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 Telephone Companies Short run Telephone Books Telephone books are printed on lightweight paper (including white pages, yellow pages, and street directories) whether they are intended for residential use or business-to-business customers. The very high volume, metropolitan telephone books are best printed on offset presses. However, most telephone companies today experience a need to reprint books because it is almost impossible to correctly forecast demand. These reprints are optimally done using print-on-demand technology. Since telephone books are updated and distributed on an annual cycle, the telephone company must estimate demand a year in advance. Printing, storing and destroying excess inventory is expensive, so most companies do not want to overestimate the number of copies they'll need. On the other hand, telephone companies don't want to run short, leaving new customers without a book. The result is that they try to print annual quantities that are just slightly over their expected requirements. Projections are inevitably off, so it is very common for the telephone company (or the commercial printer that supplies them) to run out of books before the new one is available. When this happens, the teleco must reprint copies to meet its customer service commitment and satisfy advertisers who expect all of the telephone company's customers to have access to their ads. This forces the company to reprint the book with a relatively short run length that is uneconomical for offset, on a schedule that is hard to control and is too slow in most cases. With an average run of 500 to 1,500 copies, these reprint volumes are ideal for a DocuTech 135, DocuTech 6135 or DocuPrint 4635-class printer. Cost per copy is lower than offset for these reprinted books -- and the cost is even more favorable after figuring in the savings due to eliminating warehouse facilities/labor and obsolete books. For some telephone companies, print-on-demand may be justified purely on the basis of customer service since it is the fastest means to put a book in the customer's hands. All considered, it may be less expensive to project the lowest probable demand for the offset run (rather than purposely print more books in the initial run than the teleco really expects to need), and print all books over this minimum quantity using a Xerox Print-on-Demand solution. Offset presses are still used for the highest volume printing, while a digital printer is used to eliminates all wastage. Plus, the telephone company can use a DocuTech or 4635 to do the first printing for rural books that have short runs in any case. Only XSIS offers Xerox quality in a cut sheet printer that runs lightweight stocks. Telephone books are usually published on groundwood paper (24"x36" newsprint). The basis weight for this groundwood paper typically falls into the 28# - 30# range, which is comparable to bond stocks in the 12# - 13# weight range. A telephone book printed digitally on 13# bond should be about the same thickness as one printed on groundwood paper. Bond with this basis weight is available in white as well as yellow (for both the white and yellow pages). The 13# bond also has superior strength and performance characteristics to the groundwood, so it will take more rough handling; and its appearance (opacity and brightness) is better than groundwood paper. For reprints and short run telephone books, faster turnaround time and cost savings are sufficient reasons to implement a Print-on-Demand solution that is based on high speed, reliable Xerox printers adapted for lightweight paper. While these printers are black and white, the reality is that the white pages of the telephone book only require one toner (black), and many of the shorter books (100 pages or so) use only black text in the yellow pages. Reprints of even the very largest books do not have to have color ink to satisfy most advertisers. Advertisers generally would rather have telephone books distributed in a timely fashion, with only black text and graphics, than to have full-color books distributed many weeks later. |
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