Top 7 Day Print News Clicks

The most clicked news story in the industry this week was the Print21 coverage of the fallout from the decision by grocery chain Coles to axe its seven million weekly printed catalogues.

The company copped a lashing on its reasons for abandoning the catalogues, with marketing guru Malcolm Auld labelling the move “naïvely woke” and “ridiculous”, while Kellie Northwood said its citing of environmental reasons was “disingenuous”, pointing out that far more CO2 is emitted from digital catalogues than those made from paper. The catalogue printer IVE will suffer a $35m-$40m loss in revenue for every year IVE stays away from printed catalogues.

Number-two story in the industry was our report warning printers on the rise of so-called zombie businesses. Industry watchdogs say unscrupulous operators are using the government’s massive stimulus to run companies during the crisis with wages essentially paid, eviction from premises severely constricted, and creditors’ ability to initiate insolvency proceedings pushed out from three weeks to six months. The watchdogs say the zombie companies are stripping assets, running up debts with no intention to pay suppliers, and going to market with low prices to get cash in.

Coming in at number three was the news that James Malone’s Brisbane based Label Power has bought Melbourne outfit Action Labels and Manufacturing from long time owners Ann and Kay Whitehouse, with Malone immediately installing an Epson SurePress digital UV label press to go after the short run on demand market.