I t seemed significant that local and international industry newsmakers in the busy couple of weeks before GXpress went to press were companies driven and largely owned by individuals.
As if a dam was bursting, the commercial web industry in Australia and New Zealand has dusted itself down and decided to get on with business. With PBL Media’s plans to print their own magazines now well off the agenda, APN out of heatset in New Zealand, and Fairfax signed up for another stint with IMPG, contract printers can get on with life, reasonably certain of volumes.
Yes, there’s just been the biggest slowing in retail sales for half a century, but advertising is faring reasonably well... and this is one of the world’s biggest markets for consumer magazines.
The ever secretive Phil Taylor (and good on him, in an obsessive industry segment!) launched Franklin Web’s new 80-page Lithoman press – having originally played coy about having even ordered it – and ran us to the deadline on detail. As I write this, the ‘will he, won’t he’ waltz which starts with agreeing clearance of text before an interview takes place looks to leave us with a feature on file we can’t publish.
Enjoy however, the pictures of the melé and the SuperCheap promo girls from last month’s launch party, and note that almost all the shots have been taken with the photographer’s back to the hardware.
But Taylor – who I must have known for two decades – deserves credit for Franklin’s massive achievement and is clearly his father’s son: A favourite saying of Len Taylor, who founded the business as a streetfront sheetfed operation, was Benjamin Franklin’s adage, ‘Well done is better than well said’.
Another family business making news has been Michael Hannan’s IPMG, which is to go ahead with its move to a Warwick Farm site on the south west of Sydney. A new twin-web press – also a manroland Lithoman – and Ferag inline finishing are set to make it a $90 million investment.
Like Phil Taylor, Michael Hannan has dedicated his career to building a business handed down through his family, whose forebears were famously butchers to the eastern suburbs before moving into publishing in the 1930s.
The Hannanprint site in Alexandria – bought from British Oxygen in the 1980s – was still a talking point when I started writing about Australian printing towards the end of that decade. I remember reporting the comments of an apprentice who had been “blown away” by what he saw at the highly-automated operation during an award visit.
Now the property investment has come good as the inner-city suburb blossoms from industrial wasteland to fashionable residential and retail address, and it’s no surprise that the print operation is moving to a less congested location. Rents from the freed-up land – there’s no suggestion the Hannans are selling it – will help underwrite the Warwick Farm development.
On the ‘captains of industry’ newsmakers theme, I could mention News patriarch Rupert Murdoch, but too much has already been written about the mess created by the ‘News of the World’ affair. Interesting however, that when the lowest moment seemed to have been reached, the ABC chose to replay a radio interview with the gentle lady who is his mother.
Having been asked three years ago, to help push along the establishment of a newspaper technical group in South East Asia, I’ve been watching the evolution of SEANG into what is now the ASEAN Newspaper Printers. and trying to get enough news to pass on.
The group – headed by Singapore Press Holdings production vice president Anthony Cheng – has its delegate conference in Surabaya, Indonesia, on September 12-14, with a ‘back to basics’ theme.
The transition from the easy-going Thai organisation to a new Singapore-registered one has not been without acrimony, but it’s probably time to forget the past and move forward. A number of major industry vendors are supporting the Surabaya event, and we wish organisers success with it.
All being well – and subject to an invitation, of course – we’ll be there.
