The post-press people don't have as many avenues for that kind of discussion. The audience sat at 10 round tables. After spending a few minutes on assigned topics, each table's attendees shared what they discussed with the entire group. They found that publishers of every size have trouble dealing with large Sunday papers. Machines are pushed to the limit by a river of preprints.
Carriers complain that some editions are just too large to be delivered efficiently.
Mailroom managers also must deal with an increasingly diverse array of samples for items from shampoo to potato chips. In some areas, carriers insert samples by hand because available equipment won't handle them efficiently. They would rather do it that way than wait on the machines. Executives at several papers bring commercial printers who produce and deliver inserts into their plants to see demonstrations of newspaper equipment. The printers gain a better understanding of the newspaper operation.