Choose Your Path With Vigor
Welcome to 2002. I hope the holiday season brought you an
abundance of what truly matters in this world, such as peace, love and chocolate
cake with large mint swirls.
I'm obviously
joking—you know, about the love part. The other two, of course, are absolute
necessities.
In all
seriousness, the past holiday season gave me time to consider a few
often-overlooked things in life that uplift me. You know the kinds of things I'm
referring to—the people, places and images we often take for granted, but
wouldn't be the same without. One thing on my list—ranked slightly below my
late grandmother's rocking chair but a few notches above my cherished poster of
supermodel Kathy Ireland—was you.
You?
That's right,
you!
One of the best
perks about working on
Print Solutions
(besides having
the chance to type "large mint swirls" with a straight face) is that we get to
hear firsthand the triumphs and trials of our readers. Every day, we listen as
intelligent and motivated document professionals speak candidly about their
successes and challenges. Every day, we understand it's our job to provide a
magazine that helps distributors, manufacturers and suppliers grow their firms.
We'll continue this effort in 2002.
Print Solutions
' cover story this month, our 13th Annual State of the Industry Report beginning on page 50,
highlights the divergent paths companies are taking to succeed in this rapidly
changing industry. We feature five successful firms and their growth strategies,
sharing insight as well as independent research into how the industry might look
in the future.
Perhaps you've
adopted a growth method similar to one featured in our cover story. Or maybe
you're heading down a different road—one that's careful and well-mapped, say,
or one that seems to include pothole after pothole.
In any case,
what's more important than the five companies' paths is the way they've moved
down them—with confidence instead of caution, fervor instead of fear. They all
came to a crossroads in the recent past and decided to take courses that,
however formidable or unconventional, have made them stronger companies today.
The best part? They're all eager to discover new directions.
We all saw plenty of changing trends in 2001—the slowing
pace of acquisitions among large manufacturers and commercial printers, the
increased adoption of e-commerce, the growing importance of non-conventional products such as promotional items—but one constant remains: Success is predicated on the strength of customer relationships. Prime examples of customer-driven firms are Fleet Graphics and Promotions Inc., the company featured in our monthly Adding
Value department (page
12), and Advance Business Graphics, the company featured in our monthly E-Files
department (page 41).
Considering
the decreasing demand for conventional forms and the sluggish economy, the
state of our industry is quite healthy, especially for firms that do whatever
it takes to give their end users peace of mind. In 2002—as in any year—those
are the companies that will take the cake.
Darin Painter
Managing Editor
Editor in
Chief
Peter L. Colaianni, CAE
Vice President, Publications & New
Media
Brad Holt
Managing Editor
Darin Painter
Assistant Editors
Kara S. Carpenter
Rita Tiefert
Circulation Manager
Diane Saunders
Art Director/Production
Manager
Roxanne Rash
Contributing Editors
Mark J. Trumper
J. Buster Weinzierl, CDC
Publications Committee
Gary W. Nelson,
Chairperson
Allen
Conway
Ric Fisher
Ginger Garrett
Dennis King
Kevin Lombardo
Marvin A.
Makofsky, CFC
Markus
Marfurt
Dominic
Mencarini
Donald D.
Patteson, Jr.
Nick Nesci,
CFC
Jeffrey P.
Townsend, CFC
Mark
Trumper
Advertising Sales
Jack
Burris
The Townsend
Group Inc.
4920 Elm St.,
Ste. 325
Bethesda, MD
20814
Phone: (301)
215-6710
Fax: (301)
215-7704
Print Solutions
Online
Print Solutions,
the only industry magazine to win awards for writing
and design excellence, is available online at
www.printsolutionsmag.com.
The site includes daily news, a comprehensive archive
of Print Solutions articles,
a complete media kit, links to industry companies and other features not included
in the magazine.
Print Solutions
is the official publication of the Print Services & Distribution Association (PSDA), the Association for Business Printing Independents.
Unsolicited manuscripts are welcome. Please address all submissions to: The
Editor, Print Solutions
Magazine, 433 E. Monroe Ave., Alexandria, VA 22301-1693.
Phone (703) 836-6232, fax (703) 549-4966. You can reach us via email at
bholt@printsolutionsmag.com
Visit our World Wide Web site at www.printsolutionsmag.com.
Volume 40, Number 1, January 2002.
Print Solutions
(USPS 205-400, ISSN
1535-9727) is published monthly by DMIA, 433 E. Monroe Ave., Alexandria, VA
22301-1693, (703) 836-6232.
Subscriptions: $29/year for DMIA
members included in dues, $49 for non-members (plus postage for Canada and
foreign). Periodicals postage paid at Alexandria, VA, and additional mailing
offices.
Postmaster: Send address changes to
Print Solutions,
433 E. Monroe Ave., Alexandria, VA 22301-1693.
Statements of fact and opinion are
the responsibility of the authors alone and do not imply approval on the part of
the Publications Committee, Officers or Membership of DMIA.
Copyright 2002 by DMIA. Articles may not be reprinted without
publisher's permission.
Printed in the USA.
