BoSacks Readers Speak Out: New Language, The Printer, Mag Efficiency

BoSacks Readers Speak Out: New Language, The Printer, Mag Efficiency,
www.bosacks.com

RE: BoSacks Speaks Out: The World's Newest Language
As a seasoned production veteran, experienced with glue pots to laptops, I would like to answer your question. No, I no longer look at my job as a manufacturing job. I see it as a digital creation and output position. We create and design ads and magazine pages that are then output to paper and to digital edition. The work (the job) to me is in the process, not the result.
(Submitted by a Production Director)

RE: BoSacks Speaks Out: The World's Newest Language
Bo, that was a great riff and a great Bo Speaks Out. Yes, things have changed and changed greatly. I am pretty damn sure that my old boss who was in the industry for 40 years could not have kept his job under today's conditions. He taught me so much of the business and left just in time. He was one of the old style mentors. Do we have any of those left? Keep up the great work. You keep me informed and employable.
(Submitted by a Director of MFG and DST)

RE: BoSacks Speaks Out: The World's Newest Language
Prepress is everything that happens before you bend 'em and send 'em.
(Submitted by a printer)

RE: BoSacks Speaks Out: The World's Newest Language
I prefer Techish to Nerdic. Jonathan
(Submitted by an Unknown)


RE: BoSacks Readers Speak Out: Mag Efficiency, GM Ads, Revenue and Green Pubs
Bob: I just finished reading this RSO and felt compelled to comment on the last exchange - "print 10 and sell 3" - as you noted, this is specific to the newsstand copies. Do you have any data on the total % of copies delivered to an end user via newsstand sale and/or subscription? I once worked for a multi-title publisher (Meredith) that had magazines that ranged in distribution from 100% newsstand to >98% subscription so I am fairly certain that on the whole, 70% of the magazines printed are not tossed. I'm sure that I won't be alone in appreciating a more accurate reflection of the "waste" magazine production.
(Submitted by a paper person)


RE: BoSacks Readers Speak Out: Mag Efficiency, GM Ads, Revenue and Green Pubs
No doubt that the newsstand situation is broken. When in history has 35% efficiency been a laudable goal? The greenies and extremist tree huggers have plenty of dirt on the ink-on-paper set, we don't need to help them fill their shovels by giving them more data to twist to meet their needs. I've been in the industry (printing, then publishing, now paper sales) for 22 years and hope to get at least 20 more out of it. As you know there are a great number of good people working diligently to increase the effectiveness and environmental friendliness of ink on paper while still trying to turn a reasonable profit. Times are tough and will surely get tougher, with a lot of hard work and a little luck, we'll continue to reduce the waste and make the business more "earth friendly".
(Submitted By a Paper Person)

RE: green
Hey Bob, you know I'm sorta an old deadhead/hippie/liberal freak.
But, I just don't give a darn about these "green" initiatives. The only thing I care about is that's green is the paper with dead presidents on it. Let the print/paper/information industry rape the earth. It's gonna happen anyway. Might as well get mine. Besides, we're all gonna die from an attack anyway.
(Submitted by a Senior Director of Manufacturing and Distribution)


RE: Today's Top Contrarian Pick
I like the new look to your blog; you seem to be busier (or more efficient) than ever; the snippets at the margins of your blog are as interesting as the body of text; Keep up the good work. In Paragraphs 9,10,11, the author of this article seems to have taken a page from Sacks. For all those who predict the eradication of print, they're likely wrong . . .
(Submitted by a Publisher)

RE: "Now Amazon wants to Eliminate the Printer."
it is what it is . . . the Darwin model fits for business as well as life.
(Submitted by a Senior Director of Manufacturing and Distribution)

Re: Quebecor World may Lose parent's Printing Business
Would this qualify as the first recorded instance of the ship leaving the sinking rats? I'm just asking.
(Submitted by a Printer)

Re: Quebecor World may Lose parent's Printing Business
Here's a novel thought why not call the Quebecor World spin-off, World Color Press?
(Submitted by a Traffic Director)

Re: Canadian newspapers avoid U.S.-like decline
Ummmm . . . they're not exactly comparable

canada has never had as big an emphasis on sunday circulation, with some having weekend papers

there has always been a bigger emphasis on nondailies in canada. nondailies in the u.s. are doing well here, too.

there are fewer "big metro" dailies in canada of the size of the u.s. "big metro" dailies because there are fewer "big metros". few people realize that toronto is the fourth largest metro area in north america, but there are few canadian cities that can muscle their way into that list.

canada's economy is smaller than california's, with a population spread over a land mass that is larger (ok, most of it is within 100 miles of the u.s. border, lest we forget that toronto is more southern geographically than minneapolis).

its newspaper industry's very nature means that overall it have more going for it demographically and economically than that of the u.s.

as far as western canada goes, that economy is just booming because of the rise of commodity prices. few people know that our biggest source of imported oil is canada. on a trip west last year, the number of help wanted signs was staggering. the economy in the western provinces is far different and "newer" than the older eastern ones, and in the long run, is probably more robust, even if commodity prices pull back. canada newspapers are probably a good place to keep investing, while in the u.s., it's the big metros that are having the problem, and the more "canada-like" small and mid-market segments in the u.s. is kind of an untold good story. when elephants fight, the biggest losers are the ants, as they say. there's lots of good stories out there that are getting trampled.
(Submitted by an Industry Pundit and long time e-pal of BoSacks)