IPG Visits Two NYC In-plants

On Monday, IPG Editor Bob Neubauer traveled to New York City to visit the in-plants at two major Manhattan universities: Columbia University and New York University. Like in-plants everywhere—particularly those in cities—both operations were tight on space, so there wasn't much room between equipment.

While Columbia's operation—inside the famed Columbia Graduate School of Journalism—is, like many in-plants, on a lower level and somewhat hidden from the public eye, NYU's in-plant enjoys a prominent street-level location in Greenwich Village, where residents often stop in to buy postage from the front desk. Both shops have done away with offset presses and run several black-and-white and digital printers.

At Columbia Print Services, staffed by 21 employees, Executive Director Miguel Pagan and Associate Director Daniel Romanello told IPG about their struggles to show university departments that print is, in fact, a sustainable option, not a "tree killing" waste. (Placards around the shop remind visitors that more trees are planted each year in the U.S. than are harvested.) The in-plant now uses recycled paper with 100 percent post consumer waste for all of its black-and-white jobs, and touts that fact internally.

New York University enjoys a very visible location on a city street in Greenwich Village.

The managers noted that the in-plant's move into digital color printing a decade ago was a big factor in its growth since it allowed the shop to keep more work in-house. Print Services is about to upgrade its digital color printers to new five-color devices.

A long subway ride away at NYU, Al DiMauro, director of Reprographics, Logistics and Distribution, stressed the importance of building a rapport with customers and gaining their loyalty by providing great service. He lauded his nine employees for their positive attitudes.

In addition to its color and black-and-white digital printing, the in-plant provides a good deal of wide-format printing on its HP and Epson printers.