Kudos to Lisa & Don Bickford at Highlight Printing (Minneapolis). I met them a year ago and enjoyed learning about their efforts on the competive barbeque circuit.

I’ve gotten Highlight’s newsletter every week since then and it’s clear Highlight is in close touch with the community it serves.

I spoke to Milt Vine at Seattle Bindery for an article on peer groups about 10 years ago. Vine’ s newsletter is a must read. It’s concise and informative.

Our own columnist, Steve Johnson, deserves special mention for Copresco’s newsletters. I liked Steve’s articles so much I invited him to contribute to AP. (Full disclosure: I sometimes retell jokes from Copresco’s “Overnite Lite” without attribution.)

Somehow, I don’t think I have ever met Kevin Keane (of International Gallery award fame). He is doing great things on Facebook as well as on the IAPHC website.

Lake County Press just launched a Facebook page. Belated birthday wishes to Ralph Johnson. Plus, if I update my sheeter article I know who to call!

Tukaiz

I think of Tukaiz as a digital/VDP pioneer. They’ve taken the same creative, can-do approach to social media. I like how the marketing topics they bring to my attention. And I’m intrigued by PixyMe, an iPhone application the company developed. “Postcard feature is just too cool,” raves one online review. “Besides customizing your messages, PixyMe enters the eCard app market with another neat customization trick — live generation of text within a photo.

Find Tukaiz on Facebook, too.

Belk Printing

Belk Printing offers a nice mix of useful article links like this one on intereactive direct mail, customer kudos even 61st wedding anniversary greetings to founders Ralph Belk Sr. & Nettie Belk. The company’s website features its Twitter feed, Facebook link and info on QR codes.

Point Imaging

I would give Point Imaging high marks in the content department. Marco P.’s tweets help me keep up with the sales and marketing articles, company news and interesting wide-format projects.

Rickard Bindery

Kevin Ricard provides a steady flow of industry news and bindery tips. Rickard recently launched a Facebook page.

Kendall Press

Keith at Kendall Press keeps followers up to date on Cambridge, MA, news while offering some marketing tips and fun items such at this one.

Concord Litho

Concord Litho is always on top of the latest news and trends. Did you know about the Girls Who Print group? You would if you followed Concord!

How about YOU?

We love hearing from our readers on Twitter! A couple of them recently gave us a shout out on Denise Kapel’s social media article Are you on Facebook or Twitter? Drop us a line, we’d love to follow you. You’ll find handy links to our online activities here.

“Saw the social media article in your latest issue. Great read!”

–Printing Industries of America

“A LOCAL printer in a NATIONAL magazine! We were so thrilled to be a part of this article on social media!”

–Printex Press

“Thanks for your #print partnership efforts. Paper-based communication is still relevant and effective communication!”

–Universal Printing

“Thanks for the RT, we favorited you on our FB page!”

–Meredith Print Advantage

Two years ago, three printing associations launched the Sustainable Green Printing Partnership (SGP). Representatives from PIA, SGIA and FTA recently provided an update on their efforts.

“The objective is to provide a trusted independent third-party sustainability certification program that is available to all print forms,” says Brian Hart, chairman, SGP marketing and communications committee. “SGP ensures that the appropriate metrics and tests are in place, making it simple for print buyers and specifiers to select suppliers that are operating sustainably across the chain.”

SGP has certified 23 printers. These include 11 commercial printers, 7 screen print/wide format specialists and 5 flexo operations.

In 2008, Pictura Graphics became the first SGP-certified printer. Paul Lilienthal, president, says sustainability is an integral business practice for the Minneapolis-based supplier of digital photographic, dye sublimation fabrics, direct digital printing and design services. “It’s a requirement from some major brands,” he says. “We’re seeing it in RFPs and RFQs. It forces us to be more innovative.”

Lilienthal says SGP helps provide the metrics his customers demand. “How are you measuring [sustainability]?” he says. “Brands are going to pull that information forward into their own footprint.”

Andy Graham is the owner and president of Portland Color, a 20-employee grand format printing company based in Portland, Maine. The company offers large-format fabric printing, as well as photographic imaging, direct-to-substrate printing, and, most recently, HP’s latex printing technology.

Portland Color earned its SGP certification in April 2009. Graham says that beyond being the right thing to do, environmental stewardship imposes a manufacturing discipline that ultimately results in a streamlined, efficient operation. It’s also a point of differentiation for Portland Color, a large-format supplier to LL Bean, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Eileen Fisher, Sak’s Fifth Ave. and Bloomingdales.

Portland Color pursued the SGP certification because it provides cross-industry certification, and independent verification. Graham also likes what he describes as SGP’s scientific and comprehensive approach. “SGP is the only program looking at the real stuff–envelope, employees, health and safety—not just the materials or machines you use,” he says.

Stephen Goddard, HP’s environmental leadership program manager, discussed some environmental challenges inherent to large-format/signage production. He provided an overview of HP’s L25500 printer series as well as its water-based latex inks.

http://www.youtube.com/v/Yn9K00_dQbA

At the OnDemand Show, Mohawk Fine Papers (Cohoes, NY) introduced Mohawk Maestro, a software solution for photo product production. With Mohawk Maestro, photo labs and digital print service providers can build a catalog that makes it easy for their clients to create photo books, cards, or calendars.

Not unlike Victor Kiam and the Remington razor (”I liked it so much I bought the company,”) Mohawk acquired LabPrints, the company that (no pun intended) developed the photo specialty workflow solution. What prompted the paper specialist to buy the company Bill Gamble founded in 2002?

“It helps move us to the beginning of the value chain,” explains Bart Robinson, vice president of Mohawk’s Digital Technologies Group. Mohawk, a familiar name to digital printers, claims bragging rights for 50 percent of photo pages produced digitally. With the Maestro offering, the company can create greater awareness for its i-Tone family of papers as well as the Kromekote and Knightkote brands

it acquired from SMART Papers a couple of years ago.

Robinson says that Maestro has three layers:

>Standard — Provides pre-designed product templates so that customers can start creating photo books, cards and calendars right away. “This is for the small digital print provider that want to get into the [photo specialty] game,” says Robinson.

>Custom — Allows digital press owners to add and edit their own product templates, customize the software for their brand, and add their own product photos. Custom also gives digital press owners the ability to add silver halide products to their catalog of services. “The wizards on the back end let you build out any product,” according to Robinson.

>Storefront – Can be added to either the Maestro standard or custom offering and provides customers with the ability to create photo products via the web. “There’s no software for the consumer to download,” says Robinson. “It’s easy for them to order products.”

Digital printers can either pay a one-time charge or opt for a Maestro licensing fee. Mohawk expects most customers to choose the licensing fee. “It’s a low risk way for them to see if [the potential market] is there,” says Robinson. “Even if they sold [only] 100 orders a year, the software [would pay for itself].”

Robinson says digital press owners are well positioned to take advantage of the double digit growth predicted for photo books. “This is a not a fad,” he says. “We’re just getting started.”

In this white paper, Mohawk notes that In 2014, consumers will purchase nearly 47 million photo books and will send 58 million photo greeting cards.

Check out these related stories:

CNet says: “We expect revenues from photo books, cards, and calendars to jump from $940 million in 2008 to $1.5 billion in 2010,” according to InfoTrends analyst David Haueter. “We expect strong growth through end of our forecast period, which runs through 2013.”

PMA finds untapped potential: According to the PMA 2010 U.S. Camera/Camcorder Digital Imaging Survey, less than half of U.S. households have heard or seen anything about photo books, or 41 percent to be exact. Establishing awareness is critical when it comes to new products. By not articulating how consumers benefit from photo books and why they make better alternatives to standard photo prints, the industry is leaving a lot of growth potential untapped. Fifty-nine percent of U.S. households have yet to be introduced to photo books, even though they have been available for several years.

Plus at www.americanprinter.com: Photo book software and PUR binding options.

I am watching Ipex from the sidelines this year. I wish I could blame a volcanic cloud for my absence, but here in Chicago that’s a bit unlikely. (Although I live pretty close to Mt. Prospect, IL, so you never know…) I’ve been attending to some health issues. Glad to say that’s going well.

I’ll spare everyone my witty take on “Oh to be in Birmingham, now that Ipex is here (May 18-25).” But I have been interested to see the latest ink jet news.

Kodak announced its ink jet plans this past December. Just before the show (and on a Friday, no less), CMO Jeff Hayzlett bade farewell to Rochester in favor of television and publishing opportunities in New York City.

HP held its announcements until the show opened. In a nutshell, the company unveiled:

>the HP T200 Color Inkjet Web Press, the company’s first extension to the high-volume inkjet portfolio, a lower-cost and smaller, 20-inch solution for print service providers seeking to adopt full-color inkjet web printing

>the HP Indigo 7500 Digital Press, a press designed “to replace small and midsize offset presses for high-quality color applications such as photo books, marketing collateral and personalized direct mail”

> the entry-level HP Indigo 3550 Digital Press

>four new HP Scitex large-format printers, including the first HP Scitex systems to offer odorless HP Latex Inks and two UV-curable printers

> the HP Designjet Z5200 Printer for copy shops, quick-printing firms and other small commercial print businesses interested in entering the large-format market

> new HP SmartStream workflow solutions and a range of finishing systems from HP and its partners, which improve productivity by up to 20 percent for commercial print jobs

> the HP Color Print Module, available for the first time in the new Pitney Bowes Envelope Messaging System, for high-value direct mail with color text and graphics personalization

I spoke with Christopher Morgan, senior vice president, Graphics Solutions Business, HP, the other week. He stressed that HP is delivering on what it promised at Drupa 2008. “What we told print service providers is this is real. It’s not smoke and mirrors,” said Morgan.

Knowing that the flagship T300 Color Inkjet Web Press is best suited for high volume operations, I asked for clarification on who HP is targeting with with the new HP T200 Color Inkjet Web Press. Morgan said it’s going after an operation trying to add color, one with traditional monochrome, trying to upgrade.

We talked about some of the differences between the larger T300 press (30-inch web) vs the 20.5-inch web on the T200. “The core writing systems are the same, but the paper path is very different,” said Morgan.

I had trouble visualizing how the single engine T200 would look vs. the established twin-engine T300, so I was interested to see a picture of the press. (Some pundits are calling the T200 a “Baby Inkjet” and it is certainly more compact looking.)

Morgan stressed that the T200 wouldn’t cannibalize T300 sales. Pricing has not been established, Morgan could only say there “would be a strong separation between the two lines–there is no overlap between this and the Indigo… the T200 will cost significantly less than the T300.”

While the ink jet offering will likely draw the most interest, one brief line in the press kit about the HP Indigo 7500 Digital Press is worth a second glance. HP says the 7500 is designed “to replace small and midsize offset presses for high-quality color applications such as photo books, marketing collateral and personalized direct mail.” Wow! Typically press vendors on both sides of the offset and digital divide downplay the competition. The gloves are off!

Xerox also had big Ipex inkjet news. Circumstances precluded me from participating in a preshow briefing. Xerox is “highlighting the power” (means: previewing) continuous feed production.

According to Xerox:

Driving the inkjet device are 56 durable piezo-electric, drop-on-demand print heads with more than 49,000 nozzles jetting nearly two billion ink drops per second. Each drop hits the paper with precise pixel placement as the printer produces more than 2,000 color images per minute.

This technology is designed to produce high impact color on low cost papers with close-loop controls to deliver exceptional reliability and performance needed in production printing environments.

Xerox production inkjet technology can print on low cost, untreated papers without any special coatings or bonding agents. This is enabled by high-speed, ground-breaking capabilities that include a sensor to precisely control every inkjet nozzle on the fly, automatically compensating for any jets that misfire.

Stay tuned!

Remember the good old days of this industry? If you do, please let me know when those were!

I am neither as young as I used to be nor as old as I am going to be. But I like to think I know a little bit about the printing industry—after all, I have been writing about it for a dozen or so years.

As I read “Japs-Olson 100 Years of Lasting Impressions 1907 - 2007,” I realized there are massive gaps in my knowledge. In 1983, I graduated from high school. I bought a Smith-Corona electric typewriter with built-in correction capabilities. I thought I was sitting in the catbird seat, but then at Christmas, my father gave me a Sony Walkman knockoff. Wow!

While I was in marveling at the technical marvels of the era, things were pretty grim at Japs-Olson. The Minneapolis printer was mired in an ugly labor dispute. As Jean Williamson explains in “100 Years,” small, nonunionized print shops were drastically undercutting union plants—in some cases their employee costs were 30 percent lower.

Japs-Olson sought union permission to run a press with two rather than the mandated three operators. The union rep agreed in principal with Japs-Olson’s Bob Murphy but refuse to allow the request, citing concerns about setting a precedent that could result in the loss of hundreds of jobs nationwide.

In April 1983, Japs-Olson joined seven other local printers to negotiate a new contract with the leaders of the Graphic and Communications International Union Local 229 and Graphic Arts Local 1B. Representing the employers, attorneys Martin Garden and Steve Miller didn’t pussyfoot around. Garden told the union reps that the decisions concerning staffing and training should be left to management. He noted that labor costs (including cost-of-living adjustments and certain health benefits) made it impossible for union shops to compete with their nonunion counterparts. The union negotiators begged to differ.

“I was frustrated,” recalls Murphy. “It wasn’t [so much] the money issues…it was the work rules. The union wanted to set the rules for how many people were needed to operate a press. We were overstaffed through ‘featherbedding’ by the union. We were losing business—we plain couldn’t compete and we wouldn’t survive.”

Both sides refused to budge. Japs-Olson and the other seven printing companies decided to risk a strike. If they could make it through a year, it opened the door for replacement workers to reject the union. Murphy didn’t think the strike would happen. But on June 22, 1983, workers at the seven shops went out on strike.

Operators at one of the plants walked off the job leaving the presses inked up. “I was determined this wouldn’t happen at Japs-Olson,” says Murphy. “The second shift would stay until 10 p.m. and all the presses would be washed up before anyone left.”

Murphy didn’t notice that the operators left the sheetfed perfectors in mid-position. “Any jogging of the press would do horrendous damage to the perfecting units,” Murphy explained. “Repairing them would easily exceed $100,000. The Heidelberg presses were less than six months old and had cost $3.5 million. We spent most of the night frantically securing things. Years later I asked one of the strikers how they could have sabotaged their own company like that. He said, ‘We considered them to be our presses.’”

Murphy spent the first day of the strike contacting vendors, bankers and clients, training new workers and coping with dissenters as disparate as the soda delivery man who announced he wouldn’t cross the picket line. Japs-Olson had launched an ambitious direct mail operations—these divisions weren’t under union jurisdiction. But as author Williamson notes, many of these employees were the fathers, wives, sons and daughters of the striking press operators: “When one family member was picketing, others would have to cross the line…Most Japs-Olson strikers had no quarrel with company management, but for union members, the strike was mandatory.”

It was a difficult time. Workers crossing the picket line were verbally harassed and strikers slashed the tires and smashed windows on some delivery trucks. Rick Dalbec, then 22 years old and working in the mailing department, previously belonged to the Bricklayers Union. “I was not anti-union,” he recalls. “But I didn’t think the Printers Union should tell Japs-Olson how to run the company. Demanding more manpower than was necessary on a press was just wrong. How could the company be competive. It was an unfair playing field.”

Dalbec had a cement block tossed through his windshield. Strikers threw bent nails off a bridge into the company parking lot. “They painted them white so you couldn’t see them in the snow,” recalls employee Mike Colestock. He had six flat tires during the strike.

Colestock who joined Japs-Olson as a truck driver, was asked to supervise the day shift in the mailing department. Eventually he became the department manager, responsible for 180 employees.

The strike dragged on during the winter of 1983-1984. Strikers picketed around the clock, seven days a week. Finally, in June 1984, Japs-Olson employees held decertification elections.

“I was told only one person voted in favor of the union,” Murphy said. The story was the same at the other seven area printers.

Despite the chaotic external environment, Japs-Olson had a decent year in 1984. Mid-Continent, a direct mail client, remained in the fold. With the encouragement of 3M, Japs-Olson developed Fragrance Burst utilizing 3M’s Scratch ‘n Sniff Technology. Japs-Olson went on to print the first four-color Post-its for 3M.

In 1985, on the anniversary of the decertification vote, Bob Murphy personally thanked more than 100 employees who had worked through the strike. Each received an envelope containing $1,000 in cash.

AMERICAN PRINTER announces Marketing Services program for commercial printers

In August 2009, Penton Media’s (parent company of AMERICAN PRINTER) research department conducted a study of the commercial printing industry. The study generated 551 responses from printing industry executives. Research objectives included guaging participants’ awareness of virtual trade shows, discovering subjects of interest for online education, identifying trade show attendance intentions and industry information preferences for content and product purchases.

Now, before reading any further, printing industry suppliers and printers themselves should know that over the past 12 months this same Penton Media research department conducted studies for Microsoft, TD Ameritrade, IBM, UBS and SAP to help them gather market intelligence. Although these ‘blue-chip” firms have significant research resources, they still relied on the “vertical expertise” Penton offered in their markets of interest.

Further, the study has a margin of error of +- 5% at a statistical confidence level of 95%. This means that if the study were conducted again over the same sample the results would be the same 95% of the time. I mention this statistic because I know the suppliers serving the commercial printing industry are a skeptical bunch. So, if you doubt the findings, and you might because they are disturbing, we will give you the questions and you can go out and do it yourself and get the same results.

The research results revealed that commercial printer executives ranked supplier salespeople (60%) as the No. One preferred source of product information. The second most preferred source of product information was from advertisements in trade publications at 41%. Ranked third was trade show attendance at 38%. Surprised that print advertisements scored so high? Remember, if you think the data is self-serving, we invite you to execute the same study yourself.

Now, this is where things get interesting. Fifty-three (53%) of printing executives responded that they meet with 2 or fewer sales reps per month and 68% said they meet with 3 or fewer reps per month. As past NPES research shows, executive management personnel in printing firms are the ones making key buying decisions. So, it is worth considering the odds of your message being delivered by your sales representatives to the correct executives when there are hundreds of industry suppliers out there vying for the same meetings.

E-mail advertising from suppliers ranked seventh and was cited as the preferred source of supplier information by 9% of printer executives. This score is not surprising as everybody seems to be buried in e-mail messages from all kinds of sources. Data measuring executive trade show attendance roughly parallels actual attendance figures released by GASC.

Suppliers have to be wondering how to more effectively communicate their unique benefits to the commercial printing executives.

So what do industry suppliers do next?

One option in communicating with your printer customers and prospects is to continue doing the same things that you are doing (or not doing) now and take your chances. If you choose this route, you might want to study up on some terms in the new marketing world like content marketing, social media, mobile marketing/messaging, search engine optimization, 2D barcodes, viral marketing, prospect engagement, lead nurturing and video messaging.

A second option is to understand and embrace the fact that we live in an integrated marketing world. Your printer customers are getting product information from many different sources, as our research clearly shows. It is up to the senior managers of printing industry suppliers to decide whether or not they want their company messages positioned where printers are absorbing information.

Then, you have the ability to take action. Facts are, most of the printing industry supplier marketing people have left the industry, voluntarily or involuntarily, along with their advertising agencies, except for a couple fine agency firms with many years of printing industry knowledge like Blair and NAK.

Beginning in June, Penton Custom Solutions (PCS) will expand its portfolio of marketing services further into the printing industry to provide needed marketing expertise. To give you an idea of the capabilities of Penton Custom Solutions, PCS is producing AMERICAN PRINTER TV. PCS has created microsites for Kraft and Texas Instruments and manages all content on those sites. PCS will manage a turn-key virtual trade show for Microsoft, create and manage mobile applications (go to the app store and download FMI2010 for an example) and continue leveraging our research department to provide client intelligence to produce custom publications and newsletters (TD Ameritrade). PCS will execute 350 webinars this year and 15 virtual trade shows which will produce tens of thousands of leads for their sponsors.

Through AMERICAN PRINTER, printing industry suppliers will be able to immediately tap into our commercial printing industry “vertical” expertise in all of the new marketing areas I mentioned above. And, you can do all of this while leveraging the trust, reach and readership of the good old printed pages of AMERICAN PRINTER magazine. In a short period of time, it will become clear which industry suppliers have decided to utilize the marketing firepower PCS will generate in executing their marketing and lead generation programs. For more information on PCS, go to Penton.com and click on the Custom Solutions tab. Or contact Joel Frazier at Joel.Frazier@penton.com.

For Printers

Much has been published by industry consultants on how printers have to transform themselves into Marketing Service Providers. Has anyone defined the elements of “marketing services” and provided a way for printers to offer these services? Penton and AMERICAN PRINTER have done this for you.

Penton data, which includes primary and secondary research (note that Penton owns the Chief Marketer franchise), shows that many marketing dollars that your customers used to spend on printed communication are now being spent in the following areas:

>Search Engine Optimization

>E-Mail Marketing (Penton publishes over 200 e-newsletters and executes hundreds of e-blasts)

>Website Design and Development (Penton has built and manages over 150 websites)

>Content marketing

>Metrics/Analytics/ROI measurement

>Social Media Marketing

>Video/Online TV

>Mobile Messaging

>2D Barcodes

>Lead Generation/Lead Nurturing (Penton can provide lists in any industry at the most affordable rates in the business through our affiliation with major list supplier companies)

Add in all of the services mentioned above for industry suppliers.

Starting in July, printers can recapture lost print revenue by offering the above listed services to their clients via AMERICAN PRINTER and Penton Custom Solutions. In other words, AMERICAN PRINTER can get you back in the game by enabling you to position your firm as a true marketing service provider.

In about a month, full details will be released on the Marketing Service Provider Program, including a strategic partner.

I look forward to working with you on these game-changing programs.

—Scott Bieda

Publisher, AMERICAN PRINTER

VP, Penton Custom Solutions

I realize baseball season is just getting under way but I live in Chicago. I’m not getting my hopes up. In fairness, the Sox on the south side of town did win the World Series in 2005. But unless MLB takes a cue from Little League and adapts the Slaughter Rule, it looks like a long season. On the north side, our hapless Cubs won their last pennant during the Roosevelt (Theodore) administration. (’Nuff said.)

On to football. As Dennis Green reminded us, “The Bears are who we thought they were.” That was pretty much true of the Bears teams I recall from my childhood, too. So I followed some other NFL teams.

As a kid I read “Instant Replay: The Green Bay Diary of Jerry Kramer.” Jerry Kramer played left guard, generally an anonymous position. Quarterbacks, running backs, defensive backs safeties and even the referees enjoy more name recognition than the average offesive lineman. Kramer (with some help from co-author Dick Schaap) provided an account of the Packers 1966-67 season. Hollywood couldn’t have scripted a better ending: as time ran down, Kramer threw the block that carried the Packers to victory over the Cowboys in the Ice Bowl of 1967. Instant replay had just been invented—Kramer’s block was show over and over again. I didn’t know as much about the Vikings, but I did see a lot of Fran Tarkenton’s highlights.

I was intrigued to learn of a case study in viral marketing: the Resco Packer-Viking Rivalry in the Workplace Video.

“We were overwhelmed with the response we received on our first effort,” reports John Knutson, president. “It’s a compelling story—maybe this type of marketing could help others who are not only looking to grow their business but also to have some fun with their employees. Our efforts have added to our bottom line with several clients who called us specifically after seeing the video.”

Resco originally intended to produce a video holiday card. But the November 1, 2009 Packer-Viking game was too good to pass up. Preparations began on October 20. One day later, the script was finalized and a shooting schedule was drafted. Using a Canon Vixia 30, Jeff Rybacki, web director, and Todd Giefer, art director filmed the video on October 22. A rough draft was ready to go by Friday, October 23. After a few more tweaks, the video was uploaded on Monday, October 26. That first day, the Resco rivalry video drew 1,861 views. By mid-January, the video tallied 30,463 hits.

Resco reports:

>a 274% increase in traffic to the company website

>23,870 visitors to its YouTube page: www.youtube.com

/rescocompany

>Hundreds of e-mails from clients and friends.

Local CBS, NBC and Fox affiliates picked up the story. MSNBC put the video on its site as its “Sports Video of the Day.” While the nationwide publicity was exciting, Knutson says it didn’t compare to what was going on in Hudson, WI. The video was a real morale booster. “The employees thought it was fun to produce the video,” says Knutson. “They had even more fun dealing with the media and [resultant notoriety]. We received many e-mails and YouTube comments [to the effect]: ‘The video was awesome, you guys know how to have fun, I wish I worked for a company like that.’”

I wrote about QR codes in the April issue of AMERICAN PRINTER. After reading “Hold the phone for QR codes,” Xitron’s Bill Owens, thanked me for saluting his home state of Arkansas. He added:Following your directions, I downloaded a QR code app to my Blackberry, snapped a picture of the QR code from page 6 and then followed it to your blog!”

I was kind of hoping Bill’s missive would conclude at this point. But it did not: “While it took me to the blog, I did notice that the AMERICAN PRINTER website did not provide a mobile version of the site . I guess you thought we would all be using iPads with those larger screens when reading something as critical as your blog.”

I must commend Bill for his uncanny intuition!

Reader Blase Ciabaton also weighed in: “Last year, I created a direct mail blog targeting nonprofits, PR and marketing professionals and small businesses. Your editorial inspired my most recent post on that topic. Thanks for keeping a positive face on the printing industry.”

Roger R. Belanger, director, GossRSVP, wasn’t responding to my piece directly, but I thought he raised some interesting QR code point issues.

“Before 2D codes can become ubiquitous in print, three items need to be addressed,” maintains Belanger. “Publication tools that integrate and track quick response codes seamlessly, the size of the code and the cell phone devices that interact with them.”

The Goss exec urges printers “to join us in making it known to cell phone manufactures that current cell phone technology is

inferior for scanning small high density 2d codes. In addition, consumer products to connect the physical world & print are needed which give the consumer a great experience and work nearly 100% of the time.”

Belanger is encouraging print industry expert “to write about such needs, start using text and 2d codes, and start demanding that your print creation software providers integrate text and 2d codes as a fore thought in publishing, editorial and ad content creation tools. Text and 2D codes can automatically link any print content via an open API standard to any short code, internet, or wireless connectivity.”

Belanger outlines more details here.

Few but vital options viable to smaller printers who mail

By Clint Bolte

This past April, the 235-year old United States Postal Service presented its future vision to the 4,000 mail aficionados gathered in Nashville’s Opryland for its annual National Postal Forum. This vision, entitled “Ensuring a Viable Postal Service for America; An Action Plan for the Future,” has been reported in the national press.

This is the second of a two-part report.

More productivity improvements require legislative approval

Of the 27,000 post offices through out the nation, 20,000 are losing money. If these could be shut down and the service integrated into big box retailers, many billions could be saved. If this were allowed, service could actually be improved as several postal retail outlets could be set up in the same community.

The post office has huge excess capacity and rigid work rules around the fulltime work force. While the USPS would prefer a higher proportion of part time employees to give them more flexibility in matching hours needed to volume demand, more part timers will not save much money because the union contracts give these part timers full medical and retirement benefits.

The USPS would like another class of employee that is simply paid market rates and benefits. They would agree to grandfather the existing union labor since 50% or 300,000 of them are eligible for retirement in the next decade.

Nearly three dozen other practical, workable, proven (in the nonunion, private sector) ideas were discussed at length during the full year of regional meetings leading up to the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006. While the Unions fought each of them tooth and nail, it was Federal legislators who disallowed any whisper of hope. And as you recall the economy was pumping along quite strongly at mid-decade.

New products & innovative incentive pricing

Newspaper accounts have portrayed Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) as insensitive to the Post Master General’s annual pleas for fiscal relief from the $5.5 billion annual Retiree Health Benefit payments. She feels that the management team should be putting that energy into creating new products and innovative incentive pricing programs that will increase mail volume.

Several such initiatives were announced at the National Postal Forum. For example, Hallmark cards announced a program by which one ounce first class postage will be paid by Hallmark beginning this year on their new greeting cards. A barcode and written explanation will be preprinted in the upper right hand corner of each envelope to that effect. The cards will, of course, be increased in price to reflect this additional cost. It will be interesting to see if this convenience will result in increasing Hallmark’s market share on these postage-paid greeting cards.

Wal-Mart negotiated an exclusive agreement with USPS to ship all of their telephone pharmacy orders “free” by priority mail to the respective consumer. There is obviously adequate margin in prescription drugs to absorb shipping costs. Wal-Mart has a reputation throughout its history of driving down each of their suppliers’ prices. Wal-Mart surely put FedEx, UPS, and USPS up against one another to obtain the cheapest distribution price possible. USPS CFO Joe Corbett remarked that he sits on the seven person pricing committee and is personally confident that this Wal-Mart contract will be profitable for the USPS.

The second summer seasonal pricing discount has been approved for standard mail projects which accumulative volumes exceed the July-September volumes of last year for larger retail mailers.

“Exigent” rate increases over the price cap

For a number of market dominant products the USPS price is well below that offered by competition. The USPS would like regulatory relief to impose a one-time price hike (in excess of the legal inflationary cap) to recover some of this lost opportunity margin value. This is just about the only USPS issue, which the postal unions will endorse to support management. The two most obvious “market dominant products” are periodicals and standard flats like catalogs. Since the postal costs for periodicals typically exceeds the total printing costs for all periodicals whose run length exceeds 15,000, such a move could force additional bankruptcies or shutting down of marginally profitable titles.

It is truly amazing the extraordinarily effective world class mailing service, which the United States enjoys. Particularly when the elected Federal legislature, monopolistic unions, and huge mailers with deep pockets funding PACs have effectively hog-tied the USPS management.

Article prepared by C. Clint Bolte, C. Clint Bolte & Associates, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. For additional information please call (717) 263-5768 or e-mail cbolte3@comcast.net.