The Big Picture - March 2013 - (Page 4)

insight by Gregory Sharpless www.bigpicture.net Gregory Sharpless Editor-in-Chief gregory.sharpless@stmediagroup.com Adrienne Palmer Assistant Editor adrienne.palmer@stmediagroup.com Launching ‘Explorer’ This month, I’ve put a few diﬀerent items on the agenda for discussion: • “Explorer” makes its debut: Turn to page 36, and you’ll ﬁnd our new “Explorer” department. For a while now, we’ve been considering a space in which we report on a handful of noteworthy small stories from around the wide-format world. While it’s easy for us all to be US-centric, it’s sometimes nice to take a peek at some wide-format news from other parts of the globe. We hope you enjoy our new “Explorer” section. By the way, “Job Log” hasn’t gone away forever – it will still make regular appearances in each issue’s last page from time to time (and when “Explorer” doesn’t run on the last page, check for a truncated version of it in our regular “UpFront” section). • The trend in rapid additive manufacturing (aka “3D printing”): Like many of you, we’ve been intrigued by this technology for some time now. One of our regular columnists dropped us a note this week indicating he pulled the trigger on the purchase of a 3D printer while at the recent CES Expo; he’ll address his experience with the technology in an upcoming column. And we’re planning a full-ﬂedged feature on the topic later this year – stay tuned. Meanwhile, if you have brought this technology in-house, we’d like to hear from you. • USPS to do away with Saturday delivery (subtitled, “The postman never rings once”): As I write this, the US Postal Service has crafted a plan that will eliminate its delivery of ﬁrst-class mail on Saturdays. No decision has been ﬁnalized – although the USPS says it’s going through with the plan no matter what. I’m curious: How might this aﬀect your company? Do you see your business suﬀering as a result of weekends without ﬁrst-class mail delivery? • Tradeshows the ﬁrst half of the year: Are you planning to attend ISA Expo (see this month’s preview, page 24)? And what about FESPA 2013, which takes place in London in June? Sure, many industry pundits question the need for tradeshows, but these events continue to be tremendously eﬀective as a central site for a gathering of your peers and the technologies you work with every day. Yes, social media can address some of the former and YouTube some of the latter, but there’s something about getting oﬀ your butt and meeting people in-person and seeing new products and supplies live. We hope to see you at one or both of these events. Laura Mohr Art Director laura.mohr@stmediagroup.com Marty McGhie, Craig Miller, Jared Smith Columnists Linda Volz Production Supervisor linda.volz@stmediagroup.com Lou Arneberg - East and Midwest US, Eastern Canada Ben Stauss - West and South US, Western Canada, Europe, Asia Business Development Managers Rick Bachelder, Kathy Boydstun, Terry Corman, Scott Crosby, Brandon Gabriel, Michael Garcia, Kirk Green, Robert Kissel, Tina McLaughlin, Craig Miller, Carmen Rad, Greg Root, Jared Smith, Mark Taylor Editorial Advisory Board Tedd Swormstedt President Steve Duccilli Senior VP of Content Christine Baloga Audience Development Director Kari Freudenberger Director, Online Media Subscription Services (847) 763-4938 tbp@halldata.com bigpicture.net/subscribe bigpicture.net/renew Single Copies/Back Issues Debbie Reed debbie.reed@stmediagroup.com THE BIG PICTURE (ISSN 1082-9660) is published 9 times annually (Jan/Feb, March, April, May, June/July, August, September, October, Nov/Dec) by ST Media Group International Inc., 11262 Cornell Park Dr., Cincinnati, OH 45242-1812. Telephone: (513) 421-2050, Fax: (513) 362-0317. No charge for subscriptions to qualiﬁed individuals. Annual rate for subscriptions to non-qualiﬁed individuals in the U.S.A.: $42 USD. Annual rate for subscriptions in Canada: $70 USD (includes GST & postage); all other countries: $92 (Int’l mail) payable in U.S. funds. Printed in the U.S.A. Copyright 2013, by ST Media Group International Inc. All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the consent of the publisher. The publisher is not responsible for product claims and representations. Periodicals Postage Paid at Cincinnati, OH and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Big Picture, P.O. Box 1060, Skokie, IL 60076. Change of address: Send old address label along with new address to The Big Picture, P.O. Box 1060, Skokie, IL 60076. 4 THE BIG PICTURE MARCH 2013 11262 Cornell Park Drive Cincinnati, OH 45242 tel (513) 421-2050 fax (513) 421-5144 http://www.bigpicture.net http://www.bigpicture.net/subscribe http://www.bigpicture.net/renew

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Big Picture - March 2013

The Big Picture - March 2013
Table of Contents
InSight
Wide Angle
UpFront
Inside Output
Buying a Printer: Financial Incentives
Pushing the Size Envelope
Digital Discovery: ISA Expo 2013
R+D
Explorer

The Big Picture - March 2013