This one is starting to leave the station

-- Graphic Arts Online, 11/3/2008 8:52:00 AM Newsworld Corp. selected an AlphaGraphics franchise to print U.S. copies of the U.K.’s Daily Mail and Mail On Sunday. The publisher will buy a Screen Truepress Jet520 on-demand newsprint solution with a dedicated Standard Hunkeler finishing system to be installed at Dayton, NJ-based printer. AlphaGraphics parent company Pindar is based in the U.K.

Today at Idea Lab -Community News for the Digital Age

We experienced this first hand in Bakersfield with Bakotopia, a social networking site I started for the Californian in 2005. Despite high traffic and audience engagement, it wasn't embraced by advertisers. But in 2007, we created a print magazine that carried the same content as the Web site (sort of a "Best of the Blogs" index).

In that year, Bakotopia more than doubled its number of advertisers, with 78% of them unique -- meaning they were new and not just carryovers from.
. . .
There's a great lesson in there that you won't see reflected in any punditry-filled story about the supposed "death" of newspapers. Most people aren't unsubscribing from newspapers because they're printed, but because the content isn't as relevant to their unique interests as what they read online.

From Seybold on line. (this is a MUST read)

The ad is a nod toward what is possible and what industry suppliers such as Hewlett Packard, Kodak and Océ are preparing for.

Notice who is missing from the list of HP, Kodak, and Oce. Not only Xerox, but Screen. This is an oversight that will be shortly corrected. While all I know is what I read on line and some Print, it looks to me that Kodak is going to have a fight on it's hands, not with HP or Oce, but with the Screen Truepress Jet520. Is it better quality, I don't know. Is it good enough? Given that Newsworld put down the cash and installed at AlphaGraphics, I'm betting it is fine.

Notice that AlphaGraphics now has UK ownership. Donnelly sold them and later bought some big BPO outfit, also based in the UK.

So where does that leave Xerox? From everything I can see it seems we are not going to get on the customized newspaper train. I could be wrong, but from what I've read, that's what it looks like to me.

Here's my two cents to people who have to get this done.

MPS owns the education and government markets . . .for now. We are making great inroads into SMB with Global Imaging and the new boxes in the last couple of years. We have a pretty large installed base of Igens and less around the world. We have to get them working in sync.

There is a window of opportunity that may close rapidly. Ricoh has joined forces with IBM. I'm thinking they are going to be pretty serious in enterprise solutions. Ricoh has the boxes, IBM has the cred. For other combos, check out Print4Pay.com. He seems to keep on top of that part of the industry.

A global information infrastructure with print output is not just another nice or silly (depending on your point of view) idea. If it's wrong, someone should say so. If it's right, we better get on the stick.

Consolidate Government - Lower Taxes

@ RochesterTurning.com: turning the tide upstate:

"We’ve discussed the pros and cons of government consolidation on RT before. Pros would be potentially lower cost of government (and taxes), cons would be potentially less responsiveness to your local needs.

Tom Golisano gave a speech recently to the Rochester Rotary Club where he pushed for consolidation:

Golisano, in his talk, said one first step has to be merging some local government bodies as proof there can be tax savings as a result. “I don’t understand why we need a village manager and village government in the"

I'm thinking that this is a problem we can help solve. Instead of going through the fight of consolidating political domains, why not focus on consolidating the information and the output. Info management without a Print output will not work for government. It is doomed to be a niche market with enormous scaling costs. With Print output, adoption can be quick, scaling can evolve naturally.

It's a natural for a team: MFP's from Gobal Imaging, MPS from XGS, large scale output from PGS partners.

C'mon everyone. Cancel some meetings. Stop answering your emails. Cancel some trips. Figure out how to get the team together. If you can't do it for yourselves, think of my 401K.

If we do it in Rochester first, you have the team in place, the locals will love it, we can use the Hatch Center to test it, we have Igen partners to scale it. Plus no traveling. No education. No marketing. If it works in Rochester, why wouldn't it work wherever government is broken and too expensive. That's a nice organic growth market. Even Wall Street might be able to understand it.

Oops: A Xerox Company Agrees to Buy Comdoc

Print4Pay Hotel: A Xerox Company Agrees to Buy Comdoc:

"Whoa! I had the call at 8:00am this morning and I was flabbergasted. My first thoughts was of this release; Xerox has become the latest technology heavyweight to issue a major round of layoffs.The company revealed on Thursday that the sagging economy has forced a reorganisation plan which could see some 3,000 jobs eliminated. Such a cut would remove five per cent of Xerox's total workforce.

Global Imaging Systems, Inc. is owned by Xerox, Global has agreed to buy Comdoc.

For the sake of almost 3,000 people who lost their jobs, was this a good move by a Xerox owned company? Heck in Rochester the other day, Xerox laid off 40% of the HR department!

Terms of the deal have not been disclosed, however I'd like to see where all of the money came from. You don't go out and lay off 3,000 workers and then buy one of the largest independent dealers for office equipment in the US."

The man has a point. How about $10 million for an employee transition project? We can spread really smart Xeroids all over the country. Plus supply of manufacturers with awesome experienced people. Plus baby boomers don't want to work full time. They just need a good health insurance, a basic pension, and broadband excess. Plus we have to figure out a way to conserve institutional memory. Plus we don't have to spend $385 million to save $200 million a year going forward. Any projection of savings in 2010 is just bookeeping bs anyway.

Why wouldn't we get this right? We get back on the side of the angels and allow Ann and Ursula to hold their heads high.

Xerox prepared to expand in Ohio

read a@ Ohio.com

"Despite record-setting sales of $125 million last year, ComDoc agrees to acquisition

By Paula Schleis"
Published on Saturday, Jan 31, 2009

Xerox is counting on a venerable office equipment supplier in Green to help it reach some 14,000 new customers in Ohio and beyond.

ComDoc, an employee-owned company founded in 1955 that has grown to more than 600 employees in four states, is expected to be acquired by the end of February.

When the ink dries, ComDoc will become part of Global Imaging Systems (GIS), which was purchased by Xerox in 2007. GIS, a wholly owned subsidiary, operates small and mid-sized regional businesses that sell and service office technology, including printers, copiers, scanners and fax machines.

ComDoc Chief Executive Officer Riley Lochridge — who was named the Sales and Marketing Executives International 2007 Executive of the Year — said the decision to be acquired was not made from a position of weakness.

ComDoc had a record-setting $125 million in sales last year.

''An offer was made that we think was good for our employees and our shareholders, . . . and it will be good for our customers,'' Lochridge said.

And in a '''rapidly consolidating marketplace,'' he said, joining forces will make the company even stronger and more competitive.

GIS has made a half-dozen
acquisitions since being purchased by Xerox, according to Xerox spokesman Carl Langsenkamp.

If GIS had their own P&L or whatever. It might help Wall Street understand where organic growth is going to come from. E-paper? anyone. I'm thinking this channel could sell lots and lots of e-paper, if it works as advertised.

Now if we can figure out a really good incentive plan that gets these folks to refer work back to our production partners or to refer prospects to our production partners, that would be good.

The thing is that, except for new installs, the printers who will get it, already got it. What they need is work and prospects. Not education.

e Mulcahy of Xerox, 2008 CEO of the Year : Writes Like She Talks

read at Writes Like She Talks:

"What happens when women lead? I can’t answer that definitively but I’ve read about Xerox and its chief, Anne Mulcahy, before. She was recognized by Chief Executive magazine last June as the tops - the first time for a woman to receive this particular acknowledgement.

BNET has a cute tongue-in-cheek take of the award and the winner. In part:"

We'll keep on eye one how this works through blogosphere.

Xerox Innovation Shines through Industry Recognition

Xerox Innovation Shines through Industry Recognition:

"NORWALK, Conn., Jan. 26, 2009 -- Xerox Corporation (NYSE: XRX) closed 2008 earning more than 230 industry awards, an increase of more than 20 percent over the previous year. Leading industry publications and independent testing and research firms around the world recognized Xerox office products and services for a range of attributes including image quality, performance and technical innovation."

Industry recognition is nice. Selling stuff in the market is better. E paper anyone?

ComDoc Inc. sold to Global Imaging Systems Inc., a subsidiary of Xerox Corp. - Business – cleveland.com

read at cleveland.com

: "The employee-owners of ComDoc Inc. have agreed to sell the distributor of copiers and printers to Global Imaging Systems Inc. of Tampa, a subsidiary of Xerox Corp.

The deal is expected to close by the end of the first quarter. Terms were not disclosed.

Two years ago, ComDoc moved from 42 percent employee-owned to 100 percent. The company, now in Green, was founded in Akron in 1955 as a business equipment sales and service organization by Walter G. Griffith, father-in-law of current Chairman and Chief Executive Riley Lochridge."

Does Global Imaging have a separate P&L? Is it available to look at?

Xerox as Art

From a neat blog I found this morning

A flip through the job files from our Photo-Lettering archive revealed some original type work on the Xerox logo. Note the sliver of ruby cut to thicken up the “E” a hair.

More graphic design history from the PLINC archive in due time…

It ain't just us

read @RochesterTurning.com:
"Gee, and I thought dumping 1,300 people in a depressed economy was a pretty big deal. Check out this lede in the D&C

Layoff announcements from Eastman Kodak Co. used to send shockwaves through the community, as nearly everyone had family or neighbors who worked for the film giant.

Thursday’s announcement of 1,300 local layoffs still hurts, but the Rochester area is used to bad news from the company."

Cool: Conlin’s Digital Print Finds Success with Xerox iGen4 Presses —PI News : Printing Impressions

read at Printing Impressions:

"KING OF PRUSSIA, PA/ROCHESTER, NY—Jan. 29, 2009—Armed with two Xerox Corp. iGen4 presses, Conlin’s Digital Print and Copy Center can match customer brand colors quicker and produce higher quality jobs in a shorter period of time. According to the King of Prussia, PA–based print provider, the iGen4 press’ automated color matching is a competitive advantage – by delivering color excellence with less manual effort."

Here's the buried lede:

“Since installing the iGen4 presses, our print operators have cut an hour off the daily setup and maintenance routine, including the time saved with advanced color profiling,” said Bill Conlin, president, Conlin’s Digital Print and Copy Center.

I would have got that in the headline, instead of " Xerox blablabla Success blablabalbla

For me, the cranky viewer, the first paragraph reads:

"KING OF PRUSSIA, PA/ROCHESTER, NY—Jan. 29, 2009—blalblabla. . . . .Conlin’s Digital Print and Copy Center blablablablabala King of Prussia, PA blablablablabla. . . . . . with less manual effort."