North Queensland printer Lotsa Print and Signage is back with the 53rd issue of its politically incorrect house magazine Lotsa Laughs. "If you find this publication is not to your liking, please destroy it," advises publisher and Lotsa co-owner Peter Martin.

Australian Paper signed a deal with Trade Envelopes to boost its envelope business and will produce 75 million envelopes a year that are currently being manufactured overseas. The Trade Envelopes plant in Sydney will be expanded with seven more employees and extra machinery.

"It was the best of times; it was the worst of times." Retiring Printing Industries CEO Bill Healey will be farewelled tomorrow at a lunch in Sydney. In his final column for Print21 magazine, Bill reflects on five tumultuous years at the head of the industry's peak body.

Stellar Print on Queensland's Gold Coast has revamped its prepress department with a new Fujifilm-supplied Screen B2 thermal platesetter and XMF workflow. “We felt we needed to improve our quality, reliability and efficiency to compete on the open market," said Jeff Roberts of Stellar Print.

Five finalists in PrintNZ's Apprentice of the Year award will be counting down the days to the annual Pride in Print awards to be held in Auckland on May 13. The finalists are: Andrew Jenkins, Quality Print; Sione Tonga, Stratex; Faanuualii Suafoa, PMP Print; Paul Falvey, Printlink; and Martin Maunsell, Orora.

Chemicals manufacturer Solenis Australia has signed a deal to buy the ANZ division of pulp and paper chemicals maker Nuplex Industries for $A21 million. Nuplex's manufacturing site in Victoria and its staff will be transferred with the sale.

The Australian printing industry needs a coordinated approach to deal with the impact of digital technology, according to the recipient of a Visual Connections research grant. 'The printing industry cannot survive in isolation as the world moves forward into an integrated and automated future.'

Some green initiatives are better than others and some have more credibility than others. The ones that bash paper are the worst and if you hear claims that paper’s use is responsible for the mass destruction of trees, be suspicious, says sustainability consultant Laurel Brunner.

The PIAA board has appointed Sydney-based Andrew Macaulay to replace Jason Allen as CEO after a recruitment process involving more than 100 applicants from Australia and overseas. Acting president Kieran May said the board was unanimous in its choice.

Manroland has installed a brand new Roland 707 LV HiPrint seven-colour sheetfed offset press at packaging giant Orora's new Greenfield plant in New Zealand. "The new Roland 707 offset will boost Orora’s high speed production operation," said Nabil Askari, GM, Orora NZ.

Environmental groups have warned that a massive new $2.6 billion pulp mill opening later this year in South Sumatra could threaten Indonesia's remaining virgin forests. "APP, while it has been presenting itself as a champion of zero deforestation, is building one of the world's biggest pulp mills."

Australian businesses need a digital transformation strategy to avoid being left behind in an increasingly digital world, according to a new study from Canon which has found that one in five Australian businesses have no digital strategy and only 14% have fully digitised processes.

Australia’s largest magazine publisher Bauer Media Group is selling off its award-winning motorsport magazine Auto Action, that was launched in 1971. The final edition will be published early next month.

Italian web-fed print finishing company Tecnau will showcase its new Libra One book-block system at this year's drupa. Tecnau will also exhibit a range of new and existing products on the stands of partners including Ricoh, Screen, Canon, Xerox, HP, Horizon, Fujifilm and Böwe Systec.

Reinforcing the unique IP underlining its new corporate vision, Epson 25, the Japanese-based company is one of the top 100 companies singled out for the prestigious international award for the fifth straight year

Blue Star Group, a division of IVE, has continued its expansion drive with the acquisition of Melbourne print and communications specialist Fineline Printing for an undisclosed amount. Fineline CEO Neil Collyer (pictured) will stay on but it's understood there will be several job losses.