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1. Searching For Signs Of Life. A spate of recent articles, including a Wall Street Journal feature, are trumpeting a media and marketing ad rebound. The Journal piece notes "Sales of TV Ads Explode as Buyers Seek More Slots," and states that, essentially, the networks are selling commercial airtime for 25% to 40% more than they could in May. Car manufacturers, phone companies, and movie studios are leading the TV advertising increase, creating a broad and diverse base. Because advertising has traditionally been a very sensitive indicator of economic activity, and because we’re all holding onto our shirts right now, I have to ask in a hopeful voice, "Is this a sign of good things to come?" By the way, according to WhatTheyThink.com in their September Print Index, for the first time in three months, there was an increase in print providers (24.4%) who state that their local market conditions are "starting or continuing to improve." Fingers crossed. 2. Color Up. Scitex Digital Printing recently released a white paper on the projected economics of Digital Color Printing on Demand. According to the study, the U.S. market currently produces 20 billion digital color pages per year on 15,000 digital color machines. That volume is expected to double in the next three years. However, digital color still accounts for less than 5% of printing and publishing worldwide. Incidentally, digital printing and on-demand print services have moved into the book production industry, according to CAP Ventures. Publishers have started using on-demand printing processes for first print runs, and in some cases, subsequent print runs on books with uncertain demand. 3. The September issue of Printing Impressions offers an article by Richard Mager, entitled "Avoiding Bankruptcy: The Five Deadly Sins," that contains some interesting observations. As a finance guy, I find them particularly relevant (but I don’t claim to follow them all.) I’ve excerpted them below. Sin #1: Commercial printing companies lack a strategic plan. Most focus on "selling" without ever understanding their core competencies or planning for future growth. Sin #2: Companies fail to internally distribute monthly or even quarterly financial statements. Likewise, most company presidents do not know how to adequately read their own financial statements. Sin #3: Not enough priority is spent on building senior management. Senior managers need to learn company vision and should be empowered to drive organizational goals. Companies rarely employ even basic management tools, such as weekly senior staff meetings. Sin #4: Can Enron and other scandals shout this loud enough: heavy emphasis must be placed on accurate cost accounting and timely, complete financial reporting? A surprising number of printers do not even have the capability to meaningfully report or analyze profitability. Sin #5: Senior managers believe they can give estimates as well or better than estimators. On-the-fly assessments, hurriedly offered to clinch a sale, often lead to winning an unprofitable job. Go to www.piworld.com for the full report.
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