MeadWestvaco's Christmas Gift Book


	MeadWestvaco's Christmas Gift Book
	"I was never just looking for a printer." The Christmas Gift Book has been a tradition at MeadWestvaco for nearly 50 years, explains Karen Elder, vice president of Corporate Communications. Back in 1958, the company produced about 300 copies of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow to give to its customers as a holiday gift. The reaction was so great, that it became an annual event (and a huge project) for the company. In fact, today more than 17,000 books are distributed each holiday season. How did Monroe Litho get involved? Back in the mid-1980s, MeadWestvaco was finalizing the manuscript - but it was running late. The company's previous printer only operated a single shift for five days - and it needed 10 weeks to produce the book. Westvaco turned to Monroe Litho (which operates 24/7), and the book was being case bound 10 days later! "It's not just about printing, ink on paper, color, or bindery - it's how all of those things work together," says Karen. "Monroe really understands this better than others." "While Monroe Litho had produced the Westvaco Annual Report, we were certainly not a book publisher," says Chris Pape, president of Monroe Litho. "Our expertise was in very high-quality commercial work - but we saw this as a new opportunity, and we've produced every volume since that first one in 1986." All the books are eclectic in nature, and each series is quite unique: there was a poetry book, a Lewis and Clark edition with a foreword by MeadWestvaco's Chairman, John Luke, and Karen's personal favorite - The Red Badge of Courage. This book had a simulated bullet hole that went right through to the back cover and special red ink that looked like blood stains. In fact, a couple of MeadWestvaco's staff actually fired handguns into book blocks to so that our bindery had an example of what the books should look like! As we went to press with book number 47, we asked Karen why she stays with Monroe Litho: "The project has become part of your system - I can talk to Becky, Steve, or Andy about a job I did five years ago and they all have total recall." "I never was just looking for a printer," Karen continues. "Monroe Litho has the technology and systems that get my job done - and keep me ahead of the curve. What more could I ask?" Copyright © 2005 Monroe Litho, Inc. All rights reserved. Web design and hosting by BizNetix.