SAN DIEGO, CA—As a result of protests by Printing Industries of America (PIA) and the industry as a whole, Toshiba has agreed to abort its controversial National No-Print Day, according to the head of PIA.

Michael Makin, president and chief executive officer of Printing Industries of America, sent a note to members today that he had a "lengthy conversation" with Bill Melo, Toshiba USA’s senior vice president of marketing, services and solutions regarding its "ill-conceived initiative."

Makin said "Melo was quite concerned with how the campaign had been received by the commercial printing industry and stressed it was never the intent of his company to disenfranchise or insult our industry. He explained that the campaign was always directed at the office marketplace where he opined there was needless waste."

Makin's said his retort to Melo was that if this was truly the case, the campaign should have been more specific and not a National No-Print Day.

"Mr. Melo did commit to going back to the drawing board and assured me the promotion on its website has been removed and that any re-launch of a campaign directed at office waste will explicitly explain that this in no way references the legitimate commercial printing industry and its importance to the American economy," explained Makin. "I thanked Mr. Melo for his swift response to our concerns but cautioned that any follow-up campaign containing misleading statements regarding paper would be subject to similar scrutiny, particularly from the paper industry."

However, as of 11:30 a.m. EST, the NNPD campaign was still being promoted by Toshiba online.