Sappi Fine Paper North America Announces Gold Winners of the 14th North American Printers of the Year Competition

Sappi Fine Paper North America has announced the 10 gold winners of its 14th North American Printers of the Year awards for 2010-2011. Culled from a field of approximately 2,100 entries, the 10 gold winners will now compete for the distinguished Sappi International Printers of the Year Award global competition.

Each of the gold winning printers will receive $20,000 to support marketing and brand initiatives as well as entry into the competition for Sappi International Printers of the Year 2012 awards, the only global honor of its kind to recognize printing excellence. For more details, visit:www.sappi.com/na/poy.

"Sappi remains committed to promoting the vitality and relevance of the printed image in innovative ways, and this includes the long-standing Printers of the Year competition," said Jennifer Miller, Executive Vice President of Marketing and Communications, Sappi Fine Paper North America. "The craftsmanship and innovation demonstrated by our gold winners is an outstanding example of why print remains a vital communication medium."

Sappi's Printers of the Year awards recognize print excellence and innovation produced on Sappi papers in ten categories of work. A panel of highly regarded print professionals judged the entries on the overall impact of the piece, degree of difficulty in printing techniques, and technical excellence. The gold winners of Sappi's North American Printers of the Year are as follows:

To ensure the highest possible standards and integrity, Lauren Elliot, Principal of Wicked Good Print Production based in San Francisco; Bill Garno, Director of Rochester Institute of Technology's (RIT) Printing Applications Laboratory (PAL); Malcolm Keif, professor in the Graphic Communication Department at Cal Poly; and, Ken Lantz, Director of Operations for Euro RSCG Life LMP in New York served as the panel of judges.

Gold winners of Sappi's North American Printers of the Year will compete later this year against the winners from Africa, Europe and the Sappi Trading Region (Asia, Australia, Central America and South America) for the Sappi International Printers of the Year awards, regarded as the world's most respected accolade in printed communications.

Sappi's North American Printers of the Year gold and silver winners will also receive their own marketing pages in Sappi's searchable online database, which provides information about the award winnning printers and their capabilities, printing equipment and location. The database is available at: www.sappi.com/na/poy.