• April 8, 2008, DCP Announces New Custom Publication Launch for Hastings College of the Law
• April 7, 2008, The 2008 "Characteristics Study: A Look at the Volume & Type of Custom Publications in America"
• February 22, 2008, DCP Gets Great Marks on Customer Satisfaction
• February 22, 2008, DCP Publishes Custom Book for Mills-Peninsula Health Services
• February 22, 2008, CPC Organizes First Ever Custom Content Conference

April 8, 2008, DCP Announces New Custom Publication Launch for Hastings College of the Law

DCP recently launched a redesigned custom publication for University of California Hastings College of Law.

With 19,000 alumni to build and maintain relationships with, the UC Hastings College of the Law Alumni Center publishes a bi-annual magazine that is dedicated to growing that bond. To engage today's busy professional, the Department decided to take this 60-page magazine to the next level with design. They hired DCP to lead a major redesign effort to produce a magazine that catches readers’ attention, draws them in quickly, and is so attractive that alumni are proud to place their law school magazine on their coffee table.

“We’re particularly proud of this custom magazine because it demonstrates the range of DCP’s talents,” says Jim Offel, General Manager at DCP. “Hastings, targeting a scholarly audience, boasts a sophisticated, intelligent, yet current style. Most importantly, initial feedback has been extremely positive and confirms that we’re on our way to accomplishing our goals.”

April 7, 2008, The 2008 "Characteristics Study: A Look at the Volume & Type of Custom Publications in America"

The 2008 “Characteristics Study: A Look at the Volume and Type of Custom Publications in America” is out, and it indicates that custom publishing is thriving! The steady upward trend of custom publishing statistics is due in part to increases in titles and the number of custom publishing companies in the U.S.

In 2007 a record number of marketers used custom publishing solutions to promote their products and brands – with impressive results. Other industry reports show that spending on alternative media jumped 22%, with more advertisers seeking out new channels. Custom publishing can be expected to grow even more in 2008 with the increase in Internet distribution of content and creative new media solutions. 

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SURVEY

UNIQUE TITLES
The number of unique custom titles being published in America reached an all-time high this year of 143,173 titles. This is a 14.5% increase from last year and a 48.0% increase since the survey was first conducted in 1999. The nine-year trend of custom titles being produced per company is up 21.1% from 1.9 to 2.3.

MORE REVENUE ALLOCATED
Overall money spent on custom publishing hit $55.0 billion this year, a 150.1% increase since the survey was first launched in 1999.  Excluding costs related to personnel assigned to custom publishing projects, Corporate America spent $34.1 billion on the production and distribution of custom publications. Spending on production and distribution, which might reflect Corporate America’s “budget” for custom publications has increased 150.1% from $12.9 million in 2000 to $34.1 million.

FREQUENCY
The average annual frequency of custom publications increased from 8.4 to 9.0 times per year. Although frequency remains lower than its 2003 peak, frequency is still 42.9% higher today than it was in 1999 at 9.0x versus 6.3x.

CIRCULATION & PAGES INCREASE
Total circulation and total pages actually went up because of the increase in frequency and the increase in the number of companies in the U.S., but average circulation and average pages went down, possibly due to in part to increasing paper costs and postage rates.

PAGES PER ISSUE
The average pages per issue for custom publications dropped from 24.9 to 22.2. Since 1999 pages per issue have grown 60.9% from 13.8 pages to 22.2 pages.

CIRCULATION PER ISSUE
The average circulation per issue for custom publications decreased this year for the second year in a row from 35,221 to 30,044.

ANNUAL CIRCULATION PER TITLE
The average circulation per title per year, which combines average frequency per title with average circulation per issue, has decreased to  270,396 copies. Since the onset of the research, annual circulation per title has increase 119.0%  from 123,448 copies to 295,856 copies.

PRIMARY AUDIENCE
For the fifth year running, titles targeting external audiences exceeded those targeting internal audiences (64% versus 36%). External audiences comprise businesses (BtoB) and consumers (BtoC). Of those custom publications targeting external audiences, a slight majority of them are BtoB versus BtoC, and that has stayed fairly constant in each of the five years in which this characteristic has been measured.

PUBLICATION FORMAT
Custom publishers seem to have rediscovered the newsletter format this year, possibly due to the recent postal rate hike. For the first time since 2004, newsletters have overtaken magazines as the preferred publication format in custom publishing (40% versus 35). The use of online publications has increased slightly from 17% to 18% however it has remained fairly consistent since 2000.

DISTRIBUTION METHOD
For the first time this year, the study adds the Internet to the choice of distribution methods. A reported 17% of publications were reported as being distributed. The USPS continues to be the preferred distribution channel for custom publications with 61% of titles using the postal service.

MORE SPENT ON PRODUCTION & DISTRIBUTION
The amount spent on the production and distribution of custom publications (as reported in the Communications Industry Forecast by Veronis Suhler Stevenson) also reached its second highest amount at $34.1 billion.

USE OF FOUR COLOR
The use of all four color decreased slightly this year with 61% of companies using all four color and 79% of companies using either some or all four color, compared to 39% and 54%, respectively, in 1999.

AVERAGE AGE PER TITLE
This year the average age continues to hover around 8 years with 45% of titles older than 11 years. This suggests that the true age of the average custom publication is well beyond the average 7.7 years.

PRESENCE OF ADVERTISEMENTS
For the second year in a row, the presence of paid advertising in custom publications slipped backward. Still, 23% of custom publications carry some paid advertising. Also for the second year in a row, custom publications carrying no advertisements of any type has increased with 68% of companies reporting no ads in their publications.

SPONSOR & METHODOLOGY
The research herein was conducted by the monthly subscription newsletter Publications Management (www.publicationsmanagement.com), which is the leading media providing news, information, and research on the custom publishing industry. The research was conducted via a mailed survey targeting a random sample of companies across all industries. More than five thousand surveys were mailed, and approximately 250 were completed and returned, producing a +/- 6% degree of accuracy at a 90% confidence level. Among the responding companies were: ConocoPhillips, Costco Wholesale, Cox Communications, Datalogic Scanning, Inc., Disneyland Resort, General Electric, Green Mountain Energy, Lockheed Martin, RE/MAX International, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., State Farm Insurance, Sunkist Growers, Inc., University of California-Irvine, Welch Allyn, Wells Real Estate Funds, Walgreens.

February 22, 2008, DCP Gets Great Marks on Customer Satisfaction

More than a third of DCP’s customers responded to an online satisfaction survey on performance in a variety of areas from strategic thinking and problem solving to how DCP compares to similar service providers.

DCP got the highest scores on these statements:

• DCP team responds promptly to questions and inquiries.
• DCP team demonstrates a clear understanding of project goals and objectives.
• DCP team does a good job incorporating my goals and objectives into the project.
• DCP team is flexible, responsive and effectively manages change.
• I have just the right amount of access to DCP creative team members.
• Overall, I am pleased with DCP’s customer service.
• Overall, I am pleased with the quality of DCP’s graphic design services.
• Overall, I am pleased with the quality of DCP’s editorial services.
• I am “very satisfied” with my overall experience with DCP.
• I am “very satisfied” with DCP’s customer service.
• I am “very satisfied” with DCP’s graphic design services.
• The DCP project team are effective problem solvers.
• I would recommend DCP services to my colleagues.
• I consider DCP to be better than other companies that offer the same or similar services.

Here are a few answers to, “What do you like most about working with DCP?”:

• “Excellent customer service, professionalism and attentiveness to problems/inquiries.”
• “Great people, excellent product, creative process.”
• “Passion for creating a fantastic product. Flexibility and responsiveness.”
• “Complete and thorough understanding of our project, attention to detail, follow through, timelines, terrific people to work with. Awesome experience!”

Here is one of the customer testimonials submitted:

“Working with DCP has been fantastic. They had a wonderful team in place for our project, outstanding attention to detail, timelines, strategy, design and delivery. The team made all the difference. I absolutely loved working with them!"

-- Deepa Caveney, Marketing Programs Manager, Cisco/WebEx

February 22, 2008, DCP Publishes Custom Book for Mills-Peninsula Health Services

To celebrate the landmark centennial of a prominent Bay Area health care system, Mills-Peninsula Health Services hired DCP to create a vivid pictorial history of its long-standing commitment and service to the community. The result is Caring for Generations: A Centennial History of Mills-Peninsula Health Services, which starts before the 1906 earthquake and ends with a glance into the extraordinary new facility scheduled to open in 2010. Mills-Peninsula offers this 96-page book as a premium gift for donors, contributors and campaign sponsors.

Mills-Peninsula Health Services chose DCP for this project because they were impressed by the award-winning, 106-page coffee-table-quality book DCP created last year for Alta Bates Summit Medical Center. Similarly, A Century of Caring: A Pictorial History of Alta Bates Summit Medical Center is a spectacular record of photographs and anecdotes that honor the dedicated men and women who built Alta Bates Summit’s proud legacy and those who will inspire and enable the many successes and milestones that lie ahead.

In the past year, DCP has created another type of commemorative piece, titled St. Mary’s Medical Center, 150 Years of Care and Compassion. This 20-page brochure shares a similar look and approach to the custom books mentioned above, but on a smaller scale. St. Mary’s Medical Center, the longest continuously operating hospital in San Francisco, wanted to create a special publication honoring its 150-year heritage of caring. This piece was given to guests at each of the many celebratory events and is available to hospital visitors.

“We’re very proud of the commemorative publications we have created for Mills-Peninsula Health Services, Alta Bates Summit Medical Center and St. Mary’s Medical Center,” says Jim Offel, General Manager at DCP and member of the Custom Publishing Council Executive Board. “It is an extremely educating and rewarding experience to pull together a historical perspective of such remarkable, momentous organizations.”

Please contact Amy Romanoff at aromanoff@dcpmail.com if you’d like to see a sample of any of these publications.

February 22, 2008, CPC Organizes First Ever Custom Content Conference

The Custom Publishing Council (CPC), the leading association for the custom publishing industry in the United States, is organizing the first ever conference dedicated to custom content. Content ’08: Re-Thinking Brand Content will be held in New Orleans from March 9-11. This conference brings together marketers, advertisers, and custom publishers to network while debating and exchanging ideas for leveraging custom content in today’s digital marketplace.

As one of the founding members of the CPC, DCP’s General Manager Jim Offel will be heading to New Orleans with his management team to participate in this landmark event. Jim has played a key role in the growth of the CPC over the past decade, having served as past President of the Executive Board. Jim is currently serving as a board member.

Marketers across the country, the media and other interested constituencies rely on the Custom Publishing Council as the authoritative source of industry news, data and trends, information on the effectiveness of custom publishing, and referrals to the top custom publishers in North America. At Content ’08, the Custom Publishing Council presents a mix of industry experts including brand designers, trend prognosticators, corporate marketers and technologists. The goal of the conference is to further the growth and vitality of this dynamic marketing discipline.

“Content ’08 is a momentous event for the custom publishing industry,” says Jim Offel, General Manager at DCP. “When the CPC first formed in 1998, most marketers had never heard of the terms custom publishing or custom content. Now, hundreds of marketers and custom publishers will be gathering from around the country to dedicate several days to discussing ways to advance this rapidly growing $56 billion industry.”