Frank Romano

Drupa is the name of the largest print-related exhibition in the world. It is sort of a cross between a world’s fair and the storming of the Bastille. It is the place where new printing technology is introduced. Sometimes, it even works.

The first thing that hits you is the sheer size of it all. It takes an hour to walk from one side of the messe (fairgrounds) to the other. There are about 20 buildings filled with every kind of printing and related device on earth. And there are 360,000 people from all over the world.

The day before the formal opening is when Heidelberg has their traditional press conference. But they were usurped by Landa, a company that revealed a new nanographic printing technology. In fact, HEI is partnering with Landa on a future printing device.

The Landa news became the hottest topic at the show. Benny Landa invented the HP Indigo digital printers. His new nano ink can print on any substrate from plain paper to film without any special coating. The ink is delivered by inkjet heads, and it lays down a thickness half that of offset, which means less ink cost. Landa has also partnered with Komori and manroland.

Two of Landa’s presses were shown, a cut-sheet B2-format Landa S7 and a web-fed (52 centimeter/20.47 inch) Landa W50. These printers are part of a seven-product portfolio of Landa-branded products, most of which support up to eight colors.

Landa NanoInk is comprised of pigment particles a fraction of the size of a human hair. Powerful absorbers of light, these tiny particles deliver high-quality images that are unusually resistant to abrasion.

For the first time, commercial printers and their customers will not have to choose between the versatility and short-run economics of digital printing and the low cost-per-page and high productivity of offset printing. Now they can have both.

Digital printing was the hottest technology. Xeikon will have its usual powdered toner and a new liquid toner. Delphax is using Memjet inkjet heads in one model as is Canon/Oce. 4-up or B2 digital printers were in abundance. There are now nine companies with 4-up sheetfed inkjet presses.

Sheeted or roll-fed, digital printing was the key process at Drupa. Inkjet digital printing, that is. Most of the suppliers upped the speed; some increased the sheet size. All have high-dpi quality.

The reason for all the digital activity is short runs and longer short runs.

The finishing folks were all over the show-offline or integrated into the digital printer. There was a lot of built-in quality control and automated workflow software.

Hybrid printing was everywhere. That’s where you put an inkjet system at the tail-end of the offset or flexo press. Presstek and all offset manufacturers use this inkjet printing for spot personalization.

So far, there have been 22 press conferences. All of them announced something new, but in many cases it is a year or more away. Printers should keep making money with what they have so they can afford the new stuff.

The show confirms what we already know-digital printing is slowly but surely encroaching on offset. Offset will not go away but it is seeing and will see reduced volume. Print buyers will have more choice in printing processes

© 2012 Frank Romano. All rights reserved.

Today you have to be a sleuth when looking for printers.

Many companies have changed their names, surgically removing any hint of “print,” “litho” or “graphics.” These same companies have painted over their web site, so to speak, with content that confuses. They are “direct marketing” firms, or “supply chain management” specialists. Many are “creative strategists.” I’m getting a headache.

I don’t know about you, but so many times when I visit a web site I have to sit and parse the content for what seems like ages to determine what I’m looking at. Is it a creative agency (design)? An ad agency? A printer? A broker? A direct marketer? All of the above – or none?

There are also companies who service the trade; that is, they manufacture print and related materials for other printers, not for end users like you or me. Again, it’s not always obvious who’s a trade printer.

There are print brokers, too. Tens of thousands of them! Print brokers represent print manufacturers. They are not employed by printers, but they are experts in helping you source your print and related projects with the most appropriate provider. Does this matter to you? It may or may not, but you should be aware of the difference. I’ve written extensively on how corporate buyers feel about brokers; I’ll leave my opinion on this for another day. (I will say this: don’t be close-minded! Examine all of your options, whether it’s with a print provider or print broker. Decide for yourself.)

Over the past 10 years or so, we’ve seen the growth of online (ecommerce) printers. What a great alternative! We buy so many products online, doesn’t it follow that print can be one of them? You may not buy all of your materials this way, but I’ll bet there are product lines that are truly well suited to an ecommerce printer.

And then there are the big box stores, particularly those that sell office supplies. They have in-store print and copy centers. Whenever I’m in one of these stores, these centers are hopping. Clearly, they serve a big audience.

Let’s not forget the brick-and-mortar printing companies throughout the country – and beyond. From a high of about 58,000 US printing establishments to the current estimate of about 32,000, there are commercial printers for your every need. They’re all different.

Your work as a print buying professional is cut out for you. That’s part of what makes the business so exciting. Being aware of your various printing options is important if you source print or design for print or even if you’re a marketer who uses print in your campaigns.

Make a point of understanding all of your sourcing options. I hope this Tip helps. Some will suit you/your company better, no doubt. It was easier when you didn’t have so many options – but was it better? You decide. Perhaps we should simply say, vive la difference!

© 2012 Margie Dana. All rights reserved. You’re free to forward this email. However, no part of this column may be reprinted without permission from the author.

Recently I posted this blog, a reaction to a PBI BOSTON session that featured three buying pros: Blair Weidig, Tom Pixton and Maria Cipicchio of LehmanMillet, MIT and Dana Farber Cancer Institute, respectively. Their session ended the show. It was worth waiting for. I loved it.

One of my favorite things to do in this business is listen to a group of print buying professionals. Just when I’m anticipating what they’re going to say – they surprise me. It simultaneously humbles and delights me.

The last session of our PBI BOSTON conference was “How to Source Printing in 2012: Best Practices.” I’d selected three savvy pros from different industries to share their philosophies on the subject. They had communicated with each other a bit via email, but as far as I know, they hadn’t shared their own presentations.

I certainly didn’t know what they were going to say, but considering this is 2012 and the industry’s in the middle of a ginormous shake up, I figured we’d hear about new strategies for finding printers. There I sat in the front row, fingers poised over the keyboard, listening.

What they said was so shocking, I could barely type.

Turns out, the tried-and-true, age-old practices of print buying are still, to this day, the best and most effective ones. There were no secret apps, no “silver bullet” formulas, and no shortcutting software to turn the business of buying commercial printing into a routine, foolproof task that anyone can do.

Au contraire. You have to be mindful and detail-oriented, creative and intelligent.

Here’s what we learned about sourcing print from these pros:

1. Buyers need to know their clients: who are you producing/sourcing for? What matters to them? Getting to know them is half the battle. Get inside their heads and make sure you appreciate what will make them happy with the results. One speaker made us laugh: Art directors want the best, the most expensive and the coolest. Clients want it cheap and they want it yesterday.

2. Ask every question: of your clients especially. Don’t assume anything. Print buyers are the go betweens. If you misinterpret your client, then you give bad direction or specs to the printer, and the job doesn’t come out as the client expected. It’s your fault if you didn’t dig deep enough.

3. Choose the right vendor: pretty obvious, right? Not so easy unless you’ve covered points 1 and 2 – and have the experience required to discern which printers are most appropriate and the best fit for you.

4. Be consistent: work with your company’s style guide and brand specifications. Printers need this sort of baseline to work from.

5. Work with a stable of vendors: don’t spread your work around too much. Spend a lot of time and budget with one printer, and they’ll be more likely to get things done for you.

6. Pick a new printer as if you’re hiring a new employee: printed samples and specs are like the rep’s resume. Go over them carefully. Prepare questions ahead of time.

7. Try to keep changes at a minimum once a job’s at the printer’s: proofing is key. The buyer should look at everyone’s comments on a proof and consolidate them for the printer.

8. Strategic outsourcing (aka “Know Your Vendors”) works: you can improve relationships with your printers if you handpick them carefully. Have core vendors.

What I loved about these tips from this trio was that they are the same common-sense best practices that print buyers have been using for decades. They still work, and they make a great checklist for anyone new to the field.

One of the speakers delivered this quotable quote: “Print is a highly customized, highly service-oriented commodity.” If that’s not a lovely, oxymoronic sentiment, I don’t know what is.

What do you think?

© 2012 Margie Dana. All rights reserved. You’re free to forward this email. However, no part of this column may be reprinted without permission from the author.

CHESTNUT HILL, MA — April 26, 2012 – The leading independent organization for people who purchase, design for, or market with print and e-media triumphed on its home turf once again with the 2012 PBI Print & Media Boston Conference.

Print Buyers International (PBI) returned to the Hub on April 11, 2012 with a new-to-Boston, one-day format, three all-star keynote speakers and a half dozen hot-topic educational sessions that drew print buyers, print production managers, graphic designers, creative directors, and marcom pros from three coasts and 13 states. Generously sponsored by Concord Litho, 48hourprint, Fujifilm, Japs-Olson Company, Sappi Fine Paper, Shear Color Printing, Villanti Print & Mail, Vision Integrated Graphics Group, and Xerox Premier Partners, the Print & Media Boston Conference drew high praise for the quality of its speakers and program.

“(I most enjoyed) the people I met and the ideas we shared during the Brainstorming Session and Cocktail Reception,” commented attendee Bree Williams, coordinator of Creative Services Print & New Media for The Golf Channel. “I always learn something new,” added another enthusiastic attendee. “Daniel (Dejan) was entertaining and informative as always, Don (Carli’s) session is the best sustainability session I have seen to date. Cheryl (Kahanec’s) was interesting and informative, and Blair (Weidig), Maria (Cipicchio) and Tom (Pixton) were great because they were so open and candid about the reality of their positions.”

Featuring expert presenters and high-interest educational sessions, the 2012 Print & Media Boston Conference examined in-depth the critical issues facing media buyers and users today, such as:

• What You Need to Know About Quick Response Codes & Augmented Reality Codes
• How to Interpret a Printer’s Equipment List – And Why You Need This Skill
• Making Sustainable Media Supply Chain Choices
• Innovations in Digital & Variable Data Printing
• How to Source Printing in 2012: Best Practices

The pre-lunch Sponsor Introductions and Brainstorming Session led by PBI founder Margie Dana triggered meaningful interactions between attendees and sponsor representatives. “It’s always nice to find a new local print vendor that you did not know about before!” related a Boston-area attendee.

Sponsors, too, found the one-day format and frequent opportunities for interaction encouraged closer connections between attendees and the event sponsors. “Everything was put together wonderfully and we feel like it was great exposure for us to get in front of a targeted, knowledgeable audience,” observed first-time sponsor Kat Villanti of Villanti Print & Mail. “As a former print buyer, it was inspiring to be surrounded by such savvy buyers.”

7th Annual PBI Print & Media Conference Heads to Chicago

With the 2012 Print & Media Boston Conference now a part of history, Dana is already gearing up for the 7^th Annual Print & Media Conference in the fall. The much-anticipated two-day event will be held in Chicago on Tuesday, October 9^th and Wednesday, October 10^th, 2012. This is the second year that PBI’s show will be co-located with Graph Expo, the industry’s largest trade show. It will be preceded by a half-day intensive Color Management Workshop on Monday, October 8^th, led by award-winning graphic designer, art/creative director, production manager and print buyer Daniel Dejan.

To sponsor or find out more about the 2012 Print & Media Conference and Color Management Workshop, contact Dana at mdana@printbuyersinternational.com. Follow the latest Conference news and PBI updates by signing up to receive Margie Dana’s weekly e-newsletter, Margie’s Print Tips.

“It was great to return to Boston and receive an enthusiastic welcome from our attendees and sponsors,” related Dana. “Now we can take what we learned from everyone’s feedback and build the best two-day PBI Conference in Chicago next October.”

About Print Buyers International

Print Buyers International (PBI) is an independent organization that caters to professionals who purchase or influence the purchase of print and other media. Each fall PBI hosts an annual two-day conference to provide education and networking for professionals who work with printing and the graphic arts. It also hosts one-day regional conferences throughout the year. Learn more at www.printbuyersinternational.com.

For More Information

Margie Dana, Founder

Print Buyers International

E: info@printbuyersinternational.com.

T: 617-730-5951

Mariah Hunt

In the past several months I’ve written quite a bit about printers’ equipment lists and why they’re important to print buyers. The feedback I got convinced me to offer a session devoted to this topic at our recent PBI BOSTON conference.

Both speakers have tons of experience. Mariah Hunt, Senior Production Manager at Digitas, has over 20 years in the business – and awards that speak to her excellence. Mariah is also a board member of NEDMA and the VP in charge of this year’s annual conference. (I’ll be there; will you?)

Jason Benagh

Jason Benagh is Manager of Client Services for DG3 Managed Services and works on site at Vertex Pharmaceuticals. He, too, has more than 20 years in the biz, having started out on the vendor side before jumping over to buyer positions.

They advised print buyers to take three key steps when reviewing an equipment list:

1. Verify that the vendor has the capabilities they say they have.
2. Ensure they are the owners of the equipment.
3. Make sure that the equipment list is up to date.

Jason demonstrated the ridiculousness of an “everything but the kitchen sink” kind of list. He’d printed off a real list from a printer’s site (kept anonymous) and unfurled it for the crowd. He’d taped the list together end to end (8 ½ x 11” sheets), and there were half a dozen pages once the printout hit the floor. Yes, way too much information on a web site.

Mariah said that at Digitas, she often has printers come into the agency to do their presentations for her team. She immediately flips to the back of the booklets they’ve prepared and occasionally has to ask, “Where’s the list?” It’s a red flag if a printer doesn’t include The List.

What do print buyers look for?

The speakers also talked about what information they seek when checking out potential new print vendors:

• Reliability
• Volume/capacity
• Specialty capabilities

How should buyers gauge reliability? Jason said he’ll “pull a Dun & Bradstreet®” (credit report) on a potential printer. He also recommends that buyers visit the plant “and make sure it’s not too quiet.” Digitas doesn’t pull D&B reports on printers but insists that printers have a Disaster Recovery Plan.

Other words of advice related to volume and capacity.

If a printer’s sitting on one press only and you need that press, you should make sure the printer has a backup plan if the press goes down. This brought up the value of equipment redundancy; that is, a printer having more than one press of the same kind.

Jason said that a good equipment list includes a short explanation per category or an equipment list that explains what the pieces do.

Good news for printers: Mariah looks for new vendors all the time, and the first thing she asks is: “Do you have a list?” She also asks printers, “What’s your perfect job (sweet spot)?”

You should always visit the plant, the speakers advised. And if you can’t literally get there, use video services like WebEx® to take a tour. “Do not sit in the customer lounge,” they added. Instead, “hang out with the pressmen. Get a sense of the pressman running your job. Is he nervous or not?” Mariah mentioned finding out “How many sheets have they run before I got here? It could be huge; I’m paying for them.” Jason noted he likes it when a sales rep knows a pressman’s name without looking at nametag in the pressroom. It shows that a relationship exists.

How much do buyers rely on the equipment list?

“We rely heavily on the list for new vendors.” (Are you listening, printers?) They also said they pay special attention to equipment changing hands during acquisitions and buyouts. Mariah noted that an acquisition doesn’t mean the equipment necessarily moves with the acquisition. (The new owner buys the client list but not always the equipment.)

Outsourcing precipitates more questions. Our speakers recommended buyers ask printers questions such as who’s doing the work, how close is the relationship, and who has control over/responsibility for the quality.

Jason said he once had a sales rep come in, admitting, “I’ve never sold printing before.” He told him to “keep moving.” “You need [a sales rep who’s] the mover and the shaker,” added Mariah. Buyers shouldn’t feel bad if they need to change print reps, she said. (I agree. Sometimes the fit’s just not right.)

Bottom line? Ask questions.

1. Ask a printer for his or her capabilities, client names, and samples.
2. Set expectations with sales reps.
3. Always ask questions.

It was a good session by two experienced professionals. It went by much too fast. I love listening to buyers inform other buyers.

Jason had a gem of a quote. I believe he was speaking for all print production professionals when he said:

“We don’t covet the information we have – we love to share with new people.”

© 2012 Margie Dana. All rights reserved. You’re free to forward this email. However, no part of this column may be reprinted without permission from the author.

For now, I’m dying to tell you what I thought. Remember, I’m a veteran show producer. This was my 8^th PBI conference, which qualifies me to judge the merits of the show from a producer’s perspective. And if you don’t know me, know this: I hold the bar way over my own head in just about everything I do. I am a perfectionist and pretty critical of my work. Always have been.

During this one-day PBI BOSTON, I delivered opening comments and closing thoughts, ran the Brainstorming session, introduced all of the speakers, listened to every speaker’s presentation, and in general, tried to experience this show as an attendee as well as a sponsor.

It was a good conference. No, it was a great conference. In addition to the venue and the food (excellent, with terrific service from the Inn at Longwood), the fact that all speakers were “on their game,” my PBI associates rocked (thanks, Phyllis, Marcia, and Matt!), and almost every single registered attendee was actually there, I think this was possibly our best show ever.

Here’s why.

Our sponsors were not just supportive, but enthusiastic. We are blessed with many long-time returning sponsors. Hats off to Xerox, Fujifilm, 48hourprint, Japs-Olson, Sappi Fine Paper, Concord Litho and Vision Integrated Graphics. I’m getting to know individuals from sponsoring firms, which makes a huge difference. Things work better for show producers and for the sponsors when this happens. I’m more sensitive to their needs (hopefully!) and they are to ours. And this year we welcomed new sponsors Shear Color Printing and Villanti Print & Mail. Terrific folks, all of them! I spent time talking to all of our sponsors, and I enjoyed that.

Not only were they generous with their support, our sponsors were excited about being a part of our show. The energy that this created literally changed the atmosphere in the room.

Our attendees were a hopeful bunch of pros. We had many repeat attendees but also attracted new folks from the likes of Ghirardelli Chocolate, Boston Beer Company, Overland, Deutsche Bank, Cronin and Company, Emmanuel College, and Grand Circle Travel. I love seeing new people at PBI events!

By a show of hands, over 90% had 10 or more years of experience. This is typical. Only 2, I believe, had less than 1 year (and I’m going to interview them for my “New to Print Buying Research”). Many attendees were creatives, many were marketers, and of course, the rest identified as print buying professionals.

Check this out: I use my Brainstorming session to get the crowd talking, to tease out hot topics, ignite discussions on things that matter most to them. A few times I broached the subject of print buying “in decline” as a career. What I realized from this session was that print buyers are positively still in love with their careers, are forward thinking, are facing the future with their chins up and eyes wide open. They are learning more about business, finance, marketing and new media.

They are very, very busy. They don’t have time to waste. I don’t believe they spend a lot of time on social media for business. They still count on their providers and on their colleagues. More than a few are involved in peer groups. I brought up peer groups because it just occurred to me on the spot – that’s the beauty of Brainstorming. I go with the flow, and this audience of pros inspired and enlightened me.

Is the volume of print down? Of course!! That’s a nonissue; we all accept it. But from my observations at PBI BOSTON, professionals who source or influence the sourcing of print are interested in what’s next in print. What about new applications and advances in digital printing? They’re all ears when it comes to learning about tracking direct mail programs. They want to figure out how and when to use QR codes (and how to design beautiful ones). They’re struggling with the rest of us as we try and grasp supply chain sustainability issues – and what it will mean for our businesses.

There was no hand wringing, no whining, no mean spiritedness, and no blaming the print industry. The audience was there to learn from one another and from our speakers. They were happy to meet and mingle with our 9 super sponsors.

Much more socializing took place than at previous shows. I will be surprised if attendee and sponsor feedback doesn’t corroborate this.

An engaged, educated audience. Enthusiastic sponsors. Rock star speakers. Leaving a print buying conference on such a high note? Priceless.

© 2012 Margie Dana. All rights reserved. You’re free to forward this email. However, no part of this column may be reprinted without permission from the author.

Printers know when positions open up, and often it’s in their best interest to let customers know, especially customers who’ve confided in them that they’re looking for a new gig. And don’t forget: you might have a friend in the business who’s looking for a new position, which is another reason why you want your print reps to “talk shop.”

Even if you’re not actively looking, this kind of news bulletin could yield a serendipitous bounty. Who was it that worked at a university publications office and heard from a printer that a plum job at a local mutual fund company was open? Oh, yeah: me! A well-known print professional named Kitty (if you’re a New Englander, you know Kitty!) told me about a job that had my name written all over it. I applied, got the job, and worked there happily for 11 years till I started this new, wild adventure.

When was the last time you had a conversation with your printers that didn’t involve either a job in production or one in the planning stage? Take advantage of your printers’ knowledge – not only about print manufacturing but also of local job opportunities.

© 2012 Margie Dana. All rights reserved. You’re free to forward this email. However, no part of this column may be reprinted without permission from the author.

One of the sessions at last week’s Publishing Business Conference & Expo in NYC included a presentation by Mark W. White, VP of Specialty Marketing for US News & World Report. It was a session about finding more profitability in the magazine retail market.

Consumer magazines count on supermarkets and bookstores for most of their sales, but both channels are down dramatically since the recession. Trips to stores are down, thanks to rising gas prices.* Add to that the impact of Borders going under and Barnes & Noble pushing ebooks on their Nook e-readers, and you can see how sales of magazines have been impacted.

Competition among retailers is very fierce, and publishers are trying to differentiate their products. One way to do this is with new formats and new pricing structures.

White spoke about how US News reacted to the decline of newsstand sales. In essence, they turned their “newsstand-only” products into “newsstand-plus” products. In doing so, they broke the 11 unwritten rules of bookazine publishing.

If you’re unfamiliar with the term, a “bookazine” looks like a magazine but acts like a book. It’s neither a weekly nor a monthly. It’s sold at newsstands as well as in the magazine sections of retail stores. It is a hybrid publication, usually born from a magazine. It is not part of the normal frequency schedule. Its cover price is somewhere between $9.95 and $19.99. There’s usually little or no advertising inside.

Mark gave this example: let’s say you’re an empty nester, and you and your spouse want to focus on cooking healthier meals for the two of you. You could pick up a copy of a special Cooking Light publication that featured cooking for two, rather than a regular issue of the magazine that had only one article about cooking for two.

This is the power of bookazines: they focus on a specific need. They have great visibility and are consistent with their brand.

What are those unwritten 11 bookazine rules that US News & World Report broke?

1. Impulse buy. “The US News brand has always been about people seeking information and answers rather than about impulse decisions,” White noted.

2. Spinoff of a subscription magazine

3. Includes a subscription offer for parent title

4. Few ad pages

5. No ratebase. (Four US News bookazines have ratebases, which are guarantees made to advertisers regarding the minimum number of copies that will be sold or mailed.)

6. No controlled circulation, which are copies sent free of charge to the recipient.

7. Sold only on newsstands. “That’s crazy,” said White, “why’d we ever think this way?” US News now sells its bookazines on Amazon, its own web site, and other venues. It’s also set its sights on other web stores, e-editions, historic sites, and science museums.

8. On sale only 3 months

9. Not suited to B2B advertisers

10. Not suited to bulk sales

11. Not suited to libraries

Bottom line, says White? “You have to be nimble in the magazine business. It all starts with your magazine brand.” Some of the publisher’s best-selling hybrids are these: Best Graduate Schools, Best Colleges, Best Hospitals, and 50 Smart Money Moves.

Let me publicly thank Mark for his presentation and for sharing his knowledge with us. You can reach him via email at MWHITE@usnews.com.

What I took away from this presentation was not just information about the bookazine as a hybrid product. It inspired me as a print media professional to keep exploring new formats and sales channels. New possibilities await us all.

* The impact of gas prices on retail magazine sales is enormous. There is a direct correlation, though it trails by a couple of months. Gas went up in April but magazines did NOT tail off. Any guesses why? Answer will appear next week.

© 2012 Margie Dana. All rights reserved. You’re free to forward this email. However, no part of this column may be reprinted without permission from the author.

Bo Sacks

Last week I attended one of my favorite shows: the Publishing Business Conference & Expo in NYC. This year’s theme was “Cashing in with Cross-Media Content,” and no matter what part of the industry you identify with, the information was relevant and thought provoking. The Conference proper took place the first two days, followed by a half-day TH(ink) E-Reading Summit. Though these events cater to book and magazine executives, much of what I heard applied to those of us working in or with commercial print and e-media. We are all in the communications business. I guess today you could also call it the content-delivery business, but that really doesn’t roll off the tongue.

Let me tell you about this show. Though you’d expect me to start at the beginning (“a very good place to start”), forgive me if I start my reporting at the end of it. The closing keynote by the one-and-only Bo Sacks was a mind-blowing ride through the incredible progress of publishing, tablets, and all-things “E.”

No one could’ve delivered a better finale than Bo, who somehow managed to give a terrific synopsis of the two days’ worth of sessions, having written it in the wee hours the night before the last day (presumably). His words painted a memorable parting picture for all of us to take away and savor.

We’re facing a time of hope and opportunity, niches and media-agnostic content. We are faced with the tired, old “print is dead” position daily, but it’s not dead, not by a long shot.

With a whip-smart combo of Photoshopped pictures and witty captions, Bo Sacks gave a closing commentary that carried us along on publishing’s historical journey. Among the many memorable sound bites I took away were these – please note: he cited several speakers, but I didn’t catch everyone’s name.

Sound Bites from Bo’s Commentary

Everything is possible. Let’s break down what we think a magazine is and rethink it.

Our role as publishers hasn’t changed. Looking for death is looking in the wrong place.

The not-so-distant is not-so-scary. This is the best golden age this industry’s had in a long time.

Quality will be the best predictor of success.

It’s not the challenge of adapting but the fundamental shift in communication patterns: this has been changed forever.

Ebooks went from nothing to a billion-dollar market in a few short years.

There is now a non-need for physical ownership (of information, content):  this is a difference between traditional reader and the screenager (love that term!).

Bo quoted Jeff Jarvis: “Media is not built for relationships because our industry was born in a time of factories, not services. We rarely know who our readers are…and we still call them readers.”

“The digital era exposed the folly of past publishing practices,” said speaker Josh Tyrangiel, Editor, Bloomberg Businessweek.

Great stuff finds us.

Publishers should lose their ‘possession-based’ temperament.

How well is old media competing?

Consider this: everyone is a broadcaster.

Truth is substrate indifferent.

Our franchise is not paper.

1 in 3 Americans now owns a tablet device.

What hasn’t changed is the need to read.

Is database now king  - and not content?

Mass marketing is turning into a mass of niches. Niches is where we’re going to make our millions. (And, he added, “there’s gold in them thar hills.”)

Content is more important than the delivery vehicle.

Content marketing has arrived.

The new style of publishing? Universal Niche.

“If the news is that important, it will find me,” said Jeff Jarvis.

David Carr of the New York Times said, “We put the white paper out to get the green paper back.”

“It is the top of the first inning and there is only one out,” someone said it last year, said Bo.

Rethink the unthinkable.

Be prepared: let’s break down what we think a magazine is and construct something different.

We have reached a watershed moment in the history of publishing.

Rethink the unthinkable.

If I had to name the key takeaway from Bo’s remarks, it would be that the business of publishing is bursting with opportunity.

Every conference needs a Bo. I hope there’s one “coming to a theater near you.” In the meanwhile, go to www.bosacks.com and sign up for his daily e-newsletter. While you’re there, check out the “Who Is BoSacks?” page to see where he’s been. It’ll blow your mind.

© 2012 Margie Dana. All rights reserved. You’re free to forward this email. However, no part of this column may be reprinted without permission from the authors.

And you can bet that now and then I need to source something strange, wonderful and totally NEW to me, and no one in my peer group has done it, either.

That’s why I trust a select group of printers to get me out of hot water. You need to, as well.

The best advice I can give to print customers (that includes graphic designers as well as marcom folks) is to develop close business relationships with a small group of different kinds of printers and other graphics professionals (mailing experts and paper reps come to mind).

Once you’ve established this core group of ‘go-to’ professionals, you’ll have access to resources you can’t imagine….until you need them. For example:

• When your boss asks you to produce something you’ve never done before.
• When you have to get something delivered outside of your country.
• When you have to produce a series of materials in different languages.
• When you’ve run out of ideas for a new format for an existing piece.
• When you simply need a professional opinion about the direction you’re heading with a project, and you’d like a professional’s input.

Develop these relationships, and reward them with your business. I’ve decided that the industry’s finest examples of print sales reps aren’t those who sell the most; they are those who are most generous with insights and suggestions. They’re there for you and will do whatever’s in their power to help you succeed.

Keep this in mind when you’re interviewing prospective printers. Will they be ideal partners of yours in this way?

*Remember the hilarious rock musical mockumentary “This Is Spinal Tap?” Someone (may have been Nigel Tufnel, not sure, sketched out the stage set for a song about Stonehenge on a napkin. Only problem was that this someone wrote 18″ on the napkin, not 18′. You can guess what that set looked like. They had to use midgets. I can relate. Math is not my strong suit.

© 2012 Margie Dana. All rights reserved. You’re free to forward this email. However, no part of this column may be reprinted without permission from the author.