How long have you been involved with post press?
I started as a paperboy the end of May 1960. Delivering the paper three times a week Monday, Wednesday & Friday. In 1961 Tracy Press got a new 3 unit Goss Suburban Offset press one of the few offset press on the west coast. As a young man of 15 I asked the publisher if there was something I could do during the summer months to earn extra cash. I was hired as a helper cleaning the press parts that were to be installed. Once the press was installed I moved to flying and learning the press. When not on the press I was in charge of the inserting crew of 1, inserting The Green Sheet a shopper Tracy Press had every week totaling 13,000 with one insert. In 1965 I graduated from high school and went full time in the press/mailroom. We hand inserted everything as well as labeled then on a very old Elliott Address O Graph. After many a year of hand inserting in 1989 we got a 5 into 2 Kansa 480. My thoughts then were we’ve made the big time. The Kansa hasn’t changed all that much other than we added 3 more stations as well as a Kirk Rudy labeler and a few bundlers.

Over the years we added to the press, changed it out until we’re at 12 units with two 4 high towers.


What do you like most about post press?
The employees. I took me several years to find a crew that works very will together. Some of the best employees you could ever find.
The thought of moving to a larger inserter as soon as the funds kind of excite me as well.
Best of all I met and married one of the best employees in the mailroom. For the next 21 years we working side-by-side inserting labeling and all that goes with the mailroom. She retired two years ago when we went from two shifts to one. She didn’t want to work nights. I sure do miss her as she did it all without any supervision.
We’re a family owned newspaper so over the years I’ve worked with the current publisher Bob, his father Tom and his Grand Ma Mrs. Matthews.
When asked why and how could I still be here after 44+ years I tell them that either I to lazy to go out and find another job or I really like my job? I haven’t quite figured it out myself what was the reason why I’m still here.

What do you like least about post press?
The small, thin inserts. Odd shaped inserts and inserts that show up just as we’re starting the run. Poorly stacked pallets.
The breakdowns during the run, always a challenge on what needs to be patched and what needs to be repaired so we can finish the run.



What can be done to improve post press efficiency?
On the Post Press side keep circulation out of the mailroom. They always want the inserts a different way. Best Buy is an example. They think we should roll the inserts over so they don’t make the bundles look like footballs and stick out of the paper? They also have ideas on what we should and can do to get the paper to them quickly. Circulation has taken over the mailroom twice only having to give it back to me to get the mess straightened out.

What is your funniest post press story - Thank you John!
Back in the 60’s as a Press Helper and Fly Boy I had to work Saturdays on a newspaper call Milpitas Post part of the now Medianews Group. We printed all of the newspapers for them every week. Then it was only about 6 papers and all of them were weeklies. They sent the stories via a teletype and we reset the stories on the old just-a-writers pasted the pages up. Headlines were still set on the hot metal Linotype pulled a proof then on the camera and press.

Back in the day none of the papers were strapped everything was loaded loose by hand.

How long have you been involved with post press?
I started at The Herald in Everett as a part time Preprint Handler (hopper feeder) in 1984. In 1986 I became a Sub Operator and in 1988 made the jump to Machine Operator and Supervisor at the same time. In the early 90’s as the complexity of Post Press work increased and commercial work was brought in we expanded to two shifts, changed the leadership structure and I was promoted to Assistant Manager. In May 2001, a month into the installation of our Magnapak 1280 the Manager took advantage of an early retirement package and I took over as Manager of the department. As “right sizing” has run it’s course I have also assumed responsibility for our Receiving Warehouse (2005) and overseeing our Prepress Department (2007)

What do you like most about post press?
IThe variety of challenges that arise and the creative solutions that are devised to solve them. From out of spec preprints to manning shortages
There’s a new challenge every day and the creativity of supervisor’s, operator’s and preprint handlers to solve them is endless.

What do you like least about post press?
There are some day to day specific irritants but in general I enjoy the post press environment and it’s endless variety.

What can be done to improve post press efficiency?
I think you have to consistently review your processes. With the increasing customer demands to run thinner pieces in ever smaller zones we need to rethink scheduling and staffing per run. Fully utilizing people and equipment to maintain an acceptable cost per thousand requires consistent attention.

What is your funniest post press story - Thank you Susan!
Shortly after installation of our NP630 in 1991 we had an issue with it starting up on it’s own and changing speeds. Even though we had posted warning signs and reminders to use stop buttons before lifting grids, their use wasn’t consistent. Until the day a torn and tattered t-shirt was hung above the delivery. New employees were told by the machine operators that the t-shirt was a reminder of what happened to the last person who forgot to put a button down when “Christine” was hungry.

How long have you been involved with post press?
I have been involved with post press for four and a half years. I came from a background in industrial controls engineering and field services. I had reached the point where I was tired of the constant travel and the idea of going to work at the same place everyday was quite appealing.
When I started here I didn't even know what post press meant. I am now at the point where I'm familiar with the industry specific terminology. As far as the equipment involved in post press finishing operations goes my extensive experience with various automated equipment provided me with the necessary skills, learning the nuances of all the processes involved took a little time.

What do you like most about post press?
I would have to say the most enjoyable part of my job that newspapers as a whole are a community that work together. No where else in an industry have I found "Competing" companies that are willing to share information, to that end I must say that Perfect Pallets has done a wonderfull job facilitating the open exchange of information.

What do you like least about post press?
Underweight and poor quality inserts are definitely the most difficult aspects of the job. Combine that with continued reductions in newsprint paper weights and the end result is a constant battle between quality and efficiency.

What can be done to improve post press efficiency?
The single biggest thing that I can see that would improve efficiency would be the adoption of industry wide standards for reprints and the adherence to said standards by commercial printers.

What is your funniest post press story - Thank you Joseph!
The funniest story I can recall would have to be back during the hurricanes of 2004. Being based in Florida, hurricane preparedness is a standard, as such we have a stand-by generator with sufficient capacity to operate the minimum amount of equipment required to publish. Hurricane Charlie caught us all off guard as its original path took it up the west coast (we're located in the east coast) At the last minute it came across the state remaining still very powerful and hit our area at about 11 at night. We here hadn't seen a hurricane of any size for over 30 years. None the less we were prepared and after a few minutes spent getting the generator on-line we threw the transfer switch and presto....the wrong finishing line powered up. I scrambled to re-direct the power and the power went out. It wan't funny at the time but if you had been a casual observer you wouldn't be able to help but laugh when the wrong side of the building powered up and the area needed stayed dark.

How long have you been involved with post press?
In April of 1977 I started with Ferag Inc. as a Contract Electrical Design Engineer. (BS in EE at Drexel University in Philadelphia) I remained with Ferag in various technical positions until 1986.
I was a principle in a start up company called Insight International Inc. (Inserting System Zone Controls), which unfortunately failed in less than a year of operation, I was out of the newspaper business. Bounced back with Gallus Press Manufacturer of narrow web presses for tags and labels until April of 1991 when I started with GMA as an Electrical Service Reresentative.
In 1995 I was in charge of the Service Organization for close to 2 years, I managed the projects at GMA from the third quarter of 1996 until the end of 2000.
I was with a small company at the time called Ataboy Inc. until 2003 when I returned back to GMA and was downsized in 2005 and worked as a consultant. I joined NJMG in June of 2008 shortly there after.

What do you like most about post press?
It seldom is boring.

What do you like least about post press?
The second class status (presses are important but post press is an after thought) I will say that after a generation of explosive growth in FSI's this mentality has softened.

What can be done to improve post press efficiency?
Since this is what I have been focused on during most of my professional career I can say that there's a simple pithy answer to this question; some ideas focus on smooth flow of information, raw material and finished products. Avoid chaos, always work from a plan and remember a good plan can be changed, adapt the plan as needed and avoid ad hoc approaches.
The fact that the poorest feeder, the worst insert dictate the through put of an inserting system
Always use technology to improve the operation as much as possible but be critical in the assessment of the technology when it is being implemented
*Never forget when implementing technology that just because you can do something doesn't mean always you should do it.
Peter Drucker was once quoted as saying "Action without thinking is the cause of every failure"

What is your funniest post press story - Thank you Frank!
I was doing the electrical start up of a press conveyor in a newly expanded mailroom, the waste release was in the mailroom chute to direct the dropped copies to a cart that wasn't in place.
The press erectors wanted to do some top speed tests, the conveyor was completely ready but none of the stacker positions were complete. All the test copies were going to be dropped directly to a cart sitting in the way of the restroom doors. I discussed the need for assigning at least 2 mailroom people to be available to keep the waste carts emptied, the mailroom supervisor didn't see the need, since I knew that I would be in the pressroom making sure the conveyor was running correctly. I didn't argue
The press ran for about half an hour with two units straight at full speed and created a mountain of paper that trapped a few of the women in the restroom, a small front end loader was required to clear the mountain of paper.
On future tests people were made available to move the carts until a stacker posotion was ready

How long have you been involved with post press?
I started in Post Press in 1986 stacking bundles and feeding inserts. I ran 1472P's and 630's for 10 years hen progressed to leaing the Sunday insert production. I have been the Distribution Production Manager at the Democrat & Chronicle for 4 years. You do the math as far as how long I have been around, it feels more like dog years (lol).

What do you like most about post press?
The satisfaction of producing an end product that has a shelf life of a couple of hours so you have to do it correctly the first time.

What do you like least about post press?
Spending hours and hours laying out a run to save dollars, only to have Advertising change the zoning of an insert. Now that in itself would not be bad but when you have to start from scratch the frustration factor can rise pretty quickly. Especially when your pieces per hour are at stake.

What can be done to improve post press efficiency?
There needs to be more tips and tricks on how to run out of spec inserts productively. There are many ideas out there that have yet to be discovered. The two answers I don't like to this are Advertisers need to give us a better product and a better insert, we all know and need to accept neither will happen any time soon.

What is your funniest post press story - Thank you Marty!
There's a funny story everyday, it seems like I can tell you the luckiest day I've ever had. Up on the deck of our 630 Inserter I dropped a T-handle, yes! Right through the grate between 2 pockets. The inserter stopped cold and didn't sustain any damage, lucky for me because someone else would be answering these questions right now.

How long have you been involved with post press?
I started in The Orange County Register a year out of high school as a Part Time truck driver in 1985. I used to be a paperboy for the Register and one of my first Supervisors as a truck driver was a guy who dropped my papers off to me as a kid. He is now the Sr. VP of Operations at the Register. I worked my way up to a Mailroom Supervisor and then transitioned to our Packaging Center in 1995 when we took ownership of our first high speed inserting machine a 12 head GMA SLS-1000A. We ran a 6-Head Muller 227 for about a year prior to buying the SLS.
Before that we were a completely hand inserted newspaper, keep in mind this was a 350k circulation major metro newspaper we're talking about, pretty amazing.
In 2000 I was named Manager of our Machine Inserting Operation and did that until 2004 when the Honolulu Advertiser hired me to run their brand new state of the art packaging center.
Interestingly at the end of 2003 I was at a crossroads with my career and decided that I should look to transitioning into television (I have a degree in Broadcast Journalism) I was offered several anchoring and or reporting positions with smaller networks affiliates but in the end I needed to pay the bills.
I decided that Hawaii was where I needed to go and here I am 4+ years later. The sway of the palm trees in the warm breeze never gets old.

What do you like most about post press?
I love analzing data and figuring out ways to be more efficient. I think I was an accountant in a past life. I love to number crunch and derive meaning from the results. Being in a Mailroom provides me with a lot of number crunching, I don't think anyone can say it isn't a dynamic environment full of characters, that always seems to be the case in the back end of this business.

What do you like least about post press?
To be honest, I like keeping things simple, a la the Southwest Airlines model, but unfortunately the industry is going in a direction where you need to tap into whatever revenue streams come your way. With that said, if a customer needs a complex solution we must adapt and try to provide it. Like everyone else I do get tired of last minute inserts or inserts without enough information accompanying them. I don't think that will change though. It's been that way going back to the penny press days I surmise :-).

What can be done to improve post press efficiency?
Efficiency can be a catch 22 in the mailroom. The more your microzone the less efficient you will be, but you have to microzone in many cases to protect or gain market share. Do I have a ground breaking answer? No, I've always had a philosophy that speed isn't always the answer. Sometimes a dimishing returns effect can result if you're just focused on pkgs. produced per hour, that many people do.
On some runs I've slowed the machine down just 20% but was able to reduce staffing by 25-30% as a result. Mitigating pinch points was the key. It allowed me to optimize everyone on the machine. Of course thi assumes you have wiggle room in your deadlines which I think most people do especially on weekly products like comics and TMC.

What is your funniest post press story - Thank you Ron!
Not necessarily post press related per se, but I remember back in Orange County the Director of the Department decided to throw a picnic for everybody. We had about 500 or so people working for us at the time but just a couple of people showed. He had 1000 leftover hot dogs as a result. Afterward we gave him Top Ten Lists of what he could do with all his leftover hot dogs which included using them as speed bumps in the Mailroom to slow down speeding pallet jacks or inserting them into a zone to see how the machine would handle them. We figured we would be asked one day to do it anyway with how things were going, may as well give it a try now.

Joe Dwyer : July Member of the Month - as always each month 4PUG highligts a member who has excelled in consistantly providing valuable knowledge & experiences to your Post Press Community. 4PUG is proud to recognize and announce Joe Dwyer as July Member of the Month. Joe is the Distribution Manager at the The Citizen's Voice in Wilkes-Barre, PA. He is a Sr. Member and has been a member of the User Group since February 2006. He has contributed 50 posts and responses to the User Group, it's a pleasure to have Joe, we can't thank Joe enough for his on going support and appreciate his contribution.

Check out Joe's Mailroom Matters Profile

Robert "Bob" McCarthy : June Member of the Month - as always each month 4PUG high lights a member who has excelled in consistantly providing valuable knowledge & experiences to your Post Press Community. 4PUG is proud to recognize and announce Robert McCarthy as June Member of the Month. Robert is the Post Press Manager at the Sun Journal in Lewiston Maine. He is a Hero Member and an original member of the User Group since September 2004. He has contributed over 50 posts and responses to the User Group, we can't thank Robert enough for his on going support and appreciate his contribution.

Check out Robert's Mailroom Matters Profile