From the Editor: Vital In-plant Support
In-plant Graphics just turned 65. It’s true; the first issue came out in January 1951—a little 30-page digest called Offset Duplicator Review. Four name changes later, and IPG stands alone as the only in-plant magazine in the world. (No pressure there at all.)
But a lot has changed in the trade magazine business since those early days, as you’ve no doubt heard. The printed edition of IPG is no longer the only place advertisers are putting their money. Many of our competitors have folded for this reason, but IPG has stayed strong chiefly by expanding our offerings to in-plant managers. We now run webinars, produce live events—like our Graph Expo breakfasts and the upcoming DigiGov conference—publish an e-newsletter, conduct research, shoot videos and produce lots of exclusive online content.
I know for many of you, the printed edition will always be your first choice, but I worry you may be missing out on our many online resources. I personally put a lot of time into our webinars, videos and web content, so I’d certainly love it if more managers made use of these resources.
You may have opted out of receiving IPG email at some point in the past, or been reluctant to share your address years ago. As a result, our e-newsletter, filled with stories and data you won’t see in the printed magazine, never gets to you, and that’s a pity.
For example, I just published an online-only ranking of in-plants according to their sales per employee, which revealed some surprising results. That won’t appear in the magazine. If you don’t get our e-newsletter, you’ll never get to see data like this.
Likewise, we just launched a major in-plant industry research project. All readers whose email addresses we have on file were invited to participate—with some nice prizes available for those who do. The resulting data is intended to help you benchmark your operation. But if you don’t even know about it, how can your voice be heard?
Here’s an easy way to make sure you don’t get left behind: go to our home page now, and at the very top, under the “subscribe” header, is a box where you can key in your email address. Done.
In the year ahead, we’ll be adding numerous bloggers to our website, all offering helpful management tips. The videos keep coming too, giving you a glimpse of the industry outside your shop walls. Our e-newsletter is the conduit to all of these resources. Don’t seal yourself off. Even if you don’t read every story, at least you’ll be more aware of what’s happening in the in-plant world.
Bob has served as editor of In-plant Impressions since October of 1994. Prior to that he served for three years as managing editor of Printing Impressions, a commercial printing publication. Mr. Neubauer is very active in the U.S. in-plant industry. He attends all the major in-plant conferences and has visited more than 170 in-plant operations around the world. He has given presentations to numerous in-plant groups in the U.S., Canada and Australia, including the Association of College and University Printers and the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association. He also coordinates the annual In-Print contest, co-sponsored by IPMA and In-plant Impressions.
