Gene Therapy
For some perspective, a 2 lb., 100,000-copy best-seller would require 100 tons of paper, scarcely a ripple on the sea of available supply. Even 10 million copies of “Harry Potter” checks out at 3 decimal points of mill capacity.
Jerry Caruso, managing director and head of the Paper Industry Group at investment banking services firm Goldsmith Agio Helms/Lazard Middle Market, cited 376 mergers and acquisitions in the global paper industry in the past five years, in the August issue of Paper 360 (the member magazine for TAPPI, the leading association for the worldwide pulp, paper, packaging and converting industries, and the Paper Industry Management Association). He notes that “a new strategy has emerged” in the paper business. “Abandoning the old model of vertical integration, companies facing an increasingly competitive global market have been shedding non-core assets to free up capital and management, to focus on core competencies and ways to grow their businesses,” says Caruso.
Eugene G. Schwartz is editor at large for ForeWord Reviews, an industry observer and an occasional columnist for Book Business magazine. In an earlier career, he was in the printing business and held production management positions at Random House, Prentice-Hall/Goodyear and CRM Books/Psychology Today. A former PMA (IBPA) board member, he has headed his own publishing consultancy, Consortium House. He is also Co-Founder of Worthy Shorts Inc., a development stage online private press and publication service for professionals as well as an online back office publication service for publishers and associations. He is on the Publishing Business Conference and Expo Advisory Board.