Offset Is 
Alive and Well

I am happy to report that offset printing is indeed alive and well at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Why? There are several contributing reasons.

1) We were an established offset plant that has fortunately been able to keep up with technology, primarily computer-to-plate (CTP). If an in-plant gets too far behind, it becomes all but financially impossible to catch up.

2) We are not located in a major metropolitan area. Not that this is a requirement for offset success but it has certainly helped us over the years.

3) The power of offset is still apparent with superior run speed and considerable cost savings on longer runs. And this cost effectiveness carries over to bindery as well by allowing us to produce 16-page signatures that fold, collate and stitch very efficiently.

I have personally, and sadly, observed a number of in-plants over the years that have closed due to not being able to re-invest in equipment upgrades. We have been able to avoid this problem so far by functioning as a 100 percent chargeback operation, and then setting aside money each year for equipment replacement as well as necessary technology upgrades.

As noted above, once an in-plant gets too far behind, it's difficult to come up with the substantial amount of cash required for equipment upgrades. A requirement of a substantial amount of cash is nothing but a red flag for about just any host organization these days.

Prime Location

Our location in a community of about 100,000 has been a plus for us. Our in-plant was established in 1934 and has grown steadily since. We became the biggest offset operation in our trade area so there was very little "poaching" of our offset business. I am not saying we have an absolute monopoly by any means; we still have to be very competitively priced, as we should be. But there was little incentive for our customers to go off campus as long as we were able to provide the service, turnaround and quality they deserved.

Another huge plus for acquiring and retaining offset work is the ability to insource printing. With so many commercial and in-plant offset operations closing over the last five to 10 years in particular, there are still customers out there needing offset printing. Certainly you'll have to work within the restrictions or limitations of your host organization in doing this, but I believe a strong case can be made that insourcing will strengthen your in-plant, which will bring advantages to your host company as well.

Offset is still, in my opinion, impossible to beat price-wise once you hit that magical combination of run length and/or page count. A couple of examples:

Job #1

32-page self-cover newsletter (81⁄2x11˝ finished size); black only; saddle stitched.

Offset—we would run this as two 16-page signatures.

Digital—we would run eight 11x17˝ signatures.

Prices:

Offset 1,000 run: $791

Digital 1,000 run: $2,055

Offset 5,000 run: $1,762

Digital 5,000 run: $9,679

Job #2

Four-color brochure; 81⁄2x11˝ (two-sides); #10 fold; proofs included for offset.

Prices:

Offset 500 run: $661

Digital 500 run: $414

Offset 3,000 run: $789

Digital 3,000 run: $3,643

Another very specific example of the power of offset efficiency is with envelope printing. We were fortunate to have purchased a two-color Halm Jet envelope press years ago. We have been able to produce millions of envelopes over the years at a considerable savings to the university because of this press.

To a lesser but still important extent is letterhead printing. Because we use wax-free ink for stationery printing, the letterhead we produce on our two-color Heidelberg QM46 can be run back through a departmental laser printer without re-liquefying the ink. We offer highly competitive pricing for two-color offset-produced letterhead.

At this point let me quickly emphasize that this is not an anti-digital article by any stretch of the imagination. We have a strong digital operation at MU Printing Services that compliments our offset printing beautifully. By offering both printing methods we can play to the strength of either, as well as away from the weaknesses of either. I would not want to manage an in-plant today without digital being a vital part of the operation. Short run pricing, print-on-demand and variable data capabilities are all required these days.

A whole different article can be written about printing versus social media. I am not remotely qualified to write it. But I will tell you this about the grand promise of print being dead due to merely Twittering your information: at our campus that promise appears to be dead. To be sure, social media is being used. But more and more people every month seem to be coming back to the reality of the power of print.

I am still equally surprised and thrilled that this is happening quicker than I ever imagined it could. When we are too close to a subject (like printing for a printer), we tend to lose our objectively. I know I do. But the evidence doesn't lie. And it is very encouraging. IPG