November 30, 1999
Canada's northernmost printer
MISSISSAUGA - In September, the cover story of MAN Roland's Expressis Verbis magazine was "North America: an incredible print market." Profiled is Titiraruk Printing Services, described by the magazine as "the northernmost print shop in [North] America." It's located on Baffin Island, approximately 63 latitudinal degrees north of the Equator. Although hyperborean enough, it is not Canada's northernmost printery. To the best of our knowledge, that distinguished honour rightly belongs to the Holmon Eskimo Cooperative Art Shop in Holmon on Victoria Island in the Northwest Territories. It's located at 71 degrees north.

They said it couldn't be done
TORONTO - Although they didn't win the award, Howell Printing Ltd. was the printing brains behind the only Canadian finalist for the first-annual They Said It Couldn't Be Done award. Presented last month by the Printing Industries of America, the award is self-explanatory. Belladonna Communications, also of Toronto, commissioned Howell to print and assemble a multi-compartment laminated presentation box consisting of a series of complex folds which challenged the inks ability to withstand cracking. The winner of the award, by the way, was California's Faust Printing; they printed a poster at an astounding 1,110 line screen.

November 26, 1999
Printed in Canada—finally
VANCOUVER— NUVO magazine, an elegant 250-page lifestyle publication aimed at the super rich, will no longer be printed in Singapore. Founded in 1998, NUVO Magazine Ltd. announced recently that Winnipeg-based Kromar Printing will produce the upcoming 256-page Millennium Issue. NUVO editor Lyndon Grove said“Kromar’s location in central Canada will speed delivery and distribution.” The quarterly has a press run in excess of 30,000 copies.

Printer in legal limbo
TORONTO — Ontario’s Board of Inquiry has ruled that a Toronto printer did commit an act of discrimination when he declined to service an account. In April, 1996, Imaging Excellence’s Scott Brockie—a Born Again Christian—declined on moral grounds to print letterhead for Ray Brillinger of The Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives. Brillinger promptly complained to the Ontario Human Rights Commission which heard the matter but declined to render judgment. The case was passed hot-potato-style up to the Board of Inquiry, which decided last month discrimination occurred. “The adjudicator’s decision has gone against us, but I’m not surprised,” Brockie told PrintCAN. According to Brockie, the matter is far from over. “Now that they’ve decided the discrimination occurred, it’s about whose Charter rights takes precedence,” —Brockie’s right to observe his religious imperatives or Brillinger’s right to equal treatment.

November 23, 1999
Hollinger adds web muscle
BARRIE, Ont.— The rumours had been circulating since August, but Hollinger Canadian Newspapers LP declined to verify them—until today. Regional manager Ron Laurin has confirmed the company is in the process of opening a 36,000-sq.-ft. web/prepress/editorial facility in this city.“We have purchased 12 new printing units from Dauphin Graphic Machines Inc.,” Laurin told PrintCAN. Twelve other printing units to be moved from Hollinger’s current 3,800-sq.-ft. plant in Orillia will combine to form a divisible press line 109 feet long with two folders.“This was a regional strategy that reflects the market we’re in,” Laurin said, adding that he'll be“more than happy” to attract clients from local web printers.

Creo’s legal beagles getting frequent walkies
BURNABY, B.C.— During a fiscal-year-end conference call yesterday with financial analysts, Creo chief financial officer Tom Kordyback revealed that the company's spending about $50,000 a month in legal fees to fend off a late-September patent infringement lawsuit filed by rival Presstek Inc. Creo remains confident that Presstek’s lawsuit will belly flop. For fiscal 1999, Creo reports a net income of $27.4 million on total revenue of $263 million compared to last year’s net income of $16.3 million on total revenue of $190 million. Creo is the world's largest maker of computer-to-plate products.

November 19, 1999
“Bankrupt” web press maker recovering
WESTMONT, Il.— Goss Graphic Systems, one of the world’s largest newspaper web press manufacturers with sales last year of approximately $1 billion, said today that it is close to exiting its state of bankruptcy. The company filed for Chapter 11 in July with a ready-made, stakeholder-approved recapitalization plan which received court approval on Oct. 22. Goss spokeswoman Barbara Gora told PrintCAN today that creditors will eventually be repaid in full. Goss was having cash flow problems related to major computer capital investments and extremely long lead times on press orders, sometimes up to 18 months. Gora said Goss squeezed its suppliers as long as it could before opting for“pre-arranged bankruptcy”—a creative financial manoeuvre which expedites comeback-strategy approvals.

U.S. printing brains drain north
MONTREAL— The Quebec Institute of Graphic Communications has forged a three-year alliance with the Rochester Institute of Technology. Beginning in February, QIGC students will have access to a graphic arts and imaging seminar taught by RIT specialists. This CanAm relationship was consummated last month, said the QIGC’s Anne-Marie Meunier.

November 15, 1999
Inquest likely in death of press operator
TORONTO— The Coroner’s Office of Ontario will almost certainly conduct an inquest into the death of a Dolphin Printing press operator, PrintCAN has learned. George Weare, 34, was killed on September 13 after he was drawn into a Mitsubishi sheetfed press. Ministry of Labour spokeswoman Belinda Sutton confirms that Dolphin was issued two orders after the accident: take measures to ensure presses are off during cleaning or lubrication, and ensure they don’t activate once cleaning/lubing has commenced. A Coroner’s Office source who asked not to be identified told PrintCAN today that Mr. Weare’s official cause of death was“multiple injuries. You name it, it was broken.”

Striking pressroom workers brace for Calgary winter
CALGARY— Almost 75 members of the Graphic Communications International Union are involved in the strike affecting Southam’s daily Calgary Herald newspaper, said GCIU chief negotiator Alan Tate. Of the 75 members, about 50 are distribution workers, eight are press cleaners and seven are press repairers. Pickets have been demonstrating around the clock, Tate told PrintCAN today. A quick resolution is not expected.“I think it may be very lengthy,” Tate said.“Put it this way: we’re organizing Christmas parties.” About 50 other GCIU members, including press operators, have a collective agreement that expires next March. Calgary Herald presses also print the National Post.

November 11, 1999
Printing trade show begins
TORONTO— Graphics Canada‘99 opened its doors today at the International Centre. More than 190 exhibitors representing all sectors of the printing industry greeted visitors roaming through four halls. Heinz Dickmann traveled all the way from Germany to represent cutter machine manufacturer Polar Mohr. The show runs through to Sunday and is expected to draw thousands of visitors.

Canadian daily newspaper may be printed in U.S.
SHERBROOKE, Que. — When Hollinger Canadian Newspapers acquired the Sherbrooke Record in early October from Quebecor, the company said it would not extend the Record’s current printing arrangement with Quebecor. Reached late last month at his office in Toronto, Hollinger Canadian Newspapers president Michael Sifton told PrintCAN there’s a chance the paper could be printed in the U.S. state of Vermont. “We need to understand the capabilities of the printer,” Sifton said. Should this happen, the Sherbrooke Record could be the only daily newspaper in the world to be printed in a foreign country.

November 9, 1999
PDF will pave the way to CTP
TORONTO— Rye Goodyear, professor of graphic communications management at Ryerson Polytechnic University, hails PDF (portable document format) as one of the most important emerging technologies within the magazine industry. He says PDF is close to being the acknowledged digital standard, and once it is, more printers will gravitate toward CTP adoption.“Today,” Goodyear says,“all that it takes is one or two people who are sending film to slow down the process and make it less profitable.” Goodyear’s analysis will appear in the November/December issue of Masthead magazine, the magazine about the Canadian magazine industry.

Canuck chairs printing’s largest association
SAN ANTONIO, Tx.— Warren Wilkins, president of Toronto-based Webcom Ltd., assumed the chairmanship of the Printing Industries of America yesterday. He’s only the third Canadian in the PIA’s 113-year history to take this seat, the other two being Frank M. Rolph (1976-77, former president of Montreal’s Ronalds Federated) and the late Max Clarkson (1962-63, former president of Buffalo’s Graphic Controls). The PIA has 14,000 members from 50,000 firms generating revenue of $206 billion.

November 4, 1999
Sears Canada commits millions to print
MISSISSAUGA - Retailer Sears Canada will spend $200 million on printed matter this year. In an after-dinner speech to the Ontario Printing and Imaging Association last night, CEO Paul Walters said his company will continue to "depend heavily" on the print medium as it pursues an aggressive e-commerce strategy. The company has created its largest-ever Christmas catalogue at 1,006 pages, Walters added, and combined with the spring and fall editions, total catalogue output exceeds four million copies annually.

Egghead criminals try to "invade" lottery tickets
WINNIPEG - Talk about vigilant. Pollard Banknote, Canada's largest producer of scratch-and-win lottery tickets, must be on constant guard against perverted science. "There are always chemists and what not who try to invade the tickets," says Pollard president Lawrie Pollard. "I mean, you even get guys that go in with a microscope and do a pin prick in the ticket then try to put a microscope through the pin prick," he says. "Well, we have to confound them by virtue of chemical additives, by programming our imaging equipment to vary the way in which it prints to make sure the dots don't always go in exactly the same spot all the time. It gets quite complicated."

November 1, 1999
Consolidation creates Maritime behemoth
DARTMOUTH, N.S.— Newfoundland Capital Corporation (NCC) announced today the purchase of sheet-fed printers Atlantic Nova Print Co. of Halifax (annual revenue $4 million) and McCurdy Printing of Dartmouth ($9 million). NCC already owns St. John's, Nfld.-based Robinson-Blackmore Printing & Publishing which had sales last year of $11.2 million. Combined, NCC's commercial print operations now generate sales of $24 million, establishing it as the behemoth of commercial printing in Atlantic Canada.

Heidelberg-branded consumables imminent
HEIDELBERG, Germany— After a year's worth of researching with pressroom chemical maker Varn International, Heidelberg is about to introduce a line of consumables bearing its own logo. The chemicals have been developed to be compatible with non-Heidelberg presses and various inks, rollers, blankets and plates. Shipments will commence "in the near future," the company said on October 20.