Starting with IPEX 2002, this blog covers events relevant for UK print, including Seybold and DRUPA. See also website at www.atford.co.uk

Saturday, October 23, 2004

Defining Moment in New Zealand

I have added a comment to Andrew Tribute's blog so repeat it here. ( I think the yacht is out of the water now, there was a long pause in this blog but it seems to back on track now)

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I am going to take this as a defining moment. There have been many suggestions of a digital print future but this states that the change has happened.

“In my keynote address at the conference I stated that value added services are the key for printers. In this I stated that printer’s business cards should no longer call themselves printers, but instead digital services companies.“

Next week there is a show at Olympia on digital print. Gee Ranasinha will talk about JDF. I had thought that would be a defining moment but now I think this blog entry is a better source, especially as it already exists on the web.

I am taking this a bit seriously as I have been sent a press pass on the basis of my blog at //ipex2002.blogspot.com

It started in 2002 so it’s too late to change the name.

By the way, i think there may be a typo. Do you mean ‘beer’ not ‘bear’? Maybe you went bear hunting as well as fishing for trout…

Posted by Will Pollard on Saturday, 23 October 2004 at 4:04 PM

Monday, October 18, 2004

"You can only hide under the bedsheets for so long. JDF is here and it's real"
Gee Ranisinha is very definite in the current Image Reports.

He will also be speaking at Digital Print World at Olympia tomorrow and Wednesday. One of the benefits of a show that concentrates on digital is that ideas such as JDF are easier to spread. Maybe it will take longer with litho. Frank Romano wrote in Printweek not long ago that there was no obvious return on investment and that it will take a long time for old equipment to be replaced. Unfortunately I can't find the article at the moment but I think one of the points was that print customers can't produce reliable PDF files so probably can't create an accurate JDF. Maybe this is where print management companies offer something, sorting out the technology where print companies don't.
'How to spice up e-brochures' by Ken Young in today's IT Week assumes that print is more or less disappearing. He states that about a quarter of print jobs were lost in the area around the City in Lodon over five years to 2002. This is probably based on a recent report - Understanding the Print and Publishing Sectors in the City Fringe. The Guardian article on this drew a fierce response from Printweek where the BPIF was described as 'angry' and the Guardian take as 'nonsense'.

The report itself has many facts that have to be considered by people concerned with UK print. Clearly something is happening and the web has something to do with it. The original report comments on the state of IT skills in print and management attitudes to training.

Meanwhile the Guardian somehow fails to report the web as a context for print circulation decline. Roy Greenslade today looks at the recent figures without any mention of how websites effect circulation or contribute to income. So far the 'digital edition' remains a secret so far as the hard copy Guardian is concerned.

http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporation/media_centre/files/140_04.htm

Back to Ken Young. He claims that 'people can't be bothered to wait for a brochure to land on their desk' so the web must be a priority. New design resources are essential. 'Sites need to come alive...and not look like electronic versions of dead trees.' Maybe he is being alarmist. Print will continue for some time as evidenced by News International investment outside London. However the reference to Kodak and the speed with which film was replace by digital cameras could be convincing that change can happen.

One suggestion is that managers use the web to make direct contact with customers through weblogs. Next week there is an Adobe webcast intended for financial analysts. This may not be intended for a wider audience but it might be interesting as an example of what is possible. The analysts make a better guess than most of what new products might arrive. There will probaly be more interest in video than in OEM Postscript.

http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/invrelations/conferences.html