Heidelberg

Despite the push for color, the future for black-and-white printing looks bright, especially as variable data applications grow. by Caroline Miller A WALK through any print trade show in the past year might leave you feeling that black-and-white printing is a thing of the past. Giant banners have been proclaiming the power of color printing. But actions speak louder than words. "There is an old phrase in marketing that says what you talk about and what you sell are often two different things," notes Mike Murphy, manager of marketing for DocuTech printing at Xerox. It's a sentiment that Kevin Kern, Konica's vice president of

Ease of use, automation, reliability, flexibility, versatility and productivity are just a few advances touted by saddle stitcher and booklet maker manufacturers. by CAROLINE MILLER One thing is clear, today's booklet makers and saddle stitchers are easier to operate than the models of yesteryear. Features such as air feeding, detectors for misfeeds and doubles, and operator LCD control panels are just some of the innovations found on contemporary machines. "Customers are looking for a machine that will do any job their clients bring them, so the [equipment] has to be versatile," says Donna Hall, advertising manager for MBM Corp. "They want to turn jobs

IPMA's former international president, Carol Kraft, has been hired as the association's new COO. She says the group must be ready to change in order to survive. by Bob Neubauer It's taken almost three years but the International Publishing Management Association has a new chief operating officer at last. And the biggest surprise to many may be how familiar she is. Fresh from her very recent retirement from Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Minnesota, former IPMA International President Carol Kraft has been appointed IPMA's full-time COO. She fills the position last held by IPMA Executive Director Larry Aaron, who left IPMA in 1999. The

What strikes me most about the non-profit in-plants in our cover story is how passionately they each believe in their parent organization's mission. As a result, their work in the in-plant has taken on new meaning—they're not just printing, they are helping their organization achieve its goals. And by doing this, they have become much more critical to the organization. This reminded me of a session I attended at the recent ACUP conference. Ray Chambers, CIO of Juniata College, told managers that many in-plants are closed down because an outside organization convinces upper management that printing is not the organization's core competency—in other

A lifelong printer, Tony Torone not only loves his trade, but he loves the fact that his work is helping paralyzed veterans. by W. Eric Martin Tony Torone loves his job as manager of the Eastern Paralyzed Veterans Association's in-plant. He gets along great with his employees, he knows he's giving his clients—and his clients' clients—valuable service, and he works only 10 minutes from the house he shares with his wife of 32 years. He's spent more than 40 years in the printing industry, and he would do it all over again in a second. Jealous yet? Torone's love of printing is infectious—which makes

Despite the economic downturn, many printers made the trip to New York to see the latest in on-demand printing technologies. by Bob Neubauer With print sales predicted to be relatively flat in 2002, it was encouraging to see the exhibit floors of the ninth annual On Demand Conference fairly busy with attendees. According to conference organizers, nearly 19,000 "industry professionals from around the world" were in attendance. Though the number of exhibitors (150+) was down from last year (200), the event still drew a number of in-plants to New York's Jacob Javits Center, to do some serious looking—and even purchasing. Still, all was

For Warren Fraser, there's a certain magic about living so far away from the rest of the country. "I can look out my office window and see the Alaska Range," says Fraser, manager of Printing Services at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. "If you want to be [in a place] with clean air and wilderness close at hand, but still live in a city that has a university and has cultural offerings...then there are some advantages

Why put imaging systems on every press unit, when a complete set of plates can be made in a single offline CTP system? We asked the experts. by MARK SMITH TAKING STEPS out of a process can increase productivity, reduce variability and lower production costs. That all sounds great, but these gains naturally must be weighed against the investment required to achieve them. Doing such a cost-benefit analysis for the on-press imaging concept might at first seem to be a rather straightforward calculation. The potential variables in the equation quickly prove otherwise, however. Issues such as integration with existing plant capabilities, markets served and

In-plants that have installed high-speed digital color printers have had tremendous success—and a few disappointments along the way. We got their stories. by Cheryl Adams On September 13, two days after the World Trade Center attack, administration officials at Arizona State University, in Tempe, placed a call to the school's Design Print Services center. Bruce Whitehead, DPS manager, answered the call and took the request for 2,500 "No Hate" posters that would be put up across campus. "We have a lot of international students on campus, many of whom are Muslim," Whitehead explains. "The university administration was concerned about hate crimes and didn't

As the first in-plant to install the new NexPress 2100, World Bank has given the digital color device two enthusiastic thumbs up. by CHERYL ADAMS The first-run, beta-test results are in on the new NexPress 2100. World Bank's Printing, Graphics and Map Design unit installed Heidelberg's high-speed digital color printer in February. One of the first jobs to run was a publicity folder with the image of a book cover on it. "It got rave reviews," says Jane Bloodworth, business manager of the Washington, D.C.-based in-plant. "It turned out beautifully. The client loved it." The NexPress 2100 digital production color press is the