Kevin Doll and Walsworth Publishing Company

Authenticity and honesty go a long way in the publishing business, and one of the most authentic and honest people we have met is Kevin Doll. Kevin now works as a Sales Representative for the Commerical Division of Walsworth Publishing Company. We decided to shine a little light on Kevin and Walsworth, and to see how he and the company are handling the current economic whirlwind.

Ertel Publishing: For how long have you worked in printing sales?

Kevin Doll: I have been in the printing industry for 29 years.

When did you make the move to Walsworth?

I joined Walsworth in August of 2008 to help continue their growth in the magazine and catalog markets.

Tell us a little about Walsworth. How long has the company been around?
What does it print?

Walsworth Publishing Company is headquartered in Marceline, Missouri, a town commonly known as the boyhood home of Walt Disney. In 1937, three brothers, Don, Ed and Bill Walsworth, settled in Marceline to print playbills with a borrowed typewriter and a mimeograph machine. Soon the product line was expanded to include cookbooks and, following World War II, memorial books to honor those who had served their country.
In 1947, Walsworth began to produce yearbooks, which have been the company's mainstay ever since. In 1970, the Commercial division was established to balance the cyclical yearbook production schedule, adding textbooks, catalogs, magazines and other specialty publications to the Walsworth line.

Today, Walsworth is still a family-owned company that employs more than 1,250 people worldwide, and more than 250 of them have 20 or more years of service to the company. Walsworth boasts more than 675 employees who have attained the Master Printer of America status. Several members of various families work for Walsworth, and at times, those families have included three generations simultaneously.

Walsworth has become a technology leader in the printing industry, as part of our goal of providing customers with the best possible service while helping them produce printed products of superior quality.


What are some new initiatives/policies that are going to take place at
Walsworth during 2009?

As Walsworth continues to grow and invest in our company we now have available to our clients an interactive on-line publishing solution (flip-book) for their magazines and catalogs. This is capable of having an interactive Table of Contents along with audio and video for advertisers in the magazine. Our co-mailing capabilities also give Walsworth the opportunity to save our clients money spent on postage for their magazine and catalogs.

How are you and Walsworth handling the current recession?

All of us have to focus on moving forward and how we can help our current and future clients be successful and achieve their business goals. Although we have seen some page counts and print quantities down from a year ago our continued growth has come form helping new customers with their print needs. Continue to seek out more ways we can help our current customers be successful.

What is the current state of paper prices? Do you expect it to change
anytime soon? Why/why not?

Below are some comments and information I came across about the paper market:
Coated Papers
The enticement of much lower prices did not generate the hoped-for resurgence of orders in January.

Demand will improve in the second half of 2009 due to inventory, economic recovery and the benefit of dismal year-ago comparisons.

Prices are dropping hard in the first quarter of 2009, but downtime will temper the rate of further decline in the second quarter, followed by some stabilization and maybe even a slight recovery by the end of 2009.


Do you see any good news, or signs of life, in the printing business?

There were 715 new magazines launched in 2008 compared to 713 magazines launched in 2007. There are many reasons to be optimistic as we look forward and continue to grow our business. I believe that if all of us help enough other people achieve their goals we will find that we will have accomplished ours as well. This is true in both our personal and business lives.