Tom Honeycutt

The festive mood of the awards banquet at the recent International Publishing Management Association conference was disrupted by the slowly spreading news that USAA, a San Antonio-based insurance financial services association, has decided to close its substantial in-house offset operation and outsource all printing. The news came as a blow to in-plants everywhere. USAA Publishing Services was one of the country's largest in-plants. With a $38 million budget, it ranked fifth on the most recent IPG Top 50 list and employed 305 people. The company plans to lay off 175 of those people as of August 20, with another 75 to be shown