The timing could be better but then, as a great sage once wrote "Man plans - God laughs." The Publisher of this twice-weekly newsletter and website, Andy McCourt, is pleased to announce he is now also Editor of the industry's leading Label & Packaging title, Labels Plus, and all former Labels-Online subscribers will receive the e-version for free.
 |
| Click on the cover image to flip through your free online version of latest LabelsPlus mag |
Wide format signage and display production has a lot of synergies with the Label market. They both use self-adhesive materials for example. Since the advent of inkjet printer/cutters with the Roland DG CAMMJET CJ-60 in 1996, wide format printers have seized the opportunity to produce short-run, full colour and contour-cut self-adhesive labels and 'stickers.' Many high-volume Label printers keep a wide format print department going for oversize labels, prototypes, ultra-short runs and high-protection labels that require chemical and UV protection with an overlaminate.
It is synergies such as these that has led to the appointment of wideformatonline's Publisher Andy McCourt, as Editor of Labels Plus magazine, following the retirement of its founder Roger Coles. Labels Plus was a partnership between Roger and Matthew Callahan and now the leading trade industry association Visual Connections replaces Roger's equity in the title, with Matthew continuing in his advertising role. The Flexo Packaging & Label Manufacturer's Association (FPLMA), continue to support and partner with Labels Plus.
"Labels Plus is a quarterly publication," says McCourt, "and as such sits comfortably with the weekly publishing schedule of Wideformatonline. Labels and packaging has always been an intense interest of mine and in fact I trained in this area, last millennium, with the Cadbury chocolate company at Bourneville, UK."
He adds: "When I acquired Wideformatonine from Brian Stickland, along with it came Labels-Online. We hadn't done much with it at the high-end, fusing print & cut, desktop and digital label news with the main publication. Now we can port most of the labels activity over to Labels Plus and its website www.australianlabelsandpackaging.com.
"The timing of course, is atrocious - in the middle of a global pandemic and local lock-down but, for all the wrong reasons - Labels and Packaging are relatively unaffected and may even be declared essential services, as they have been in the USA. Food needs to be packaged and shipped, as much for hygiene as nutrition reasons. Stand-up pouches - which can be printed on label preses both digital and flexo - are ideal aseptic packaging solutions should we go into a mass provisioning situation - like K-rations for civilians. I hope it does not come to this but even for normal branded packaged foods, pouches are very useful indeed."
We hope you enjoy your free online copy of Labels Plus magazine - future issues will examine the impact of wide format Print & Cut and desktop low-mid volume label production. If Labels are of interest to you, you can subscribe to a free newsletter on www.australianlabelsandpackaging.com
