Julie Shaffer, Printing Industries of America’s Vice President of Digital Strategies is giving the opening keynote presentation, “Printing’s Role in a Multi-Media World,” at the 22nd Annual Ink Jet Printing Conference being held by the Information Management Institute (IMI) at the Scottsdale Cottonwoods Resort & Suites in Scottsdale, Arizona on January 30-February 1, 2013. IMI’s annual Ink Jet Printing Conference is the only U.S. ink jet printing industry event devoted entirely to ink jet printing technologies, markets, and applications. Given the printing industry’s current interest in ink jet printing and the ongoing rapid expansion of ink jet technology into new and exciting applications, IMI has offered all Printing Industries of America members a $300 discount on their 22nd Annual Ink Jet Printing Conference registration fee (making it $795) as well as a $200 discount on the registration fee (making it $495) for the other programs earlier in the week: Ink Jet Deposition Course (Jan 28-29), Ink Jet Printhead & Selection Course (Jan 28-29), 3D Printing Symposium (Jan 28-29) and AWA Inkjet & Digital Label/Packaging Print Seminar (Jan 29-30). For additional details about the conference, view the IMI website at www.imiconf.com. If you are a Printing Industries of America member and would like to take advantage of IMI’s special offer, contact Sam Shea at sshea@printing.org for more...

The 2012 Third Quarter Print Market Update has just been published by the Printing Industries of America Economic and Market Research Team. With that, we’d like to share some of the numbers relating to digital processes contained in the report. As is typical of our membership demographics and the overall industry, a majority of the respondents to the market survey listed sheetfed as their primary process.  However, 120 of the 182 respondents offered toner-based digital printing, while 34 of the respondents offered inkjet printing. These processes accounted for 16% and 4% of respondents’ total print sales respectively. In addition, more than 50 of the respondents engaged in wide- and super-wide-format inkjet printing. The latest Print Market Update also tracks the percentage change in total print sales through the last eight quarters. Beginning in Q4 2011 and going through Q3 2012, the respondents to our survey noted year-to-date increases in total toner-based sales of 8.5%, 5.2%, 8.0%, and 5.3%. Likewise, year-to-date increases in inkjet sales of 10.9%, 11.1%, 3.8%, and 2.4% were reported. All Printing Industries of America members can download the Quarterly Print Market Updates (along with many other resources) for free here. Our Economics and Market Research Team emails the results of these market surveys to all participants eight weeks after the end of each quarter and posts the results online two weeks later for all members to view. This data is also used to write Flash Reports and economic forecasts. The survey is emailed to the main contact at each member company three weeks after the end of each quarter. To be added to this email list please contact Ed Gleeson at egleeson@printing.org or...

Printing Industries of America’s Joe Marin has recently published a new white paper, free to all members, titled Your Website: Keep it or Start Over?. This white paper describes—from a printer’s perspective—how to make sure your website is properly optimized for search. Just a few of the topics covered include: -How to assess your own website: Update or start over?-What message should your website convey to get new business?-Key steps to successful SEO for your website…and so much more! To download the white paper, members simply need to login and then click...

This guest blog was submitted by Kurt Konow, Production Print Marketing Strategist, Ricoh Americas Corporation, sponsor of the 2012 Integrated Print Forum, October 29-30, 2012. The world of communicating has changed dramatically. It was less than a decade ago that the primary distribution channel for communications was traditional print. Whether you were in the business of preparing and distributing mission-critical bills and statements, or the more creative world of designing and delivering direct mail, flyers, and brochures, print was king. But then something happened. Tradition was socked with a one-two punch—the E-World—and the methods of communicating changed forever. Consumers have more communication choices than ever before, including email, SMS text messaging, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and traditional print. Depending on the content of the communication, one channel might be just perfect and another channel not even a consideration. Sitting at your kid’s soccer game or commuting on a train might be perfect situations to text or tweet a message, but not very practical or timely to create and print a message. Clearly, we live in a world that communicates, and the E-World has simplified and enhanced our ability to interface with others instantaneously. However, what still remains at the center of the communication channel choice is preference and practicality. Not everyone can—or wants to—communicate via Facebook messaging. Not every mail piece, brochure, or poster is intelligently transferable through mobile marketing mechanisms. What are we saying? Print is still valued, still considered, still preferred by many, and still necessary. While print is not dead, it does require a more strategic approach to ensure it is carefully scheduled within an overall, integrated communication plan. In some circumstances print may still be able to stand on its own merit, but in other instances it will need to be a component in a broader communication strategy. Either way, it is incumbent on the communication owner to maximize the return on investment of print by ensuring maximum effectiveness. However, this lofty mandate can be daunting, unless you embrace a “best-practice” approach to ensuring print is a viable and effective component of an overall communication strategy. Ricoh’s 5 “Best-Practices” to Ensure Print Success Print Is Personal Never has the opportunity to effectively engage a prospect, or existing customer, been more possible than right now. As you are reading this article, your email inbox most likely has received one or more marketing messages. Did they go directly to spam or did they get clogged up amongst your other daily emails that you have to filter through? Either way, the “personalized” effect of your marketing email messages will most likely go unnoticed—if noticed at all. On the other hand, a printed piece with personalized messaging and imagery stares...

ePublishing vs. Self-publishing. These two topics can seem frightening to people in the graphic communications industry. Some people look at ePublishing as, well, an enemy, while others feel that self-publishing is dead. The truth is, offering either one of these services are just another great potential revenue stream for printers and publishers with the right business plan and technical know-how. ePublishingMobile devices and tablets are a hot item today! Half of all cell phones in the U.S. are smartphones, and a quarter of those smartphone owners also use a tablet device—by 2014 experts predict 20% of all U.S. consumers will own a tablet! While people want their content in print, they also look to consume their content from these popular devices. The questions isn’t, “What has gone digital,” but rather, “What has not gone digital?”  Not only have newspapers and magazines provided consumers with digital offerings, but books have essentially followed suite. Today, e-books are one of the fastest growing areas of book sales.   There is enormous potential around epublishing, and it is imperative for anyone in the print communication industry to investigate this potentially lucrative service offering. Don’t feel threatened by this growing trend, take advantage of it. ePublishing is a great opportunity for your business. Self-PublishingWhile people may think that self-publishing is dead, it is actually just the opposite—it is thriving. In the last few years, self-publishing has continued to grow at an exciting rate while creating opportunities for both publishers and printers Establishing a self-publishing center for your business can create new revenue streams that you may have not even thought about yet. This great business opportunity can put printers in the controls to provide their clients the direction they need for a successful self-publishing campaign. Get the Skinny On these Exciting Business OpportunitiesLearn first-hand how you can be a forward-thinking printer and adopt these revenue-generating services at the upcoming Integrated Print Forum 2012, October 29-30. This two-day event will give you the insight on how to take the mystery out of your future. Become a detective and scope out today’s hottest business trends and new opportunities in the graphic communications industry. Speakers will have the intel on how to keep print in the mix, while providing your clients with new, integrated printing services. The entire event will be dedicated to offering real strategies around new business options, including ePublishing and self-publishing, with a focus on providing tactics to take back to your business in which you can apply immediately. At the Forum, attend the session, Don’t Fear the Tablet! ePublishing Trends & Tactics. This informative session will be presented by business strategist Peter Muir, of Bizucate, Inc., who will talk with John Bell, of...

One of the major stories developing at drupa 2012 involves the Nanographic Printing™ Presses unveiled by Landa Corporation founder, chairman, and CEO Benny Landa. These presses use water-based inks comprised of pigment particles only tens of nanometers in size. These nano-pigments are reportedly extremely light absorbent and the new process used to print with them—Nanography™—boasts high uniformity, high gloss fidelity, and a broad CMYK color gamut. And here’s the hook that’s getting everyone excited: Nanography is a digital printing process with offset speed. Landa spoke about the implications of the new process:  “Nanography is a new technology for applying ink to paper. In developing Landa Nanographic Printing we had to re-think and reinvent the printing press. The result is digital printing with remarkable performance—from a family of presses that share stunning ergonomic design, a small footprint, and some of the most advanced user functionality available in the market.” Landa has unveiled six Nanographic presses at drupa—three sheetfed and three web presses. Also, news releases have come out in recent days reporting Landa has entered into partnerships with both Komori and Heidelberg for the development, manufacturing, and sale of presses based on Landa Nanographic Printingtechnology.  Julie Shaffer, Printing Industries of America’s vice president of digital technology, attended drupa 2012 and sat in on one of the Landa Corporation press events where the technology was demonstrated. She sent along the following video snippet to share. Please feel free to share your opinion with us! For more information like this, visit the Digital Printing Council News and...