policies.

Externally, price will always be a driver if printers are to remain competitive. However, printers can add value by identifying and capitalising on opportunities to meet clients’ full communication needs – including digital, litho, targeting and campaign results analysis.

2. What will be the greatest threat to your sector for 2008?

Printers not investing enough in new technologies and moving their organisations forward. By not keeping up with the times, printers will fail to run cost-effective operations and start losing out to other media.

New Media should not be seen as a threat, but rather printers should work with other suppliers to deliver the integrated communication campaigns that brands now seek.

3. How can the industry raise its profile next year?

Howard Hunt sits within the Direct Marketing and Print industries and both need to raise their profile. The Direct Marketing industry needs to rid itself of the ‘junk mail’ image. That means more focus on customer data; ensuring it is up to date, clean and used correctly to deliver better targeted campaigns. In addition, the industry needs to get the message across that it is green by emphasising the use of sustainable materials.

The Print industry provides communications with customers and prospects which is equally valued and appreciated. In addition to communicating its green credentials, the industry would be wise to point out its contribution to UK industry as a major employer.

5. What print sectors do you believe will experience the greatest innovation next year?

It is more about attitude than sector. The printers that take investment seriously, that embrace the opportunities that exist alongside all other media, and that look forward to the future will be the ones to drive and experience innovation.

6. What should the print industry do for the print industry when it gets back to work after the holidays?

The BPIF has a key role to play in this. It should continue raising the industry’s profile and work towards making the entire print industry ethically sound.

7. If the Government stepped in and did one thing to help the industry, what would you hope that would be?

The Government should aim to better understand our industry and the part we play in the economy and in particular British manufacturing. It should take a more considered approach to the ‘opt in’ debate relating to direct mail and door drops.

8. What will you do differently in 2008?

We started implementing our three-year vision in 2006, so in 2008 we will continue our investment in new technologies, staff training, CSR policies, and innovation. All of which is aimed at providing our clients with services that will make a difference to their bottom line.

Lucy Edwards at Howard Hunt Group

www.howardhuntgroup.com

re: Crystal ball gazing

Matthew Parker — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:30:11 GMT

1. What do you believe will be greatest opportunities for printers to grow their businesses in 2008?

- print has been commoditised so the greatest opportunities are for printers to find value added services that they can add to their basic offering.

2. What will be the greatest threat to your sector for 2008?

- lack of vision

3. How can the industry raise its profile next year?

- by stopping thinking about print and starting thinking about solutions

4. What do you believe is the most under-recognised aspect in printing that is likely to become more important in 2008?

- I hope people will stop thinking about price and start thinking about cost

5. What print sectors do you believe will experience the greatest innovation next year?

- print management (again) followed by the digital sector. These sectors expand because they think differently.

6. What should the print industry do for the print industry when it gets back to work after the holidays?

- think about what its customers want

7. If the Government stepped in and did one thing to help the industry, what would you hope that would be?

- encourage print customers to grow so that they will need the print industry's services more

8. What will you do differently in 2008?

- let more companies know what Print & Procurement can achieve for them!

- sell smarter!

- learn to bake better bread!

Matthew Parker