Inky turns 21 with fresh subs deal

New Zealand’s printing trade magazine Inky Fingers has turned 21 and, alongside the massive and ongoing changes in the industry worldwide, Inky has rebranded to reflect the entire industry across the board.

The rebranding accompanies the current subscription campaign, where regular printer (not suppliers sorry) subscribers have an opportunity to win a case of New Zealand wine, and save a bundle of cash.

The changes to Inky mark a widening of its traditional offset base and incorporate news from digital to wide format, signage, mailing, packaging and everything in between from prepress, workflow to colour management and finishing in line with actual changes happening across the country.

Inky’s classified advertisements, free to subscribers, remain hugely popular and one of the magazine’s major attractions. No other forum exists in the local printing industry for sourcing or selling second hand equipment on the scale that Inky offers. In other industries these forums have gone online but Inky has stayed faithful to printers.

The magazine’s readership includes owner/operators, managers and production staff. Decision makers represent a high percentage of its readers.

Since its first issue Inky Fingers has provided factory floor information from and for in the printing industry. From humble beginnings, the magazine quickly gathered traction and many of the advertisers who came on board back then, continue to support Inky Fingers today.

Inky reached its 100th issue in February 2003 and has continued to thrive despite the ups and downs of New Zealand’s economic climate. It has always prided itself on showcasing many of the smaller players within the printing industry – the family owned and operated businesses which are still around today, plus many of the larger international machinery and consumable corporates.

Publisher and managing director of Printer Magazines Group, Shankar Vishwanath says printers no longer see themselves as a part of an industry that sits in just one sector, and many who have not adapted to change have failed to grow as a result.

He says, “These days printers either concentrate on a niche that they do well in, while expanding at the same time into providing a complete service, which covers everything from business cards to signage and all the processes in between.

“Those companies that simply concentrate on one part of printing, such as die-makers and specialist finishing companies are either becoming extremely good at what they do and making themselves invaluable in their niche, or are fading out altogether. The digital age and the rapid advancement of technology has meant that printers are now able to offer almost anything to their clients from packaging, large format signage to letterheads. The days of outsourcing everything that is not directly off the press are over.”

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