Time flies when you are having fun, and we had fun putting this issue together. The entire issue is about opportunities--for making more money, for generating more business, and for making the best use of the latest technologies for printing and publishing. Custom content, QR codes, sustainability, and e-books--each of these are among the hottest topics in the graphic arts industry, and we talk, in-depth, about each topic in this issue.

Plus, we present invitations to the latest two Webinars TSR is hosting in May: one about making more money with MIS/ERP systems and another about print automation. Details are in the issue. We have more Webinars planned, so keep an eye out for details about those in the next issue and in various e-mails we will be sending in the next few weeks.

In This Issue

Opportunities in Custom Content Today

By Peter Johnston

Custom publishing has been around for years in the form of magazine inserts, freestand- ing supplements and custom magazines, event publications, and so forth. In addition to print, custom publishers have used other media as they became available, such as CD-based video, streaming Web video, and custom Web sites. Regardless of the medium, the purpose of custom publishing is to deliver content of interest to a particular audience in the hopes of raising the recipient’s opinion of the source, actually selling something, or both.

QR Codes for Marketing: Webinar Highlights

By Heidi Tolliver-Nigro

On April 20, TSR hosted the Making the Best Use of QR Codes for Marketing Webinar. Val DiGiacinto, Vice President of Sales and Partner for The Ace Group (TAG), a marketing and mobile marketing services provider based in New York City, delivered an insightful and in- depth presentation. The Ace Group (which also offers prepress, print, and mailing) is one of the premier providers of QR code campaigns in the country, with clients such as Calvin Klein, Elizabeth Arden, Century 21, SunTrust, and the National Basketball Association.

Exploring Existing Measures of Environmental Impacts of Print: A Survey of Existing Practices

A Research Monograph of the Printing Industry Center at RIT

The RIT Sustainable Print Systems Laboratory recently conducted a survey of companies in the printing in- dustry to begin to characterize the state of sustain- ability practices and to better understand the specific needs and challenges of measuring the sustainability of print. The survey focused on self-reported measures of sustainability and the factors that might influence this measurement.

Report Excerpt: Reading E-Media: the End-User Perspective

By InfoTrends

InfoTrends has released a new report entitled Reading E-Media: The End-User Perspective that presents anal- ysis of the responses of nearly 700 users of dedicated e-reader devices such as the Kindle, Nook, Sony read- ers, from users of multi-purpose devices such as iPads, laptops, notebooks, desktops and smart phones, as well as from a small number of book publishers. Since TSR readers are very interested in this kind of mate- rial, InfoTrends agreed to allow TSR to publish a brief excerpt from the report. TSR thanks InfoTrends for its cooperation.

Upcoming Webinars

• How to Use an MIS/ERP System to Boost Profits
• What Print Executives Need to Know About Automation: the ROI and Best Practices of Print Automation

The Latest Word

ISSN: 1533-9211