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Johnson's
World
Copresco President Steve Johnson's editorial monthly column provides firsthand observations and thoughtful commentary about the state of today's graphic communications industry. Starting in July 2017, “Johnson’s World” is now on the back page of Printing Impressions, the foremost magazine of the graphic arts industry.
Read more recent articles from Johnson's World.
April 2020 |
Wrestling at Oxyrhynchus Think that the times we live in are different from anything the world has known in the past? Think again. We may have the printing press, the internet, and indoor plumbing, but human nature remains unchanged. |
March 2020 |
History Goes Paperless; History Goes Away "Old formats of documents that we’ve created or presentations may not be readable by the latest version of the software because backwards compatibility is not always guaranteed." |
February 2020 |
Musings and Morsels This month's article is all about Valentine’s Day candy, those pesky click charges, just right vs. too much, and the value of print. |
January 2020 |
Darn Those Beancounters "Old formats of documents that we’ve created or presentations may not be readable by the latest version of the software because backwards compatibility is not always guaranteed." |
December 2019 |
Laughing at My Newsletter Half the content of my company’s monthly Overnight Lite newsletter is made up of jokes, riddles, and puns. Right now my newsletter has me smiling, but it is no laughing matter. I’m smiling because we’ve just celebrated 30 years of continuous publication. |
November 2019 |
Gift Giving for Kids Is Easy When giving to kids, check out their toys. American Girl dolls and Star Wars have spawned many volumes of reading material. |
October 2019 |
New Doors, But Old Habits When we needed to get our new doors painted, I called Pete because his work was usually good enough. |
September 2019 |
Annoying Your Customers for the Right Reasons A bumper sticker on the front door of an ad agency eliminated the middleman by offending 50% of the people walking in. |
August 2019 |
Social Media: How to Alienate Friends and Make New Enemies Just employ the power of social media to share your political opinions with the world. |
July 2019 |
Important Print Lessons from The Bard Many think Shakespeare is archaic, something from the distant past, worthy of study by historians, but of no relevance in today’s society. Funny, that’s the same thing many people say about print. |
June 2019 |
Data Is Everywhere ... But Make Sure to Use It Correctly Data is merely information; it is what you do with it that counts. If we have the right data and get the data right, print is a powerful marketing and informational tool. Get it wrong, and you’ve just lost all credibility, meaning you have no more perceived value than a Twitter feed. |
May 2019 |
Lessons About Data
A donation I made at a recent fundraising event for the Forest Preserve Foundation generated a heartfelt thank you letter for me and my wife … wait a minute, I don’t have a wife! |
April 2019 |
Print: The Only Effective Medium in Some Cases, and Here's One of Them
In the less-than-glamorous Spring elections there isn’t much money available for advertising. How exactly are those precious campaign funds spent? I decided to take a look. |
March 2019 |
Hats Off To Print
Domtar Paper’s Blueline is either a small magazine or a very complex and content rich brochure. I’m going to call it a magazine, since that’s what Domtar calls it, but the label really isn’t important. What is important is print. |
February 2019 |
You Can Do It, Sam I Am
The story, recounted by James Clear, says a bet was made between polymath Bennett Cerf in his role as founder of Random House Publishers, and Dr. Seuss, who needs no further introduction. Cerf bet Seuss couldn’t write a children’s book using only 50 different words. Seuss won the bet. |
January 2019 |
Special Greetings are 'Still a Thing'
Think the time for cards has passed?
Not nearly. The Greeting Card Association reports that Americans buy about 6,500,000,000 printed greeting cards each year. |
December 2018 |
Give the 'Original Present' This Year
Bible publisher Tyndale House’s Filament project is the New Living Translation of the Bible and an app, which pairs the text with augmented reality. Augmented reality and interactive print are topics that regularly garner enthusiasm in the design, publishing and packaging world. Unfortunately, they don’t get much coverage anywhere else. |
November 2018 |
Midterm Elections Show Value of Print
A sign in someone’s yard means they have thought long and hard about this election, made a call to the campaign office or at least responded formally to a campaign worker’s request. |
October 2018 |
DiGiorno Pizza Marketing Approach Provides Printers With Good Food for Thought
Check out DiGiorno’s website. All you see is pizza. Check out their packaging. All you see is pizza. Your printed products may not be mouthwatering like pizza, but an accurate representation of your specialty should be the highlight of your marketing. If a prospect needs your product, their mouths will water. |
September 2018 |
The Hole Not There: Master Your Core Competencies First
Quite a few years ago I received a promotional wall calendar in the mail. It was from a small company, and it was clearly homemade. By “homemade” I mean it was conceived, designed, printed and bound in the office of the representative company. Design and print professionals were not consulted. |
August 2018 |
It's Debatable
Four-score and eighty years ago, two of our forefathers set forth to face one another in a series of debates. The Lincoln-Douglas debates were intense. Unlike today’s presidential debates in which candidates respond to questions with short soundbites. |
July 2018 |
Here's Your Mission, Should You Accept
The idea of a clearly-defined mission or purpose was, and is, an excellent idea. When properly defined, it serves as a litmus test for everything that a company does. |
June 2018 |
Big Data Needs a Bath
Bad data is an inevitable byproduct of the information age. The sheer volume of data collected is part of the problem, but it is the way it is managed that really causes glitches. |
May 2018 |
There are No 'Safe Spaces' in Business
Young people of college age today are being treated to a phenomenon... never dreamed: safe spaces. |
April 2018 |
Elections Bring Out Primal Elements in Advertising and Marketing
As Samuel Johnson wryly noted, “When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.” I suspect the winner-take-all nature of elections has this effect. Incremental market share means nothing. Winning marketing awards means nothing. |
March 2018 |
Print-Related Musings To Reflect On
Vague musings, name-dropping, streams of consciousness and occasional flashes of brilliance ... from Johnson’s World. |
February 2018 |
Commentary: Print Is A Medium On Steroids. Promote It As Such
Instead of declaring that "Print Is Not Dead", we need to start selling print the way we should have been doing it all along: as the world’s most effective medium of communication and information. |
January 2018 |
Looks Are Important In Direct Mail
An oversized bright green foil padded envelope arrives from Sebold Capital Wealth Management. I don't know who they are, but I can guess. |
December 2017 |
Think Of Buying Inkjet Printing Equipment Like A Marriage
Don't choose your new inkjet presses based only on appearances combined with gut feelings. |
November 2017 |
Lessons From A Bruised Apples
I personally hesitate to use Apple as an example for businesses. |
October 2017 |
Thoughtful Lessons From Books … The Printed Kind
You can learn a lot from books, usually from reading them but sometimes just from looking over their covers. |
September 2017 |
WeatherTech: Floored by the Mats
WeatherTech is a good example for several of my usual themes. They market aggressively, using a balanced combination of the internet and print publications to get their story in front of buyers. |
August 2017 |
What Printers Can Learn From Bowling
It is a sign of the times we live in that teenagers bowl using 2 balls each. |
July 2017 |
See Me, Feel Me, Touch Me, Read Me
Helen Keller would be frustrated by digital media. Lacking perception of both sight and sound, she relied on her remaining senses to absorb and disseminate information. Digital media would have nothing to offer her. |
June 2017 |
Advice You Can Bank On
Need money? Alas, money is hard to come by sometimes. |
May 2017 |
'My Card'
The first thing a new business does is put up a website and establish its email addresses. Next comes the social-media presence. Business cards might come after that, but then again, they might not. |
April 2017 |
The Copier Repairman
If your digital press needs service every few weeks instead of every day, this is not good enough, not nearly! |
March 2017 |
Make It Fascinating
Print has unique opportunity to reach
generation Z who are overwhelmed with
digital media. When they get mail, they look at it. |
February 2017 |
Leadership Off, and On, the
Field Next to parenting, leadership is the most
influential role youll ever have. As in parenting, Do as I
say, not as I do wont ever cut it. |
January
2017 |
Musings, Droppings, Streams &
Flashes Pt 9 After the nail-biting, extra-inning game 7
of the World Series in which the Cubs emerged victorious, the Daily
Herald was on the spot again. This time they got it right. |
December 2016 |
It's All About More Than The
Dress Give the gift of touch for Christmas. Consider
coloring books, board games with pieces, cards, dice and fake money which
will draw family and friends together. |
November 2016 |
The Sound and the Fury
The author, William Faukner, suggested what was a radical idea
at the time of using colored text to clarify the ever-changing
different time periods in his book. |
October
2016 |
How To Alienate Friends and Make
Enemies Its easier than ever to alienate friends
and make new enemies while at the same time disgusting the general
population. Just employ the power of social media. |
September 2016 |
Trains, Magazines, and Portals
Is the airline inflight magazine doomed, now that we have wifi
and literally hundreds of movie choices to entertain us? It appears
that the opposite is true. |
August
2016 |
We All Scream for Ice Cream
In the old days when you wanted to cool off you would go to your
hometown Dairy Queen for a soft-serve vanilla ice cream cone. Then the
market changed. |
July
2016 |
Mind Your Manners
Some large American companies should learn from the politeness
and etiquette of the Japanese culture in order to improve their sales
rate. |
June
2016 |
Musings, Droppings, Streams, and
Flashes Pt 8 In 1524 Antonio Pigafetta, having
successfully completed Magellans voyage around the world and
having penned by far the most interesting account of the explorations,
petitioned the Doge of Venice and the city council, that no one may print
it for twenty years, except myself. |
May
2016 |
Threats What is more
threatening? An olive- skinned young girl wearing a hajib in a Toyota
driving into the parking lot of a local college or an olive-skinned young
girl wearing a hajib in a Toyota fixated on her smart phone? The Answers
Are in Print |
April
2016 |
Of Quartos and Folios
Learn why a 17th Century book of Shakespeare's popular plays called
"First Folio" would today be considered an example of print on
demand. |
March
2016 |
Vote for Me If you
arent in the in circle of local politics, how do you know
how important an election is? How can you identify the hot issues? The
Answers Are in Print |
February 2016 |
Of Beer and Clydesdales
Yes, Super Bowl 50 may be played in Santa Clara California, but
Super Bowl L will be played right here and now in "Johnsons
World". |
January
2016 |
Of Plastic Lumps and Buggy
Whips In his book "Vaporized", Robert Tercek asked the
question, Where have all the record stores gone? |
December 2015 |
Merry Christmas! Have A Drink On
Me When I entered the workforce, booze was the standard
go-to Christmas gift for clients. Not wine; I'm talking the hard stuff. But
times change and people's tastes change. |
November 2015 |
Dear Newspaper Publisher
Each weekday before our office opened, your newspaper was
delivered to the front door of our corporate headquarters. Each day, that
is, until three weeks ago. |
October
2015 |
Musings, Droppings, Streams &
Flashes (Part 7) Piggly Wiggly, Children with books in
their homes, Shor Restaurant at Graph Expo, French philosopher promotes anarchy
because of failed print shop, coloring your hair at home and astronomy, ATMs in
Churches. |
September 2015 |
She's Going to Disney World
Jana's tale of her getaway with her husband to Disney
World. |
August
2015 |
A Place For Everything And
Everything In Its Place There is a graphic floating around
on the Internet of an old Radio Shack flyer with a caption pointing out that
every item in the flyer has been replaced by a smartphone. Maybe
not. |
July
2015 |
The Fight of the Century
What can we learn from the so-called fight of the
century? |
June
2015 |
A Short Talk With A Printer
How much do you really know about the man whose words fill the
last page of this publication each month? |
May
2015 |
Shades Of Grey I
havent counted fifty, but I do see several grey areas that the
phenomenon of this books success illuminate for us. |
April
2015 |
All The News That's Fit To
Print Instead of Facebook or Twitter, sometimes only
print will do. |
March
2015 |
Things Fall Apart
Why I couldn't finish Misconceptions about the Original
Populists. because the book fell apart. |
February
2015 |
Print Could Save Your Marriage
and Your Business Why I might very well refer Dr.
David Gursky as a marriage counselor. |
January
2015 |
Musings, Droppings, Streams and Flashes (Part 6) Cat videos on YouTube, Roman Gods,
Top reasons people do not go online, etc. |
December
2014 |
Gift Giving Made Easier
No gift is more personal than a real book, carefully chosen with the
recipient in mind. |
November
2014 |
Be Brief, Be Succint
It is difficult to sell anything when the offer is not unique,
but it is impossible to sell when it is not clear what the proposition
is. |
October
2014 |
Settle Down Do you
have a bucket list of great things you hope to accomplish in life?
Dont settle for anything less. |
September 2014 |
8 Solid Reasons Why You Should Attend
GRAPH EXPO 14 If you can't travel to the drupa 16 show in far
off Dusseldorf Germany, consider going to GRAPH EXPO 14. |
August
2014 |
Understand Your Brand Part 2
Two examples of branding done well. |
July
2014 |
Understand Your Brand
Be very careful of your brand. Promote it, market it, guard
it. |
June
2014 |
I Need a Vacation A
nice long trip to Hawaii, or perhaps a week in Florida. At least so says
Hilton Grand Vacations. |
May
2014 |
Promises, Promises
If you are an equipment sales representative, don't
over-promise. |
April
2014 |
Taxman Some
print-related taxing tidbits as April 15 comes and goes. |
March
2014 |
Shooting Yourself In the Foot
Some overachievers in sales and marketing spend much time and effort
creating brand awareness while they themselves seem unaware of what their own
brand stands for. |
February
2014 |
Use General Interest To Target
Markets If you are reading this article, whether in print or
online, it demonstrates that reading is alive and well. That is why newsletters
are an unbeatable medium of communication between businesses and the people who
operate them. |
January
2014 |
Flying With The Inkjet SetOr
Not Can inkjet presses that will halve my costs still deliver
quality acceptable to my clients? |
December
2013 |
Cards For The Holidays
In Johnsons World we always chose the best tool for the
job. |
November
2013 |
Reinvention In Interesting
Times Waiting for an upswing in the general economy to revive
your business no longer qualifies as a strategy. You could
reinvent. |
October
2013 |
A Deli-cate Situation
You may not be selling sandwiches, but your customers are hoping for
price, quality, and service. |
September 2013 |
Hot Town, Squirrel in the City
Until now, 3D printing has been used mostly for creating
prototypes, but it is starting to come into use for short-run
manufacturing. It seems to me this exactly follows the pattern of digital
printing. |
August
2013 |
Dear Mister Perfect
Complacency is deadly to your business. Any company that has the
"good enough" mindset is sending an open invitation to competitors, who will
happily come in and steal your customers. |
July
2013 |
Tan, Don't Burn If
you are in sales, your prospects are probably more sensitive than you.
|
June
2013 |
Disorganized Reorganization is
Risky Business When bureaucratic company policy
is allowed to trump customer service, you run the risk of losing
business. |
May
2013 |
USPS Reformed or Deformed?
Poor service, delivery problems, and decreasing mail volume also
need to be part of USPS reform initiatives. |
April
2013 |
Something
Old, Something New Cutting edge technology can blend with old world
tradition to paint a picture of print as a living, growing
discipline. |
March
2013 |
Going
Postal in a FedEx World Poor business practices will not help the
USPS survive as other options become cheaper, easier, and more convenient.
|
February
2013 |
Know
When to Hold Em, Know When to Fold Em Ditching
unprofitable customers can improve your bottom line. |
January
2013 |
For Us or Against Us How are you ever going to
convince your prospects of the value of print if you dont believe in
it yourself? |
December
2012 |
Give the Timeless Gift of Print Books open worlds
that no video can match. |
November
2012 |
Trees Love Paper Its up to us to tell the
world the truth about the sustainability of paper and print. |
October
2012 |
If It Is Windy, This Must Be Graph Expo Did you know
that the moniker Windy City originally referred... to the
hamlets blustering windbag politicians? |
September 2012 |
Chicken, Civility & Customers Recent events
offer valuable lessons in online etiquette. |
August
2012 |
Root, Root, Root for the Home Team Digital printers
can learn a bit from the boys of summer |
July
2012 |
Printerly Musings, Observations, and Flashes
Vague musings, name-dropping, streams of consciousness,and
occasional flashes of brilliance from Johnsons World. |
June
2012 |
Championing the Cause of Profits Are you in it to
win it? Then pay attention to the bottom line. |
May
2012 |
Email Marketing Is Too Easy Make sure the fruits of
your labor don't produce spam. |
April
2012 |
Shopping for Customer Service What can you learn
about customer service from the checkout line at an upscale
grocery? |
March
2012 |
The Internet, Global Warming, and the Paperless Office
The new market is here. Create your own
opportunities. |
February
2012 |
Random Thoughts About Consistency I do know a thing
or two about consistently marketing your services. |
January
2012 |
Whose World Is It Anyway? Real world advice and
observations from a print shop owner. |
December
2011 |
The Green, Green Pastures of Home Sound management
skills deliver success no matter what services you offer... |
October
2011 |
Welcome (Back) to My World Steve Johnson joins the
Quick Printing's roster of columnists... |
Johnson's
World
View award-winning articles
written from 2004 to 2011 by Copresco President Steve Johnson reflecting on
digital printing, graphic arts and the world in general.
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