In paper and printing the average level of employee absence fell from 5.6 days per year in 2012 to 4.9 days in 2013. This marks the second annual fall in absence levels since 2011, when the average number of days lost per employee rose to 6.8 from 6.3 in 2010. The downward trend in printing and paper is in contrast to the performance of the manufacturing and production sector as a whole, which has seen average employee absence increase from 5.7 in 2011 to 6.0 in 2012 and 2013. However, manufacturing still has the lowest absence levels of the four sectors included in the CIPD survey. Of the other three, public services has the highest absence rate at 8.7 days, followed by non-profit organisations with 8.1 days and private sector services with 7.2 days. The CIPD noted that, on average, absence levels had increased by nearly one day per employee to 7.6 days, returning to levels previously observed in 2011 and 2010. Short-term absences of up to seven days accounted for two-thirds of working time lost to absence in 2013, while long-term absences of four weeks or more were responsible for a fifth. However, there were significant variations between sectors and in manufacturing and production, short-term absences contributed to 76% of the total versus just 13% for long-term. The CIPD estimates that the annual median cost of absence per employee in 2013 was £595. For a full copy of the report, visit the CIPD website....

In his first major public appearance since the £2.4bn merger of Penguin and Random House in July, chief executive Markus Dohle said that print would always be an important part of the publisher’s business. Dohle said: “Our basic strategic assumption is that print will always be important, always—not in 50 years or 100 years—always. And our digital business is of course [growing]. “That is a very simple, but very important assumption. We are basically saying that even 100 years from now, the print business will be a big chunk of our business. It may be 70% percent. Today it’s 80% print and 20% digital. “The buzz here at the fair is 95% digital and 5% print. But I think there is a clear misunderstanding. 80% is actually print today, and in our two biggest markets, North America and the U.K. the growth rates of digital are sort of flattening out a bit.” Dohle went on to explain that in the US and UK, digital sales had started to plateau at around 25% share. “I think it’s quite surprising. But we’ve always believed in print and we feel more encouraged and inspired as ever to invest in print because it will matter always,” he added. “So, we strongly believe that print will always be a big chunk of our business and it doesn’t really matter whether we end up at 50% in the new world balance, at 60% percent, at 40% or whatever. “That means that we will continue to invest in our print business heavily. We are not running away. We call it our zig-zag strategy. While many publishers run away from print, we continue to invest in print: While everybody goes zig, we go zag.” Dohle said that all publishers were making “important strategic calls” in a “rapidly changing market environment” and that those decisions would create new competitive advantages going forward. “We want to create competitive advantages in print and in digital,” he added. Publishers Weekly has published a full transcript of Dohle’s comments here....

In his first major public appearance since the £2.4bn merger of Penguin and Random House in July, chief executive Markus Dohle said that print would always be an important part of the publisher’s business. Dohle said: “Our basic strategic assumption is that print will always be important, always—not in 50 years or 100 years—always. And our digital business is of course [growing]. “That is a very simple, but very important assumption. We are basically saying that even 100 years from now, the print business will be a big chunk of our business. It may be 70% percent. Today it’s 80% print and 20% digital. “The buzz here at the fair is 95% digital and 5% print. But I think there is a clear misunderstanding. 80% is actually print today, and in our two biggest markets, North America and the U.K. the growth rates of digital are sort of flattening out a bit.” Dohle went on to explain that in the US and UK, digital sales had started to plateau at around 25% share. “I think it’s quite surprising. But we’ve always believed in print and we feel more encouraged and inspired as ever to invest in print because it will matter always,” he added. “So, we strongly believe that print will always be a big chunk of our business and it doesn’t really matter whether we end up at 50% in the new world balance, at 60% percent, at 40% or whatever. “That means that we will continue to invest in our print business heavily. We are not running away. We call it our zig-zag strategy. While many publishers run away from print, we continue to invest in print: While everybody goes zig, we go zag.” Dohle said that all publishers were making “important strategic calls” in a “rapidly changing market environment” and that those decisions would create new competitive advantages going forward. “We want to create competitive advantages in print and in digital,” he added. Publishers Weekly has published a full transcript of Dohle’s comments here....

In his first major public appearance since the £2.4bn merger of Penguin and Random House in July, chief executive Markus Dohle said that print would always be an important part of the publisher’s business. Dohle said: “Our basic strategic assumption is that print will always be important, always—not in 50 years or 100 years—always. And our digital business is of course [growing]. “That is a very simple, but very important assumption. We are basically saying that even 100 years from now, the print business will be a big chunk of our business. It may be 70% percent. Today it’s 80% print and 20% digital. “The buzz here at the fair is 95% digital and 5% print. But I think there is a clear misunderstanding. 80% is actually print today, and in our two biggest markets, North America and the U.K. the growth rates of digital are sort of flattening out a bit.” Dohle went on to explain that in the US and UK, digital sales had started to plateau at around 25% share. “I think it’s quite surprising. But we’ve always believed in print and we feel more encouraged and inspired as ever to invest in print because it will matter always,” he added. “So, we strongly believe that print will always be a big chunk of our business and it doesn’t really matter whether we end up at 50% in the new world balance, at 60% percent, at 40% or whatever. “That means that we will continue to invest in our print business heavily. We are not running away. We call it our zig-zag strategy. While many publishers run away from print, we continue to invest in print: While everybody goes zig, we go zag.” Dohle said that all publishers were making “important strategic calls” in a “rapidly changing market environment” and that those decisions would create new competitive advantages going forward. “We want to create competitive advantages in print and in digital,” he added. Publishers Weekly has published a full transcript of Dohle’s comments here....

Hogan, who will officially start his new job on 1 November, described the global sales role as “my ideal job” and added that he would be responsible for “pulling together channel management, product management and product development under one roof and trying to give it more external focus”. “The danger with large organisations is that there’s a danger that you can become too internally-focused maybe and not as nimble as you need to be in the marketplace. So my role is really to ensure that there is an absolute external focus on actively offering products that can demonstrate an ROI,” he added. “Particularly in western Europe and a lot of the developed world, we are into a very mature, consolidating marketplace [and] waiting for replacement business because a piece of kit has worn out is not really a way to maintain or grow market share. “We need to be offering products that can give higher productivity or a value-added feature or a product line extension; we’ve got to be putting things out there that are going to put something on our customers’ bottom line.” Hogan said that he hoped to spend no more than 50% of his time at Heidelberg’s HQ and the rest on the road, conducting face-to-face meetings with customers and sales units. “My role in the UK meant I was in daily contact with customers. In my new role there will be many additional pressures and I know I will have to work to keep in touch with the market and reality on the ground so that we continue to focus on the customer’s real, not assumed, needs.” Heidelberg UK managing director Gerard Heanue said: “This is an excellent opportunity for Mark. His product knowledge combined with his marketing and sales prowess will be put to very good use. We are sad to lose Mark from our own management team but we are delighted he is staying within the group and that he has been promoted to this fantastic role.” PrintWeek understands that Heanue will take on the marketing elements of Hogan’s former role, while Heidelberg UK sales director Jim Todd will drive the product management team in addition to the sales team. Heidelberg UK product manager for post press, Ian Trengrouse, will be responsible for the finishing portfolio. Hogan started in post press in 1988, when he joined Harris Graphics in Slough, a company which was bough by Heidelberg in 1996. He then went to France as sales director for the Sheridan high-volume bindery equipment that was sold by Heidelberg, before joining Heidelberg UK in May of 2002 as business executive, post press. He was promoted to marketing manager and later marketing director for Heidelberg...