Amazon vs. Ingram
The Lightning Source reps in Ingram’s booth at BEA were kept busy discussing its expanded ability to print full color books on demand.
Asked about Amazon’s new requirement that POD books offered by Amazon be produced only by Amazon’s POD producer BookSurge, a Lightning Source rep just smiled and said everything would be resolved in six months. He just wouldn’t say how.
Merge Out of Chapter 11?
American Color Graphics, an 80 year old printer with 14 locations will emerge from Chapter 11 proceedings by merging with Vertis, a print advertising supplier with 100 locations, also emerging from Chapter 11. (?)
Digital High Speed Ink Jet
Conventional wisdom held that toner based digital printing provided the fastest output speeds consistent with quality demands.
That truism may have run its course. Digital printer manufacturers like Xerox, Kodak, and Oce are introducing high-speed, full color, roll fed ink jet printers that use permanent inks.
While generally intended for direct mail and personalized billing applications, full color book production is also being offered. Kodak claims “offset quality” from its model.
High-speed ink jet printers for digital newspaper production were shown at Drupa 2008, the world’s largest print exhibit, in June.
Paperback Dreams
A new documentary film by Alex Beckstead entitled “Paperback Dreams” chronicles 50 years of two San Fransisco independent bookstores, Cody’s Books and Kepler’s Books. It debuts in November on PBS.
UAC 2008
Ray Merriman and his crew staged a terrific convention in
Are You A Speaker?
Publishing Business Conference is accepting speaker proposals for its annual conference in New York next March.
There’s more information at http://www.publishingbusiness.com/speakerproposals.php
Update
Quebecor World has received bankruptcy court permission to find buyers for its facilities in eight European countries. The web site no longer displays a European presence.
