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

Remy Wright, former industry media personality and Garry Muratore, current industry media personality, were way cool when they bumped into one another at hippy haven Nimbin in northern NSW. The talk was about tuning in, turning on and dropping out, but they assure it only had to do with the problems of dot gain and image manipulation.

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Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) is notorious as one of the biggest busts in the paper industry, going broke owing an estimated US$7.7 billion in international debt. The paper supplier is also gaining a reputation for flouting accepted mercantile rules, suspending repayments to creditors, and hiding behind Indonesia’s shonky legal system. According to a report in Print Week two US creditors, fed up with not being able to collect AUD $480 million awarded to them by a US court, grabbed what they could at a trade show in Florida. Oaktree Capital Management and Gramercy Advisors seized control of APP’s trade fair booth. AAP rather absurdly claimed the hijacking was illegal, but the creditors say they are determined to seize whatever they can, wherever and whenever they can.

No, APP does not have a booth at PacPrint next year.

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Applications are being called for attendance at next year’s Heidelberg Winter University 2005 run by the company’s Print Media Academy, this time in Florida. International managers will meet up on February 5, 2005 in South Beach to reinforce their practical management expertise as regards business strategies, production processes and sales in print media businesses. Part of the deal is to encourage the development of networks linking print media managers from all over the world and paving the way for future exchanges of information and ideas.

If you’re interested contact Greg Grace: Greg.Grace@ap.heidelberg.com

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Just to pass on a notion of the size of the industry, in the US graphic design is a US$5.8 billion business with approximately 16,000+ businesses (with an average of four employees each) that spends more than $400 million annually on capital goods. The industry has over 80,000 independent freelance practitioners without counting designers in agencies, publishers, and other places. The figures come from "The U.S. Graphic Design Business 2004-2009, which will be published by Strategies for Management in late October.

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Now here’s an initiative we could steal; PrintCity is a founding member the Innovation Council - Print (ICP), which is targeting publishers and print buyers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The idea behind ICP is to establish a neutral meeting forum for print buyers and suppliers. The aim is to create additional demand for innovative print and printing technologies. The council will organise congresses and workshops with the theme “innovations for print and paper” and will set up a communications structure to ensure a regular information exchange between print buyers, printing works and suppliers.

Anyone game to have a go here?

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Digital is proving to be not all bad news for Kodak, despite it drying up the cash cow that was film. According to the company, sales of its digital products and services are expected to increase by 36 per cent between 2003 and 2007. This is whole lot faster than originally predicted and will let the company reach its goal of $22 billion by 2006.

Still, you have to wonder how much you can trust the projections of a company that didn’t see digital coming in the first place until it was almost too late.

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And finally . . . this week we were going to mention Roger Strong, the studmaster at Wirrawee Pacing Stud farm at Wagga Wagga, NSW, but Andy draws our attention to the latest word wizardry from The Washington Post in which
readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for various words. And the
winners are:

• 
  
• Coffee (n.), a person who is coughed upon.


• Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained.


• Abdicate (v.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.


• Esplanade (v.), to attempt an explanation while drunk.


• Willy-nilly (adj.), impotent.


• Negligent (adj.), describes a condition in which you absent-mindedly
  answer the door in your nightgown.


• Lymph (v.), to walk with a lisp.


• Gargoyle (n.), an olive-flavored mouthwash.


• Flatulence (n), the emergency vehicle that picks you up after you are
  run over by a steamroller.


• Balderdash (n.), a rapidly receding hairline.


• Testicle (n.), a humorous question on an exam.


• Rectitude (n.), the formal, dignified demeanor assumed by a
  proctologist immediately before he examines you.


• Oyster (n.), a person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddish
  expressions.


• Pokemon (n.), a Jamaican proctologist.


• Frisbeetarianism (n.), the belief that, when you die, your soul goes up
  on the roof and gets stuck there.


• Circumvent (n.), the opening in the front of boxer shorts.