Standard Finishing Systems

An energized Publishing Business Conference and Expo, Book Business and Publishing Executive magazines’ annual event at the Times Square Marriott Marquis, March 19-21, was grounded in optimism and realism, and primed for a promising future in the digital age for book manufacturing and print-based book production.

Addressing the overflow audience at the Marriott's Astor Ballroom, our very own Joan of Arc at the ramparts, Editorial Director Noelle Skodzinski—fully armed with the arguments of comon sense and history to support her—sounded a much-needed balancing and defiant keynote to prevailing “stiff upper lip” scenarios about the decline of the publishing industry. She reminded us, paraphrasing from both Monty Python and the Holy Grail and the Encyclopedia Britannica blog’s notice that it had discontinued its venerable print edition, that publishing is not dead, change is okay, and that the future is alive with new opportunities in our pursuit of continued success and excellence in the publishing business.

INTERQUEST, a leading market and technology research and consulting firm serving the digital printing and publishing industry, today announced that Lulu.com

Printers generally like to talk about investments they’ve made in print technologies—offset or digital. Perhaps that’s because it suggests they’re doing well and that they’re investing in their customers’ businesses. Besides, talking about a slick, new machine that requires little to no makeready time and gets up to color with minimal effort is sexy. Well, comparatively speaking. The clunkier “back-office” equipment found in the typical finishing department is perhaps not as provocative, but talk to most any book printer or trade binder, and they’ll likely confide that the bindery machines are the real workhorses. Indeed, investing in the bindery is just as important

For book manufacturing constituents looking for cutting edge solutions to their bindery equipment needs, an early October trip to Chicago may have been a good place to start. Several manufacturers exhibited their back gluing, casing-in, casemaking and manufacturing lines at the 2002 Graph Expo. Exhibitors were pleasantly surprised by the number of attendees at this year's show (nearly 38,000, according to the organizers), lending an air of optimism to the future of the printing industry. BTM details the latest from some of the exhibitors who were on hand to demonstrate their offerings. Banner Banner American Products (www.banam.com), a manufacturer and distributor of pouch and