The industry’s most popular online news and information source www.wideformatonline.com.au will be owned and operated by well-known identity Andy McCourt from October 1st 2018.
Founder and owner for the past thirteen years, Brian Stickland is retiring, noting: “I wanted someone with industry knowledge and journalistic experience to take the industry’s first online magazine to new heights and I am delighted that Andy has accepted the challenge.
“It’s been a great thirteen years and I do think we broke new ground with an online resource dedicated to wide format users across the graphic arts industry. Going online exclusively meant we were not tied to limited pages and our advertisers’ messages could reach far more potential customers from their industry-focused magazine.
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| Andy (left) and Brian shaking on the deal. |
“Latterly, we added Labels Online and All Print Classifieds magazines and these are included in the hand-over and are also ready for Andy’s expertise. I’d like to thank all of the friends and colleagues who have helped along the way and wish everyone well in the printing industry’s most dynamic growth sector.”
McCourt has a thirty-year involvement in the print and graphic arts space, both here and internationally when based in London in the early 1990s. As an analyst and writer, he has been published all over the world and was editor of the PIAA’s official journal Print21 for thirteen years. He wrote about the first Rips connecting early inkjet plotters to full-colour graphics applications and was instrumental in changing proofing from an expensive chemical-based, lengthy process to an all-digital inkjet low-cost method using Epson printers and CGS ORIS colour-managed ripping.
He says: “I’ve been following wide format since I saw the first Encad plotters linked to ColorBus and other Rips in the early 90s. Coming from the photographic industry, I was excited by the possibilities and could foresee the ‘end of the darkroom’ and a new graphic world of digital production, using non-impact inkjet technologies. In taking on wideformatonline.com, I think I can add more value for our 14,000 subscribers and sponsors, and continue Brian’s fine tradition as a specialist online publication. I’d like to thank Brian for his terrific work for the industry – I actually met him 28 years ago when he owned South Africa’s largest publishing company dedicated to their graphic arts industry and I was based in London – he has always been very professional and dedicated. I wish him well in his retirement and am grateful that he will be in the background to call on for advice for a little while yet.”
While there will be changes, wide format online will remain dedicated to its core community of users of professional and industrial-grade inkjet technologies from 17-inch (432mm) through to 5.2 metre (17 feet) digital inkjet devices, consumables and ancillaries. “The applications are multiplying rapidly,” says McCourt, “Inkjet is the printing industry’s process of the future.”
Wide Format Online
www.wideformatonline.com.au
