World Color Press
Encyclopedia
World Color Press Inc. (formerly Quebecor World
) was a company which provided high-value and comprehensive print
, digital, and related services to businesses worldwide. World Color and its subsidiaries printed various commercial products, including comic book
s, magazine
s, brochure
s, direct mail
and newspaper inserts, and directories, while also providing clients a broad range of pre-press services, such as desktop production and assembly.
World Color was the first printer to make comic book printing a major part of its business plan, and throughout most of its history was the dominant North American printer of comics and associated publications. During its history, World Color was also at the forefront of many new technologies and printing innovations, including use of web offset presses, "pool shipping," rotogravure
printing, computer technology, digital registration systems, and flexography
.
World Color merged with Quebecor Printing in 1999; at the time World Color was the largest printer of consumer magazines in the United States and the third largest commercial printer in North America. Worldcolor was acquired by Quad/Graphics
in early 2010.
, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition
, and was expected to disband at the World Fair's conclusion. Instead, the company name was shortened to World Color Printing and continued as a commercial printer, focusing on a new business: the color "funnies
" section of the Sunday newspaper
.
In the early 1930s, realizing the sales potential of the comics medium, company management attempted to maximize profits by reprinting the funnies in magazine format, thereby creating one of the first prototypes of the comic book
. While the initial comic books were simply collections of previously published editions of the Sunday comic strips, by 1936 they contained original material.
World Color made the most of the idea and quickly emerged as the leading printer in this new field. To keep up with ever-increasing demand, the company began construction of a satellite printing plant in Sparta, Illinois
. Opened in 1948, the Sparta plant was the most technologically advanced plant in the industry devoted solely to the printing of comic magazines.
Within five years World Color Press became the largest producer of comic magazines in the industry. Comic book sales boomed during World War II
and the postwar period, and throughout this period, World Color was the nation's leading comic book printer. (Comics were the most popular form of newsstand magazine.)
In 1956, the company installed one of the first web-offset presses in its Sparta plant. This innovative printing process, in which rolls or "webs" of paper are fed through rubber-blanketed cylinders, producing tens of thousands of impressions an hour, helped lead the industry into the modern era of print technology. By the early 1970s, World Color purchased more equipment and expanded their plants, becoming the largest player in the comic and newsstand special-interest publication market.
By the early 1980s World Color Press printed most American comic books, including those of the industry giants Marvel
and DC
.
World Color's dominance in the field led to a 1984 lawsuit by Illinois-based First Comics
, accusing them of anti-competitive practices. The suit was resolved in the spring of 1988. In 1985, DC Comics named World Color Press as one of the honorees in the company's 50th anniversary publication Fifty Who Made DC Great
.
World Color computerized many aspects of its business in the 1960s, providing the company with more efficient production and distribution capabilities, as well as the ability to perform more complicated printing procedures and reproduce more complex data. In 1969, World Color started construction of a web-offset facility in Effingham, Illinois
, approximately 120 miles northeast of Sparta. The new plant was designed to produce magazines printed on coated paper with extensive use of four-color printing. Success in this arena led to a 1971 expansion of the Effingham plant that nearly doubled its original size. The 1971 addition increased the company's ability to produce large-circulation monthly magazines printed on letter-press equipment.
Responding to a need to to increase the company's flexibility in scheduling presses, in 1970, the company standardized the make and type of its presses. This change was expected to result in paper savings, more consistent quality, and schedule flexibility. Though it was a short-term risk, the strategy paid off with its clients, enabling the company to become a stronger competitor in the four-color, high-quality magazine market.
In 1975, the company expanded its gravure division by constructing a plant between Effingham and Sparta. Further expansions in client-base led to the 1980 construction of another new plant in Des Plaines, Illinois
. By the beginning of the 1980s, the company had emerged as the leader in the printing and distribution of consumer publications, with sales of more than $371 million. During the 1980s, World Color added seven state-of-the-art printing facilities, strategically located throughout the United States, strengthening the company's reputation for providing low distribution costs. In 1985, World Color Press was listed as the fourth largest printer in North America, with sales totaling $544 million.
By 1993, World Color's core business was magazine printing; contracts with hundreds of leading periodicals, including U.S. News & World Report
, Cosmopolitan
, Rolling Stone, and Forbes, accounted for approximately half of the company's 1993 revenues. (The company came to the aid of competitor R.R. Donnelley & Sons in January 1995, printing 300,000 issues of People
magazine for Donnelley after flood waters forced the closing of a Donnelley plant near Los Angeles.) During this period, World Color expanded its operations into a number of specialty services: catalog printing contracts generated more than a fifth of total revenues in 1993, and represented the company's fastest growing division.
.
In 1968, World Color was purchased by New York-based City Investing, prompting World Color to move its headquarters from St. Louis to New York.
In 1974, as World Color shifted focus to the high-end magazine market, the company purchased Louisville, Kentucky-based Fawcett Printing. This acquisition enabled World Color Press to add the rotogravure
printing process to its repertoire.
In 1984, the investment giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
bought World Color from City Investing, providing the company with continued financial backing. In 1989, World Color acquired Chicago's Bradley Printing, and in December 1991, they acquired California's third-largest printer, George Rice & Sons. In January 1993, they purchased catalog/direct mail
printer Alden Press. With these acquisitions, in just a few short years World Color became a major player in the catalog and commercial publishing arenas.
World Color pursued major expansions in 1996 and 1997, purchasing Ringier America
and Rand McNally
's Book Services Group, thereby becoming second in size only to RR Donnelley. In 1999, the company merged with Quebecor Printing in a U.S. $2.7 billion deal to create Quebecor World (USA) Inc.
, moving its headquarters to Montreal
. At the time of the merger, World Color operated 17 production, distribution, and sales facilities throughout the United States.
. Quebecor World filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
protection on January 21, 2008, at the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. In May 2009, RR Donnelley tendered an unsolicited bid to purchase Quebecor World; this was rejected as the company emerged from creditor protection in July 2009 (having changed its name back to "Worldcolor Press"). On July 2, 2010, Quad/Graphics
purchased Worldcolor.
, Argentina
, Brazil
, Chile
, Colombia
, Mexico
, the U.K., and Peru
.
of Worldcolor were:
Quebecor World
Quebecor World Inc. was a printing subsidiary of Quebecor Inc. based in Montreal, Quebec. It comprised a number of small and large print shops throughout the world. In 2010, Quebecor World was acquired by Wisconsin-based Quad/Graphics....
) was a company which provided high-value and comprehensive print
Printing
Printing is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing....
, digital, and related services to businesses worldwide. World Color and its subsidiaries printed various commercial products, including comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
s, magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
s, brochure
Brochure
A brochure is a type of leaflet. Brochures are most commonly found at places that tourists frequently visit, such as museums, major shops, and tourist information. Brochure racks or stands may suggest visits to amusement parks and other points of interest...
s, direct mail
Direct mail
Advertising mail, also known as direct mail, junk mail, or admail, is the delivery of advertising material to recipients of postal mail. The delivery of advertising mail forms a large and growing service for many postal services, and direct-mail marketing forms a significant portion of the direct...
and newspaper inserts, and directories, while also providing clients a broad range of pre-press services, such as desktop production and assembly.
World Color was the first printer to make comic book printing a major part of its business plan, and throughout most of its history was the dominant North American printer of comics and associated publications. During its history, World Color was also at the forefront of many new technologies and printing innovations, including use of web offset presses, "pool shipping," rotogravure
Rotogravure
Rotogravure is a type of intaglio printing process; that is, it involves engraving the image onto an image carrier...
printing, computer technology, digital registration systems, and flexography
Flexography
Flexography is a form of printing process which utilizes a flexible relief plate. It is basically an updated version of letterpress that can be used for printing on almost any type of substrate including plastic, metallic films, cellophane, and paper...
.
World Color merged with Quebecor Printing in 1999; at the time World Color was the largest printer of consumer magazines in the United States and the third largest commercial printer in North America. Worldcolor was acquired by Quad/Graphics
Quad/Graphics
Quad/Graphics is an American printing company, based in Sussex, Wisconsin. It was founded on July 13, 1971, by Harry V. Quadracci, son of Harry R. Quadracci, whom the company website calls, "the Father of Web Offset Printing". The company has forty printing facilities in the United States, as well...
in early 2010.
World Fair Color Printing
World Color Press was founded in 1903 by the owners of the St. Louis Star under the name World's Fair Color Printing. The wholly owned subsidiary was created to handle color printing for the upcoming 1904 St. Louis World's FairWorld's Fair
World's fair, World fair, Universal Exposition, and World Expo are various large public exhibitions held in different parts of the world. The first Expo was held in The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, United Kingdom, in 1851, under the title "Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All...
, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition
Louisiana Purchase Exposition
The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the Saint Louis World's Fair, was an international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States in 1904.- Background :...
, and was expected to disband at the World Fair's conclusion. Instead, the company name was shortened to World Color Printing and continued as a commercial printer, focusing on a new business: the color "funnies
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
" section of the Sunday newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
.
Comics
Robert Grable and Roswell Messing, Sr., two St. Louis Star senior employees, purchased the company in 1922. As the popularity of the Sunday color comic section increased, the funnies quickly evolved into an American institution, and metropolitan papers increasingly began featuring comic supplements. As the first major printer of color sections, World Color Press was often the first choice for printing these sections, and by the early 1930s, the company had printing contracts with newspapers nationwide.In the early 1930s, realizing the sales potential of the comics medium, company management attempted to maximize profits by reprinting the funnies in magazine format, thereby creating one of the first prototypes of the comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
. While the initial comic books were simply collections of previously published editions of the Sunday comic strips, by 1936 they contained original material.
World Color made the most of the idea and quickly emerged as the leading printer in this new field. To keep up with ever-increasing demand, the company began construction of a satellite printing plant in Sparta, Illinois
Sparta, Illinois
Sparta is a city in Randolph County, Illinois, United States. The population was 4,486 at the 2000 census.The city was the principal filming location for the 1967 film In the Heat of the Night.-Geography:Sparta is located at ....
. Opened in 1948, the Sparta plant was the most technologically advanced plant in the industry devoted solely to the printing of comic magazines.
Within five years World Color Press became the largest producer of comic magazines in the industry. Comic book sales boomed during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and the postwar period, and throughout this period, World Color was the nation's leading comic book printer. (Comics were the most popular form of newsstand magazine.)
In 1956, the company installed one of the first web-offset presses in its Sparta plant. This innovative printing process, in which rolls or "webs" of paper are fed through rubber-blanketed cylinders, producing tens of thousands of impressions an hour, helped lead the industry into the modern era of print technology. By the early 1970s, World Color purchased more equipment and expanded their plants, becoming the largest player in the comic and newsstand special-interest publication market.
By the early 1980s World Color Press printed most American comic books, including those of the industry giants Marvel
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
and DC
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
.
World Color's dominance in the field led to a 1984 lawsuit by Illinois-based First Comics
First Comics
First Comics was an American comic-book publisher that was active from 1983–1991, known for titles like American Flagg!, Grimjack, Nexus, Badger, Dreadstar, and Jon Sable...
, accusing them of anti-competitive practices. The suit was resolved in the spring of 1988. In 1985, DC Comics named World Color Press as one of the honorees in the company's 50th anniversary publication Fifty Who Made DC Great
Fifty Who Made DC Great
Fifty Who Made DC Great is a one shot published by DC Comics to commemorate the company's 50th anniversary in 1985. It was published in comic book format but contained text articles with photographs and background caricatures...
.
Diversification and growth
The development of the web-press in the 1950s enabled World Color to further diversify into the relatively new product lines of web-printed newsstand and special interest magazines. Equally important to the company's growth during the 1950s was its development of the "pool shipping" concept, a distribution method in which publications from different customers going to the same destination were shipped together, reducing freight costs and increasing the timeliness of deliveries. By establishing the first major pool shipping network to newsstands, the company was able to expand its customer base by offering the lowest distribution costs in the industry.World Color computerized many aspects of its business in the 1960s, providing the company with more efficient production and distribution capabilities, as well as the ability to perform more complicated printing procedures and reproduce more complex data. In 1969, World Color started construction of a web-offset facility in Effingham, Illinois
Effingham, Illinois
Effingham is a city in Effingham County, Illinois, United States. The population was 12,384 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Effingham County....
, approximately 120 miles northeast of Sparta. The new plant was designed to produce magazines printed on coated paper with extensive use of four-color printing. Success in this arena led to a 1971 expansion of the Effingham plant that nearly doubled its original size. The 1971 addition increased the company's ability to produce large-circulation monthly magazines printed on letter-press equipment.
Responding to a need to to increase the company's flexibility in scheduling presses, in 1970, the company standardized the make and type of its presses. This change was expected to result in paper savings, more consistent quality, and schedule flexibility. Though it was a short-term risk, the strategy paid off with its clients, enabling the company to become a stronger competitor in the four-color, high-quality magazine market.
In 1975, the company expanded its gravure division by constructing a plant between Effingham and Sparta. Further expansions in client-base led to the 1980 construction of another new plant in Des Plaines, Illinois
Des Plaines, Illinois
Des Plaines is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It has adopted the official nickname of "City of Destiny." As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 58,720. It is a suburb of Chicago, and is next to O'Hare International Airport...
. By the beginning of the 1980s, the company had emerged as the leader in the printing and distribution of consumer publications, with sales of more than $371 million. During the 1980s, World Color added seven state-of-the-art printing facilities, strategically located throughout the United States, strengthening the company's reputation for providing low distribution costs. In 1985, World Color Press was listed as the fourth largest printer in North America, with sales totaling $544 million.
By 1993, World Color's core business was magazine printing; contracts with hundreds of leading periodicals, including U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report is an American news magazine published from Washington, D.C. Along with Time and Newsweek it was for many years a leading news weekly, focusing more than its counterparts on political, economic, health and education stories...
, Cosmopolitan
Cosmopolitan (magazine)
Cosmopolitan is an international magazine for women. It was first published in 1886 in the United States as a family magazine, was later transformed into a literary magazine and eventually became a women's magazine in the late 1960s...
, Rolling Stone, and Forbes, accounted for approximately half of the company's 1993 revenues. (The company came to the aid of competitor R.R. Donnelley & Sons in January 1995, printing 300,000 issues of People
People (magazine)
In 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at teens called Teen People. However, on July 27, 2006, the company announced it would shut down publication of Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006. Subscribers to this magazine received...
magazine for Donnelley after flood waters forced the closing of a Donnelley plant near Los Angeles.) During this period, World Color expanded its operations into a number of specialty services: catalog printing contracts generated more than a fifth of total revenues in 1993, and represented the company's fastest growing division.
Business acquisitions and mergers
World Color's early dominance in the comics market led the company to diversify, their first move being the 1928 purchase of another St. Louis-based printer, Commercial Color Press, which specialized in printing weekly newspapers and circulars. This diversification helped the company survive the lean years of the Great DepressionGreat Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
.
In 1968, World Color was purchased by New York-based City Investing, prompting World Color to move its headquarters from St. Louis to New York.
In 1974, as World Color shifted focus to the high-end magazine market, the company purchased Louisville, Kentucky-based Fawcett Printing. This acquisition enabled World Color Press to add the rotogravure
Rotogravure
Rotogravure is a type of intaglio printing process; that is, it involves engraving the image onto an image carrier...
printing process to its repertoire.
In 1984, the investment giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
KKR & Co. L.P. is an American-based global private equity firm, specializing in leveraged buyouts, based in New York. The firm sponsors and manages private equity investment funds. Since its inception, the firm has completed over $400 billion of private equity transactions and was a pioneer in...
bought World Color from City Investing, providing the company with continued financial backing. In 1989, World Color acquired Chicago's Bradley Printing, and in December 1991, they acquired California's third-largest printer, George Rice & Sons. In January 1993, they purchased catalog/direct mail
Direct mail
Advertising mail, also known as direct mail, junk mail, or admail, is the delivery of advertising material to recipients of postal mail. The delivery of advertising mail forms a large and growing service for many postal services, and direct-mail marketing forms a significant portion of the direct...
printer Alden Press. With these acquisitions, in just a few short years World Color became a major player in the catalog and commercial publishing arenas.
World Color pursued major expansions in 1996 and 1997, purchasing Ringier America
Ringier
Ringier AG is one of the largest media corporations in Switzerland founded in Zofingen and based in Zürich. It publishes several newspapers and magazines in both German and French...
and Rand McNally
Rand McNally
Rand McNally is an American publisher of maps, atlases, textbooks, and globes for travel, reference, commercial, and educational uses. It also provides online consumer street maps and directions, as well as commercial transportation routing software and mileage data...
's Book Services Group, thereby becoming second in size only to RR Donnelley. In 1999, the company merged with Quebecor Printing in a U.S. $2.7 billion deal to create Quebecor World (USA) Inc.
Quebecor World
Quebecor World Inc. was a printing subsidiary of Quebecor Inc. based in Montreal, Quebec. It comprised a number of small and large print shops throughout the world. In 2010, Quebecor World was acquired by Wisconsin-based Quad/Graphics....
, moving its headquarters to Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
. At the time of the merger, World Color operated 17 production, distribution, and sales facilities throughout the United States.
Financial struggles
Quebecor World entered a difficult period in the early 2000s as the market has gradually shifted focus to digital mediaDigital media
Digital media is a form of electronic media where data is stored in digital form. It can refer to the technical aspect of storage and transmission Digital media is a form of electronic media where data is stored in digital (as opposed to analog) form. It can refer to the technical aspect of...
. Quebecor World filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
protection on January 21, 2008, at the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. In May 2009, RR Donnelley tendered an unsolicited bid to purchase Quebecor World; this was rejected as the company emerged from creditor protection in July 2009 (having changed its name back to "Worldcolor Press"). On July 2, 2010, Quad/Graphics
Quad/Graphics
Quad/Graphics is an American printing company, based in Sussex, Wisconsin. It was founded on July 13, 1971, by Harry V. Quadracci, son of Harry R. Quadracci, whom the company website calls, "the Father of Web Offset Printing". The company has forty printing facilities in the United States, as well...
purchased Worldcolor.
Locations
By the time of its purchase by Quad/Graphics, Worldcolor had facilities located in the U.S., CanadaCanada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
, Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, the U.K., and Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
.
Corporate Governance
Recent members of the board of directorsBoard of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
of Worldcolor were:
- Mark Angelson (Chairman): Former CEO of RR Donnelley and leading architect of the 2003-2007 printing industry consolidation
- Tom Ryder: Former Chairman and CEO of Reader's DigestReader's DigestReader's Digest is a general interest family magazine, published ten times annually. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, its headquarters is now in New York City. It was founded in 1922, by DeWitt Wallace and Lila Bell Wallace...
, also sits on the boards of Amazon.comAmazon.comAmazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
, Virgin MobileVirgin MobileVirgin Mobile is a brand used by many mobile phone service providers across the globe; its headquarters are based in the United Kingdom. Virgin Mobile has local operations in Australia, Canada, France, India, South Africa, Greece, United Kingdom and the United States. It briefly also had operations...
and Starwood Hotels - Jack Kliger: Former President and CEO of Hachette Filipacchi
- Raymond Bromark: Chairman of the Audit Committee of CA, Inc., and a retired senior partner of PricewaterhouseCoopersPricewaterhouseCoopersPricewaterhouseCoopers is a global professional services firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest professional services firm measured by revenues and one of the "Big Four" accountancy firms....
- Michael Allen: Printing Industry Veteran
- David McAusland: Canadian Lawyer and Former Senior Officer of Alcan Inc.
- Gabriel de Alba: Managing Director and Partner of Catalyst Capital Group of Toronto
Principal subsidiaries
- Alden Press
- Bradley Printing
- George Rice & Sons
- Midwest Litho Arts
- Network Color Technology
- Universal Graphics
- Web Inserts