Printers in Sydney and NSW are on edge, as the growing Covid outbreak sends four LGAs into full lockdown, with premier Gladys Berejiklian so far avoiding closing the whole city.

New Zealand’s night of nights, the annual Pride in Print Gala Awards dinner event, is all systems go for tonight, unless you live in Wellington, or NSW.

The Victoria PICA awards gala evening has been rescheduled, with the venue delaying its renovation reopening, causing the print event to change to Friday 6 August.

There was little in the NSW budget for printers or businesses of any size, who were more concerned with the possibility of a city-wide lockdown should the Covid cases escalate significantly.

Print industry leaders were among those spending a freezing night outdoors to highlight homelessness in the Vinnies CEO Sleepout, laying their heads down on cardboard around the country.

Print business owners are facing a 2.5% rise in the minimum wage from 1 July, and a 0.5% increase in everyone’s super on the same date. The rises come on the date paper prices are going up.

The Australian industry is set to celebrate the PICAs, with registrations now open for a series of glittering presentation evenings planned for state capitals during July.

TRMC has moved its SA training review to larger premises, in response from strong response from the local industry, which it says has been “overwhelming".

Melbourne has come out of its fourth lockdown, with print businesses and everyone else hoping this is the final one, although few would bet against more coming.

The latest issue of Print21 is arriving on the desks of print business owners and managers around Australia and New Zealand, with the front cover providing a dazzling example of the progress of print.

Fujifilm is back online, after closing down its external online networks to repel a suspected cyber ransomware attack last week. No customer data was breached.

Leading women in the print industry took part in a webinar on bridging the industry’s gender communications gap, which also highlighted generational differences.

Ball & Doggett is running a stocktake sale next week, with printers able to secure huge discounts, saving up to 70 per cent on offset, digital, wide format, and packaging substrates, and consumables.

The just released National Accounts show the Australian economy has grown bigger and faster than anyone predicted, and print businesses are riding the wave of business and consumer spending, with business investment running at decade high levels.

Papermaking giant Stora Enso is selling its German newsprint mill, with the new owners to convert it to containerboard, taking 310,000 tonnes of newsprint out of the rapidly declining market.

Print companies will not be among the recipients of the Victorian government's $250m support package, as business braces for the state's much maligned Covid lockdown strategy to be extended.