Blog Archives




 

  • Thanks a Lot
    By Bob Hall - Monday November 22, 2010
    In the pre-Leno era, Johnny Carson was America’s national funny man on late night TV and I have always liked his take on Thanksgiving. “Thanksgiving is an emotional holiday. People travel thousands of miles to be with people they only see once a year and discover once a year is way too often.” That said, this is a uniquely American holiday. What holiday in any other nation would feature a president pardoning poultry? Where else would they call the day after such an uplifting holiday Black Friday? Where else would there be such a fuss over whether to call it stuffing or dressing? What other nation would consider a green bean casserole with Durkee’s canned onions to be food? Where else is a meal that takes hours to prepare be consumed...

  • Don’t Be Anti-Social (Media)
    By Bob Hall - Monday November 8, 2010
    According to a survey by American Express OPEN, one-third of small businesses use social media to connect with customers. That’s up from one-in-10 business owners who were using online social networking to market their businesses a year ago. Another sign of the increased interest in social media by small business entrepreneurs comes from VistaPrint, which reports that 4% of business cards it printed this year featured a social media URL, up from 2.5% last year. Of course, it takes more to build business than simply jumping on Facebook or Twitter. As QP columnists John Giles, Tawnya Starr, and Dave Fellman regularly take pains to point out, there are right and wrong ways to effectively use social media. And, as one comment on the OPEN...

  • Fair is Fair – Or is It?
    By Bob Hall - Tuesday November 2, 2010
    The old saying is that all is fair in love and war. That cynical observation may hold a grain of truth, but it doesn’t really address the question of what is fair in commerce – especially what might be a fair price. I was drawn to ponder this when columnist John Giles turned me on to a relatively new print buyers service called “FairPrice.” It is a Web-based program offered at www.westnoble.org that promises “print specifying and pricing services that instantly give users the fair market price of any print campaign.” Subscribers pay $55 a month for access to “real-time industry pricing for all print components to develop the fair market price – a price both the print buyer and the printer can agree is the fair price when...

  • Counting Noses
    By Bob Hall - Monday October 25, 2010
    Last week I got the fall issue of RIT’s Print Review and was interested to see that their attempts to get a handle on printing industry demographics were less than a definitive success. They went to lots of resources and came up with the conclusion that “The printing industry needs a centralized database in order to maintain and research relevant information on a timely basis.” In other words, they were having a hard time getting a handle on true demographics from the welter of currently available sources. One finding of interest was that: “The underlying problem is that the majority of printers are individuals or proprietorships and some may not be listed anywhere... This investigation surmises that small companies are...

  • Reading the Signs
    By Bob Hall - Monday October 18, 2010
    I just got back from the SGIA show in Las Vegas and, in defiance of the Sin City advertising campaign slogan, I'm going to tell you something that happened in Vegas--nothing very sexy, but interesting, nonetheless. SGIA stands for the Specialty Graphics Imaging Association and it started out as an association for screen printers. Some 61% of attendees at the 2010 show came from the print and graphics industry, another 25% from the garment industry, and 11% from the industrial printing segment.Today, the garment industry seems to be the last stronghold of screen printing with 77.9% of garment printers doing mostly or exclusively screen printing, with the rest doing digital printing to some degree. On the other hand, digital has swept the...

  • QP Columnists to Shine at Graph Expo
    By Bob Hall - Monday September 27, 2010
    Graph Expo 2010 kicks off this Sunday, and along with the hundreds of exhibitor offerings there will also be a solid slate of seminars. Of particular interest to quick and small commercial printers are the Sunday sessions that include the insights and expertise of Quick Printing’s great group of columnists. Kicking off the Sunday presentations will be “Keeping it Real—Essential Steps to Success for Quick and Small Commercial Printers” sponsored by Quick Printing, Graphic Arts Show Company, and NAQP. The 8:30 a.m. panel will include Mitch Evans, Dave Fellman, and Tawnya Starr and will be moderated by yours truly. At 10:30, Dave Fellman will present “Blockbuster Business Growth Solutions for Quick and Small Commercial Printers...

  • Old Dogs and New Tricks
    By Bob Hall - Tuesday September 21, 2010
    At one time in my early years, I was a sergeant in the Army. Upon arriving at that lofty position, I had learned how to shoot a rifle, polish my boots, march in a straight line, give commands, and – most importantly – to always walk fast, look worried, and carry a clipboard. In the years since, I have had to learn any number of other skills – usually only when the situation demanded it. As you may or may not know, Cygnus Graphics Media (QP, Printing News, Wide-Format Imaging, and MyPrintResource.com) has been awarded the contract to put out the GRAPH EXPO 2010 Show Daily. That’s four days at 64 pages a day. At first, I wasn’t that intimidated. After all, I used to help put out a daily newspaper. As I quickly found out...

  • InfoTrends Study Confirms Expectations
    By Bob Hall - Monday August 23, 2010
    InfoTrends’ annual U.S. Production Printing & Copying Market Forecast doesn’t contain any real earth-shattering new information. It does, however, confirm the direction in which the printing industry is headed. Not surprisingly, color continues to erode the black & white market and will account for 77% of revenue from equipment, supplies, and services by 2014. We often think of color printing as full coverage color printing, but in areas such as transactional printing color is light coverage. Somewhat surprising is that what InfoTrends calls “a significant number†of monochrome pages are being printed on color machines. Overall, InfoTrends expects continued declines in the printing industry through 2014 with one...

  • Getting Together
    By Bob Hall - Monday August 2, 2010
    If vendors had their way, there would be one—and only one—giant printing trade show. Drayage would be free, unions non-existent, attendance astronomical, and costs negligible. Well, good luck with that. However, they will be getting part of their wish next year with the combined AlphaGraphics/Allegra technology expo in Las Vegas. The two franchise systems will wrap their annual conferences around the trade show with one before and one after the two-day event at Caesar’s Palace. The show is expected to attract some 150 vendors and around 600 attendees—double what was usually found at the individual trade shows in the past. Add to that the fact that Minuteman is having its own conference a week later at the same hotel and you should...

  • Copy Cats
    By Bob Hall - Tuesday July 27, 2010
    Larry Hunt’s July Color Copy News and High Speed Copy News report the results of two surveys—one on color copy prices and one on self-service copying. Not surprisingly, the price of color copies has fallen as speeds have increased and equipment has become more efficient and affordable. Also, it is no surprise that self-serve copying is rapidly disappearing in today’s print shops. Back in 1990, printers were charging $2.61 for one copy of one original and $1.14 each for 500 copies of one original. Five years ago, that had dropped to $1.07 and 51 cents, respectively. Today, the average price of one copy of one original is 72 cents and the price of 500 copies of one original is 39 cents. The average cost per copy of all color copy jobs...

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