Transcontinental Inc. announced that, effective April 2, 2018, TC Transcontinental will transfer to Hearst the printing operations of its Fremont, California facility where Hearst's San Francisco Chronicle — the largest newspaper in Northern California and the second largest on the West Coast — and its related products are printed, and post-press services are conducted. Under the terms of the agreement, TC Transcontinental will continue printing the newspaper in Fremont for a transition period. TC Transcontinental will receive a cash payment of US$42.8 million from Hearst as compensation for the early termination of the printing agreement, for the sale of some of its printing equipment, and for services to be rendered as part of a Transitional Service Agreement. The amount will be received mainly in 2017, and the balance in 2018. Click Read More below for additional information.

For those in the magazine and catalog printing and publishing segments, the past year has been nothing short of dynamic. Although there has been considerable consolidation and downsizing, these trends have opened up doors to other possibilities that are being embraced by printers and publishers alike: niche publications are on the rise and catalogs have evolved to tell their own story. Traditionally, magazines were driven by mass-market titles that could appeal to a wide audience, David Pilcher, VP of sales and marketing at Freeport, Ohio-based Freeport Press, explains. The industry has recently seen a shift in the types of titles that are seeing the biggest growth, he says, and its niche titles that are leading the march into 2018. “This year, we’re seeing publishers offloading many of these big titles,” he says. “Some are calling it chaos. We don’t see it that way. We see a definite trend toward niche titles, with viable business models that take advantage of a more selective consumer base.” Click Read More below for additional information.

Transcontinental Inc., announces the sale of its 50% stake in CEDROM-SNi Inc., a Montréal-based firm specializing in digital media monitoring, to CNW Group Ltd., a Cision company delivering Canadian media intelligence and news distribution services. As part of this agreement, the founders of CEDROM-SNi are also selling their stake to CNW Group Ltd., which now becomes the sole owner. CEDROM-SNi's employees, totalling approximately 110 people, remain employed in Montréal and in the satellite offices of Québec City, Ottawa, Toronto and Paris. Nicole Guillot, Cision's President of Canada and Corporate Director of CNW Group Ltd., noted, "We are very proud to acquire CEDROM-SNi, a company whose product and service offering is among the best-performing in the industry and is complementary to ours. By joining forces, we will be able to offer our customers an enhanced and diversified offering that is perfectly aligned with Cision's global vision to be a leading provider of earned media software and services at the crossroads of public relations, digital and social marketing. We are pleased to welcome the talented employees of CEDROM-SNi who bring leading-edge expertise to Cision, in order to pursue our growth together." Click Read More below for additional information.

With increasing demand in the printing industry for equipment that enables more frequent and faster job changes on press, Flint Group introduces a new, lightweight family of rotec® Sleeves and Bridges designed to increase press efficiency. The new rotec® product line provides the same proven polyurethane coating that is well-known for its durability and solvent resistance in a series of sleeves and adapters that are lighter and easier to handle. The rotec® Lightweight Premium Sleeve – a high performance, plate mounting sleeve offering weight savings up to 40% compared to similar premium sleeves – exhibits excellent dimensional stability for high printing speeds, making it particularly effective in the wide web printing sector. The key to its superior all-around performance is the combination of its light weight and ease of use coupled with the premium construction that provides added strength and stability. The sleeve is further enhanced with an aluminum end plate that seals the edges for extra protection against inks, cleaning liquids and humidity and provides optimum performance and longevity to the sleeve life. Click Read More below for additional information.

With the New Year quickly approaching and thoughts of resolutions, FCL Graphics took this time to reflect on all of the changes 2017 had in store: the company added staff to its leadership team, expanded its direct mail, finishing and binding capabilities, as well as capacity. FCL also has a newly designed website. FCL Graphics is pleased to announce that Amy O’Brien and Donna Caldarulo have joined the FCL leadership team. O’Brien joined in late August as controller and Caldarulo joined in late November as VP, sales support. The company hired both O’Brien and Caldarulo to strengthen its business financially and operationally. Click Read More below for additional information.

Fort Dearborn today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire NCL Graphic Specialties. The transaction is subject to the fulfillment of certain conditions and is expected to close by the end of the year. “As the largest cut and stack label supplier in North America, the acquisition of NCL would provide us additional capacity and would expand our footprint in the Midwest. The proposed acquisition would also enhance our product offering with promotional printing capabilities and enter us into the flexible packaging market,” said Fort Dearborn CEO Kevin Kwilinski. “With the anticipated addition of NCL, we’ll have an expanded breadth of products and services to better serve all of our customers.” Click Read More below for additional information.

Fiscal 2017 Highlights: Revenues decreased by $12.3 million, or 0.6%. Operating earnings increased by $89.2 million, from $212.8 million to $302.0 million. Adjusted operating earnings, which exclude restructuring and other costs (gains) and impairment of assets, increased by $9.9 million, from $283.4 million to $293.3 million, or 3.5%. Net earnings increased by $65.2 million, from $146.3 million to $211.5 million. Adjusted net earnings, which exclude restructuring and other costs (gains) and impairment of assets, net of related taxes, increased by $5.9 million, from $196.3 million to $202.2 million, or 3.0%. Maintained a solid financial position, with a net indebtedness ratio of 0.3x. Click Read More below for additional information.

Transcontinental Inc.'s Media Sector, TC Media, announces the sale of 12 of its publications, as well as their related web properties, to Groupe Lexis Média inc., a company owned by Mr. Elie Akoury and Mr. Frédéric Couture, who will act as President. In total, 75 employees of these various publications and 16 employees from TC Media's Production team are transferred to Groupe Lexis Média inc. TC Transcontinental also concluded a multi-year agreement for the printing and distribution of all of these titles as well as for the printing of the magazines already owned by Lexis Média inc. With the completion of this transaction, 60% of the publications included in the sale process of TC Media's local and regional newspapers in Québec and Ontario, launched in April 2017, are now in the hands of local owners. The newspapers sold to Groupe Lexis Média inc. are: Le Citoyen Rouyn-Noranda, Le Citoyen de la Vallée-de-l'Or, L'Écho Abitibien and La Frontière, distributed in Abitibi-Témiscamingue; L'Action D'Autray, L'Action – Wednesday Edition, L'Action – Weekend Edition, L'Express Montcalm and Hebdo Rive-Nord, in Lanaudière; Le Bulletin, La Petite-Nation and La Revue, in Outaouais. Click Read More below for additional information.

Idealliance expects commercial printing industry sales (all sources) to grow 1.5% to 3.0% in 2018, after growing approximately 1.0% in 2017. Where in that range the industry finishes will depend largely on the strength of the American economy which, in turn, will depend on the size and efficiency of the stimulus Washington delivers. A weak package will mean a finish toward the bottom of the range, and a strong package a finish toward the top. If Washington really comes through, we may have to do something we haven’t done in years: revise a forecast up. Print enters 2018 with sales of approximately $84.0 billion, 9.1% above the 2011 low, but still 14.6% below the 2007 pre-Great Recession level. Diversification continues. Participants in the Idealliance “State of the Industry, 15th Edition” report expect, on average, something other than printing (mailing, fulfillment, database management, marketing services, Web service, etc.) to provide 31.6% of their revenue in 2018, up from just 13.3% in 2012. Click Read More below for additional information.

Baldwin Technology - a world leader in providing process automation solutions, consumables and services for the print, packaging, textile and corrugated industries - has acquired QuadTech Inc., from its parent company, Quad/Graphics. With this acquisition, Baldwin adds all of QuadTech’s highly regarded technology and strategic locations across the Americas, Europe, China, Japan and India. QuadTech is a global leader in the design and manufacture of control systems that help commercial, newspaper, packaging and publication gravure printers improve their performance and productivity. Headquartered in Sussex, Wis., QuadTech maintains a worldwide network of sales and service operations, and sells automated systems in more than 100 countries. Click Read More below for additional information.

It’s hard to believe that the 2017 Printing Impressions 400 ranking of the top printers in the U.S. and Canada, as ranked by annual sales volume, marks our 34th annual list. For more than three decades, our compilation has illustrated key industry trends and chronicled the ups and downs - and, in some cases, the demise due to M&A deals - of specific companies. Like past editions, the 2017 PI 400 reveals the current state and future direction of the printing industry, as well as several hot print market segments that remain ripe for further industry consolidation. For instance, the financial performance of the publicly held printing conglomerates that fill the top spots on the PI 400 has largely been flat. RR Donnelley, Quad/Graphics, LSC Communications, Cenveo, Transcontinental and Donnelley Financial Solutions all reported sales declines for their most recently completed fiscal years in comparison to their previous campaigns. Exceptions included Cimpress (Vistaprint), an online-only, Web-to-print specialist, and Multi-Color Corp., a label printer that acquired the label division of Constantia Flexibles for $1.3 billion in October. Click Read More below for additional information.

The 2,000th Speedmaster XL 106 recently left the production line in Wiesloch-Walldorf and is now being installed at Japanese customer Toyama Sugaki. With this, Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) is celebrating another milestone for this Peak Performance class press. Packaging printer Toyama Sugaki, based in Toyama in Japan with 270 employees, is taking delivery of a seven-color Speedmaster XL 106 with coating unit and extended delivery. It specializes in packaging for the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries. Toyama Sugaki likes the short makeready times, the perfect print quality, and the high production speed of the new press. The Speedmaster XL 106-7+L with anniversary cover on the printing unit will be inaugurated with a certificate on site by Heidelberg Japan and the customer. It will be the company’s second Heidelberg press alongside a Speedmaster SX 74-4-P-H chosen by the customer for its machine fleet. The Speedmaster XL 106 has proven itself in industrial commercial and packaging printers, label printers, and web-to-print printers, which like the wide range of configuration options in the 70x100 format class. Click Read More below for additional information.

Electronics For Imaging, Inc. has announced commercial availability of its newest launched printer, the EFI™ Pro 24f. First exhibited at the recent SGIA Expo, it is the only dedicated flatbed wide-format printer featuring EFI’s proven LED and variable drop grayscale head technologies. It provides precision imaging, fine detail and outstanding image quality for a broad range of applications. Wichita, Kansas-based customer Superior Signs & Engraving is the very first user for the printer. The printer’s premium quality imaging capabilities, with white ink included, and the high versatility and productivity of EFI’s “cool cure” LED technology, have vastly improved throughput and quality at the company. Click Read More below for additional information.

Allen Press, Inc. has upgraded its scholarly journal typesetting platform to Arbortext Publishing Engine Enterprise. The Arbortext Publishing Engine is a cloud-based system that provides the ability to intelligently pull XML and unstructured data from content management systems profile content for targeted audiences and variable deliverable types and automatically generate publications. In addition to the Arbortext Publishing Engine platform, Allen Press improved its workstation-class computers by installing the latest generation hardware and high-resolution video systems. “Upgrading to the Arbortext Publishing Engine helps us accomplish our mission of efficiently producing more jobs,” said Mark Kohlhase, Senior Director of Composition and Training. “This technology will allow Allen Press to enhance our typesetting automation processes, resulting in faster delivery and reduced publishing costs.” Click Read More below for additional information.

More than 300 visitors from around the world and over 40 international trade journalists attended the Packaging Day hosted by Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) at its Wiesloch-Walldorf plant at the beginning of November. The “Pushing the Future in Packaging” event showcased the latest solutions and technologies for packaging printing. The aim of these solutions is to increase the efficiency of all processes through intelligent networking and automation. This applies both to printing high-volume standard packaging as well as highly embellished folding cartons in the luxury segment. Packaging printing is the strongest growing segment in the print media industry. Annual growth rates of around three percent are expected in the coming five years, and around 20 percent for digital printing. Heidelberg announced a broad-based product campaign for this market at drupa 2016, which is now being implemented consistently – in both offset and digital technology. As key note speaker, Steffen Schnizer, Managing Director of Multi Packaging Solutions in Obersulm near Heilbronn, emphasized that demand from brand owners for exclusively finished packaging is on the increase. Nowhere is this truer than in the cosmetics and perfume industry. Purchase decisions are frequently made at the point of sale, where high-quality packaging guarantee the necessary attention. “Heidelberg not only offers its customers the widest range of products for packaging output, but is also the clear market and technological leader in this area,” emphasized company CEO Rainer Hundsdörfer at the opening of the Packaging Day. Click Read More below for additional information.

LSC Communications has signed a multi-year agreement with Bauer Media Group USA, the number one seller of magazines at retail in the country. Beginning in January 2018, LSC will print 17 of Bauer’s popular print titles including Woman’s World, First for Women, In Touch Weekly, Life & Style Weekly, Closer Weekly and J-14, among others. According to Thomas J. Quinlan III, Chairman and CEO of LSC Communications, “With Bauer as one of the most successful magazine publishers in the world, LSC is honored to have been selected for our optimal print production and mailing solutions. We look forward to continuing to support Bauer’s vision for many years.” Click Read More below for additional information.

As many as 200 workers will be out of work by the end of January when the Quad/Graphics facility in Taunton closes, according to the Wisconsin book manufacturer. Emails were sent out Wednesday to workers informing them of the bad news, said spokeswoman Claire Ho. Ho said workers will be offered either a severance package with limited continuation of medical benefits or the chance to work at another of the company’s locations, most of which are in other parts of the country. “We want to take care of them,” she said on Friday from her office in Sussex, Wisconsin. Ho said the plant at 1133 County St., located on Route 140 near the onramp for Route 24, specialized in assembling traditional reading books. Click Read More below for additional information.

Electronics For Imaging, Inc. today reported that Northampton, U.K-based graphics production company Evolution has installed an EFI™ VUTEk® GS3250LX Pro LED hybrid roll/flatbed printer. Evolution chose the 3.2-metre wide printer for its speed, quality of build, and low downtime and running costs. Previously, when its superwide-format graphics work volumes became too large, the company often outsourced to other providers. Now, Evolution can produce that work in-house with a printer that is several times faster than its old flatbed printer. Although Evolution’s machine operators are new to using the printer, they were able to get trained quickly, taking very little time to start producing high volumes of work – more than 200 2440mm x 1220mm panels a day for clients. Click Read More below for additional information.