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1. Misery Loves Large Companies. Commercial printing’s top guns are hurting, as budget cuts in the magazine, catalog and retail sectors continue to drag sales down. The June issue of Printing Impressions reports that first quarter sales for R. R. Donnelly were off 16% from the previous year, off 10% for Mail-Well, Inc, and off 7% for Quebecor World. Consolidated reported a 6% drop from the previous year. 2. Let’s Make a Deal. PrintCafé Software (Nasdaq:PCAF) went public 6/19, raising $37.5 million in its first day of trading. But those in the know say the deal more closely resembled a private placement rather than a true public offering. In fact, a 6/19/02 Wall Street Journal article, "PrintCafé Sinks in Debut: Offering Has Private Feel," reports that PrintCafe’s existing shareholders Creo Inc., HarbourVest Partners, Mellon Ventures, and Seligman New Technologies Fund had already agreed to buy up 3 million of the shares before the pricing, leaving only about 20%for the rest of us. 3. A Sticky Problem. For the ultimate in raw strength and flexibility, you may want to use PUR (polyurethane reactive) glue. Page pull tests (mentioned in the last issue) demonstrate that PUR is at least 20% stronger than traditional hot-melts and lasts longer than paper. And PUR glues aren’t subject to normal adhesive limitations. Try dunking a PUR-bound book in water. The pages will get soggy and lose their integrity, but the glue will hold perfectly. One fact worth noting is that PUR glue does require a 24-hour curing period. During this period, PUR books must remain exposed to natural air because the bonding chemicals in PUR cure by drawing moisture out of the air. So contrary to traditional hot-melt glue, PUR actually cures faster on humid days. 4. Printers Envision the Future. A poll conducted at the 2002 GATF/NAPL Sheetfed Pressroom Conference held in Chicago earlier this month revealed some interesting forecasts about how sheetfed printing plants will look in 2020. The findings are as surprising for what won’t change as for what might look different. Chief among the results is that an overwhelming 86% do not believe that e-commerce will supplant face-to-face selling as the primary sales tool. Meanwhile, a slight majority (54%) believe that most of their revenue will still come from ink on paper work. Another 25% of respondents believe that digital printing (toner, inkjet, or other non-traditional methods) will account for only 10% or less of their total revenue. Such projections make for a traditional expectation of future printing work or, in other words, a not-very futuristic scenario in 20 years. 5. Footnote to IM thoughts. Not to beat a dead horse, but imagine my surprise when I opened up my July 2002 INC magazine to find an article on the use of IM in businesses. INC reports that more and more businesses are now using IM to handle their communications needs (40%), and that by next year, 70% of business are projected to use it. I have to say that I found this opposite to the responses I received to my informal survey which suggested that most of you view IM as a mere "inconvenience." Not sure what to do with this. Nothing, I guess.
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