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February 03, 2010

Hospitals Not Ready for Data Increase
Data centers of small and medium-sized hospitals in North America, Europe and China are not prepared for the wave of data that will soon be inundating them, according to a recent report in Health Care IT News. Several global trends, including growth in aging populations, increasing demands on regulatory security and the rise of home care, will greatly increase the amount of data hospitals will need to store and process.

DirectMail.com Announces Patent on Marketing Tool
DirectMail.com, Prince Frederick, Md., announced today that sister firm GeoSoftworks has patented GeoSelector technology, a method for generating user-specified information from a map. GeoSelector marries Google mapping technology with a geo-coding program and then links this output to 200 million consumer records. This allows localized list building, including a count of the number of names and addresses within the specified area and a demographic report profiling residents in terms of 400 characteristics such as age, income and housing.

Proforma Sees Record Growth in 2009
Proforma, Cleveland, announced record-setting expansion in 2009, with the addition of 150 new franchisees. This surpassed the previous record of 118 set in 2004. The total number of Proforma owners is 722. Among the 150 new members are four “multimillion dollar distributors,” more than 20 million dollar distributors and 33 with more than a half million dollars in sales.

Discussion: QR Codes
A recent New York Times story on how magazine publishers use QR codes—From Print to Phone to Web. And a Sale?—generated some discussion on the PSDA Principals’ Listserv this week.

Kodak Revenue, Profit Up
Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, N.Y., reported Q4 2009 earnings of $430 million, compared with a loss of $914 million in last year’s Q4. Fourth-quarter sales were $2.58 billion, an increase of 45 percent from Q3 and a 6 percent increase over last year’s Q4. Revenue from digital businesses totaled $1.99 billion, a 12 percent increase from $1.78 billion in the prior-year quarter, resulting from the combination of an increase in nonrecurring intellectual property licensing revenue and increased demand for consumer inkjet printer systems, kiosk media and digital plates. MORE

Deluxe Posts Q4 Income Increase
Deluxe Corp., St. Paul, Minn., reported net income of $30.5 million in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, an increase over last year’s $27.9 million. Revenue was $340.3 million for the quarter, a decrease from $364.9 million last year. MORE

Vistaprint Sales and Income Up
Vistaprint, Venlo, Netherlands, reported Q2 revenue of $194.6 million, a 40 percent increase over the $138.9 million reported in the same quarter last year. Net income was $26.9 million, a 45 percent increase compared to $18.5 million last year. The company acquired approximately 1.8 million new customers in the quarter. Average daily order volume was about 57,000, reflecting an increase of 33 percent over the same quarter last year. Average order value, including revenue from shipping and processing, was $36.63, up from $33.57 in the same quarter last year. MORE

Will the iPad Affect Direct Mail Sales?
Robert Wong, chief executive of an Australian firm that digitizes traditional print catalogs for large retailers, says Apple’s newly introduced iPad and devices like it will easily find a place on consumers’ coffee tables in a way traditional laptops have failed to do. He predicts that within five years many retailers will switch from printed catalogs to digital. MORE

Viewpoints: Quad/Graphics-Worldcolor Press Deal
Printing industry observers weighed in last week about reports of U.S. commercial printer Quad/Graphics Inc. planning to buy Canadian rival World Color Press Inc., formerly Quebecor World, for about $1.35 billion. The deal would create North America's second-largest commercial printer by sales, behind industry leader RR Donnelley.

Two views from Canada: “At first blush it looks like RR Donnelley is the loser in this situation as it bid about $1.5 billion for the business last year and was turned down.”

"A bidding war for World Color?"
Printing Industry consultant Clint Bolte writes that Quad’s distinctive culture has never been replicated by any other graphics vendor, and that cultural differences between the two companies may be problematic. MORE