However, it has not been an easy month for the industry, and it is impossible not to notice the effect that the economic slowdown is having on printers, manufacturers, suppliers, print buyers and everyone else in the print food chain.

Stay in touch next month to be sure you keep informed of the latest developments and in-depth coverage.

Top 5 most read stories:

1. The story which caused the biggest stir this September was the news that Mike Dolan had resigned as a director from Media and Print Investments (MPI). MPI and its subsidiary companies dominated much of September, and the various twists and turns featured highly in the most read stories list. Dolan's resignation was the second most read story of the year so far, only eclipsed by the news that Butler & Tanner (then owned by MPI) had closed in April. The second most popular story this month (and also third most read this year) was the PrintWeek exclusive that two of MPI's businesses had been bought out of administration by HS Printers. Fourth most read was the follow-up which saw the team at HS Printers speaking out about their purchase of Goodman Baylis and Borcombe SP from MPI and the challenges they faced.

2. Second to the MPI/HS Printers saga came the news that start-up printer Four Four Two had gone into voluntary liquidation with 12 staff being made redundant. This story sparked off a lot of comments on the printweek.com forum.

3. In the middle of the month, we broke the news in another long-running story that has featured on the printweek.com pages throughout 2008: that the former owners of Capital Print and Display – David Gill and eight members of his family – had had their assets frozen by the insolvency practitioner dealing with the company's administration, Begbies Traynor.

4. Fourth most read this month was the news that 62 jobs had been lost as TL Visuals called in the administrators after a sale of the business fell through. Its proposed sale to DM printer Pepper Communications was scuppered after the discovery of additional debts at Bristol-based TL Visuals.

5. Finally, in fifth place this September, was the BPIF's chief exec Michael Johnson hitting out at supermarket Sainsbury's "phoney" decision to e-mail out its shareholders' report. This prompted an interesting debate and poll on the website.


Comments

This September has seen some great debates on the printweek.com forum – from discussions about the de-inking of inkjet print, to tussles about the increase in companies bringing print buying in-house.

Here are some of the comments that gave us food for thought among the hundreds of forum discussions we read this month:

"…The 1990s recession… had a limited impact on the printing industry if you look at print volumes from 1985 to 2000. I have just been having a similar discussion with a couple of local businesses – a DIY shop and a car dealer: the shop-keeper said the situation was far worse than the 1990s recession and he compared it to the 1970s and the three-day week for a similar collapse in trading. My own experience of the last three months is an accelerating decline in economic activity. I think we will be slightly up on last year by the end of this month, but I won't be at all surprised if we end up painting the factory for the next six months."

Mark Snee discusses the recent BPIF Directions survey which claimed printers' confidence was at its lowest for more than two years


"I'd like to say that I have failed in a spectacular fashion on training, not that I wish to do so but I simply can't afford it. You may think of it as bad management or any other term that you may feel correct, but training people in-house is so expensive, more so for a firm like ourselves, ie: old equipment, little in the way of new working methods, staff close to retirement… Lets not talk as if printers are stupid, we want and need skilled staff, many firms just can't afford to train them."

Julie Cook comments on Unite's call at the Labour Party Conference for better training in the industry


"This seems to be a strange approach in that an across the board 1% levy would not seem to be the fairest approach. The most logical and greenest approach would be to charge per delivery based on mileage. However, I can see this meaning lost sales for the merchant as their competitors could maintain their "free" delivery service, so I am guessing that the 1% fuel levy is the only way forward. As with most things during this credit crunch, we are all having to start to pay the real cost of things!"

Chris Lewis on news that Paperlinx was to add a 1% fuel levy per drop


"I was saddened to read this morning of the death of Philip Cave… Philip joined the Bocardo & Church Army Press, then a part of the Alden Press, in Oxford at about the time I completed my apprenticeship there. A salesman, Philip had an enthusiasm and an energy that were not easily forgotten. He swiftly moved to be senior manager of that business, and guided me through an early sales career at the company… Philip will be missed by many in the world of print. My condolences to his wife and family."

Russell Hicks of Genesis Marketing on the death of City Fringe Partnership's Philip Cave


"Big shame this one. Great service and a great team from the top to the bottom. Good luck for the future to all concerned."

Stephen Barnes sends his best wishes to the staff of Four Four Two which has gone into liquidation