Last week we put out a video and letter regarding Obama’s Executive Order to cut waste in the government. While we agree whole heartidly that cutting wastful spending is a necessity, we didn’t appreciate his mischaracterization of print in his address. You can view his video here to get an idea of what we’re talking about.  Here is our video response:   Agree? Disagree? We’d love to hear in the...

Printing Industries of America is proud to be a part of the Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service. This coalitions consists of business mailing associations and companies – including magazines, newspapers, advertisers and catalogers, financial services, telecommunications,  insurance and other statement mailers, high-tech businesses, small businesses of every kind – and their suppliers – paper, printing, technology, envelope manufacturing, mail services and other companies, who understand the essential role played by the U.S. Postal Service and want to see it sustained, reformed and strengthened to meet the demands of the future. The U.S. Postal Service yesterday announced it is suspending its employer contributions to the Federal Employees’ Retirement System (FERS) as a way to conserve cash needed for salaries and mail delivery.  The move comes as the Postal Service estimates it could run out of cash as soon as this October, which would result in a national shutdown of the mail. “The U.S. Postal Service is hanging by a thread, and 8 million private sector jobs along with it,” said Art Sackler, coordinator of the Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service, a group representing the private sector mailing industry.  “This underscores the need for Congress to make quick, bold and substantive reforms to the Postal Service.” The future of the Postal Service is vitally important to the U.S. mailing industry, which supports 8 million private sector jobs.  In 2009, the mailing industry generated $1.1 trillion in economic activity, representing over 7 percent of our national GDP. While the Postal Service is self-sustaining, relying on user fees, i.e., postage, to support itself; it is encumbered with an outdated operating structure, while being saddled with expensive, mandated over-payments into government retiree funds.  To avoid a costly postal bailout, it is critical that Congress enact meaningful reforms to the Postal Service.  This must include short-term steps to maintain its solvency such as restoring fairness to its retiree obligations.  It must also include longer term steps to free USPS to streamline its system, collectively bargain more effectively, and innovate expansively while preserving service to all Americans. “There is still time to reform the Postal Service in a way that preserves private sector jobs and costs taxpayers nothing, but that time is rapidly coming to a close,” said...

  The web2awards is the premier–and only–annual award competition that names the best websites in the print/marketing service provider industry. Why should you enter the 2011 web2awards? Here are the top 10 reasons: You will receive a professional analysis and critique of your website. You will receive a private report showing how your site compared to others in the competition. Because the categories are grouped by company size, businesses of all sizes have a good opportunity of winning. Multiple categories give your company a chance to win more than one award. A submission for a customer’s Web-to-print portal site solidifies your value as their partner. All contenders get great exposure through the People’s Choice Award and the official web2awards booklet, which features all participants. Winners get even more exposure with inclusion in Printing Industries of America’s press releases and promotional campaign. If you win a web2award, you can publicize it yourself to further impress your customers, your competitors, and your staff. Winners get to receive their award during our awards ceremony on the floor at GRAPH EXPO 2011. Winners receive the beautiful crystal web2award statue and can proudly display it in their facility. So there you have it. The deadline to enter is this Friday, June 10. If you have any questions about the contest leave a comment on this post. We look forward to seeing your...

Yesterday we announced our newest conference–the Integrated Print Forum. It’s a new type of conference that focuses on integrating interactive, dynamic media to print.  In the vein of this conference, we’ll be employing dynamic media to communicate with our audience. To make this a success we want you to particpate and there are a number of ways for that to happen. Visit Formspringand leave us a question about the conference. It’s a simple way for you ask questions and for us to answer them. We’ll be answering those questions on our Integrated Print Forum blog. Speaking of which… Visit the Integrated Print Forum blog for updates that include audio, video and news on the conference as it develops. There are also discussions forum you can be a part of! You can like the Facebook page, where we’ll be having a Q&A and we’ll upload photos/videos that will pop up in your Facebook feed. Talk about convenience! Reserve your seat on our Eventbrite page. we’ll hold a seat for you for a brief amount of time and you’ll also be able to see who else is coming to the Integrated Print Forum! And, of course, you can tweet to us on Twitter – @printind. We look forward to interacting with...

The Following is a special guest post from Stuart Margolis CPA, MT. The answer:  Well-managed companies can react to dips in sales appropriately and ultimately sustain profitability. Whether we have historically managed our companies well or not, all of us are looking for creative ways to stay in the black for 2011.  We watch our ratios since solutions might be found in our own strategic tactics.  Understanding the value and use of ratios enables managers to gain a better understanding of the behavior of costs.  They can be good indicators of possible manufacturing strategies that can lead to a competitive advantage and help maximize profits. An example can be seen in the relationship between sales and profits.  Here is a scenario to demonstrate the effect of a decrease in sales, its impact on variable costs, and its impact on contributions to cover fixed overhead costs.  Let’s take a look and see why watching ratios is a common practice among well-managed companies. A printing company’s sales went from $1,000,000 sales in year A to $800,000 in year B (a decrease of 20%).  Materials decreased proportionately so value-added decreased by the same percentage of 20% or $134,000.  The variable overhead cost also decreased by the same ratio, with fixed costs remaining the same as in the previous year.  Income decreased but did not disappear completely.   Year A   Year B % of Sales Sales $1,000,000   $800,000 100% Materials      330,000     264,000   33% Value Added 670,000   536,000 67% Less: Variable Expenses      200,000     160,000   20% Marginal Contribution 470,000   376,000   47% Less: Fixed Expenses      370,000     370,000 FIXED Income Before Taxes $   100,000   $    6,000               Here’s the danger.  Had the printer taken his eye off the ratios, results could have been  disastrous.  If the decrease in cost of materials and other variable expenses were not proportionate to the decrease in sales (only decreasing 15% instead of 20%), income before taxes could have resulted in a loss of $20,500.  The mere 5% difference could have pushed the company into the red. Fortunately, there’s nothing mysterious about watching ratios.  Tracking variable costs as a percentage of sales has helped some of the most successful printing companies extract more and more profits from their sales.  By keeping an eye on ratios, we can make sure variable costs are reacting appropriately.  We can then look at fixed overhead costs and either: 1. Reduce fixed costs to a lower level or 2. Get creative and find ways to convert fixed cost into a variable cost (even if only temporarily). Want to see what ratios and margins other...