Clancy . . . overflow . . . the best bits . . . funnies

Heidelberg is perhaps the largest agent in the world for sales of KPG’s plates and over the years has proved to be a strong competitor of Creo’s CTP engines. Now that Creo is becoming part of, and taking a leading role in, GCG the stage is set for some interesting dialogue between the former competitors – especially when you recall that Heidelberg and Creo ended their own partnership on fairly chilly terms at the time of the Scitex takeover.
Is there a diplomat in the house?

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The decision of Creo to finally accept the Kodak takeover offer has much to do with the changing economics of the CTP sector. Once the bright spot in the equipment manufacturers' heavens, sales of CTP hardware, Creo’s core strength, are falling as the first wave of industry migration to the technology comes to an end. Most of the larger engine sales now being made are replacements, not greenfield installations.

The truth is starkly illustrated in Creo’s final independent quarterly results released this week where it reports a loss of AUD$5.3 million compared to net earnings of $2.6 milllion in the same period last year. Equipment sales fell by four per cent even as plate sales rose 53 per cent. Margins on everything were slashed. There are no predictions as to the next quarter’s results due to the Kodak takeover.

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There is no doubt that the corporate takeover of book publishing has led to a curtailing of the range of novels being published. Publishing decisions driven by marketing imperatives mean that slow selling books are quickly remaindered. Decision makers are reluctant to take chances and stick with best-selling names and formulae. This means a lot of new novels remain unpublished – although many aspiring novelists will tell you it was ever thus.

Into this situation steps Xerox in the US with its Aspiring Authors fiction contest. The winning unpublished novelist will receive 100 copies of his or her story, $5,000 in cash, and a possible opportunity to launch a new literary career. In addition, Xerox will print a free paperback copy of every novel entered.

It’s all to do with demonstrating the power of digital printing to produce one-off copies of course and the market is huge. The company estimates 450,000 manuscripts go unpublished in the US each year. We’ll have to encourage Fuji Xerox to have a go in Australia and New Zealand.

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Established authors and their publishers and printers will be the focus of this year’s Galley Club Awards in Sydney. The organisers have released the short listed entries that will be judged. Without wanting to appear xenophobic, Clancy takes comfort in the strong showing of local printing companies figuring in the list. Given that the major awards sponsor, with naming rights, C&C Printing, is but one of a number of very active overseas printers taking part, it is heartening to see Australian companies having a go.

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Two other important awards are coming up – the National Print Awards dinner is being held on Wednesday 25 May as the highlight of PacPrint 05 in Melbourne. You better get in quick if you want a table, or even a seat at a table, according to Alf Carrigan, chairman, who reports it’s going to be a sell out.

The other major awards event is the Sappi Awards, which this year is being held at Sydney’s Luna Park on June 9. The local feature of the only truly global printing awards, the Sappi Trading Printer of the Year competition has attracted record entries from Australia and New Zealand competing against printers from Asia, and Central and South America. Gold winners go forward to the world Sappi Printer of the Year competition, which this year is being held in Shanghai.
Good luck to all concerned.

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And finally … this was supposedly hailed as the quintessential Australian joke in a national contest in the 1970s.

Two drovers meet up during the drought.

“Where are you taking that mob of sheep?” asks one.

“Down to Goondiwindi. I hear there’s some feed still left there,” replies the other.

“Which route are you taking?” says the first.

“Oh, I reckon I’ll take the missus. She stood by me well during the last drought.”