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We know that cost is a major factor in making a parish magazine sustainable. Whereas a commercial printer will charge more for printing a short run than say a run of 2000, we charge the minimum price we can no matter what the run.
We print on a digital printer which is efficient at smaller print runs and especially runs under 1000. Although we could print any run size we generally recommend to our customers a plate printing service for any runs exceeding around 2000 because the cost per copy will start reducing by using this type of printing. We do not recommend laser printing at any time, see below.>
We take the PDF, usually by email, and print the publication as soon as possible. Although we would like the file as soon as practicable we are very aware that the editor probably has their own job, which might delay sending or that there is an important last minute parish event which needs recording in that months issue. We are therefore as flexible as possible in the turn around time often printing on the day of receipt and getting the newsletters back next day.
We know that collection of magazines from the printer is always likely to cause sustainability issues, especially with the price of fuel and getting to the printer before it closes, holiday periods etc. For that reason all our quotes include delivery to an address in your area. With some magazines we pre-bundle the distributors rounds.
We take a partnership approach with Editors because we have been there ourselves. If an Editor has an idea which will make their lot easier, we’ll see if we can do it.
Last year we moved to a different type of printer. It uses ink which it sprays onto the page at high speed. It can print an A4 sheet at over 6000 sheets per hour and can collate, staple, fold or both at slightly less than this speed. We have two of these printers so if we have a breakdown you will always get your magazine on time.
This technology uses no toners which was a major factor in our choosing this machine. Toners are quite environmentally suspect, the particles are of a size which can affect respiration and the process uses a great deal of heat and therefore electricity which is generally produced from burning carbon. There is also a great deal of unused bi-product in the form of waste toner which has to be disposed of in the environment when using toner printers.
While our process produces a very good quality reproduction of colour pictures we do appreciate that some high quality laser printers produce higher quality. We took the decision when purchasing the machine that the reproduction of images, which are still higher quality than newsprint, would not outweigh that of the toner’s environmental ‘incredibility’.
We feel that our market of printing Parish Magazines, church magazines and newsletters is ideally suited to the process which we had chosen.