We periodically revisit past interviews because doing so—whether they’re with media companies or suppliers alike—is a terrific way to track change in the business. If a single story is a snapshot of a time, place, and perspective, then revisiting how that perspective has changed over several years is extraordinarily valuable. We caught up with three executives from Sheridan Printing three years ago—May 2023—for their take on the state of the printing and media industries. One of those executives was Jim Wilde, vice president of sales, publications, for Sheridan. So for our July 2026 issue, we were fortunate to check in with Jim again. Here’s a transcript of our conversation.
Fox Tales: I like Sheridan’s “Ideas. Delivered.” tagline. Tell us the ideas customers are emphasizing in 2026 in partnership with their printing partner.
Jim Wilde: With increased raw material costs on ink, plates, chemicals and paper, along with current and pending tariffs and the recent postage increase, customers are seeking options to reduce costs. Sheridan works with our customers to provide these options by evaluating paper choice, optimizing page count options, product sizing and maximizing co-mail, and placing the work in the most efficient plant.
Fox Tales: Has your customer profile changed over the last decade? (B2B, B2C, scholarly, etc.) Or has it been stable?
Jim Wilde.
Wilde: Sheridan’s customer profile/customer offering has grown significantly over the last decade. We have 11 Sheridan plants today. Six are publication/journal plants and five are book plants. We continue to be the leader in the scholarly/journal marketplace. Many publications start out printing longer-run web quantities, then move to mid-run sheetfed and low-quantity digital. We have increased our footprint in slim-jim (a narrower-format than typical magazines, at 6” x 101/2”) products within our publication plants. Sheridan’s Ohio plant can produce 80 pages in one press form for slim-jim product. This maximizes press efficiency and allows for the lowest possible postage for B2B/B2C clients. We continue to invest in our book-printing offering for clients. We offer edge printing and staining, and are now printing on foil board for clients looking to add a little spark to the product.
Fox Tales: You wrote an item about the paper market. What can Sheridan share with the industry regarding trends and potential ways to offset higher prices?
Wilde: Sheridan has been extremely active in partnering with paper vendors to maximize our purchasing power to provide low-cost offerings to our clients. This has been helpful for our clients in mitigating other industry increases.
We continue to see supply constraints driven by mill closures, mill conversions, planned maintenance outages, ongoing production disruptions, and logistical challenges. The uncoated freesheet market is tightening, with lead times extending to eight-to-12 weeks. With tariffs pending on Canadian coated and uncoated groundwood paper suppliers, we could see significant price increases, which may drive us to rely more heavily on European suppliers. This shift would extend lead times to 12-to-16 weeks, and place additional strain on our customers.
One way to offset higher prices is by downgrading the paper stock. For example, publishers could move from a #3 88 bright to a #4 80–84 bright. Another option is to reduce basis weight, such as using a 55# instead of a 60#, which results in approximately an 8% yield reduction. Additional opportunities to offset higher prices would be to optimize page counts and sheet utilization by standardizing even page counts (multiples of four or eight) to maximize press configurations. Trim sizes should also be adjusted to fit standard sheet layouts. Finally, commonly used paper stocks can be ordered in larger volumes to improve efficiency and cost effectiveness.
Fox Tales: What cutting edge technologies is Sheridan bringing to its customers to speed up manufacturing, improve quality, or increase efficiency for both printers and publishers?
Wilde: Sheridan continues to reinvest in equipment that is faster and more efficient. We have installed new offset presses, faster binding lines, new digital lines and continue to invest in training of employees to keep the business running smoothly and without interruption. We’ve upgraded our digital platforms, from an HP T410 press to an HP T480—and from HP T490 to an HP T44250 in our Versailles, Kentucky, facility. These upgrades will give us the latest technology in digital printing.
Fox Tales: In the age of AI, how is the printing industry affected?
Wilde: Sheridan is utilizing AI today to help reduce costs that can be automated by the power of this technology. AI has significantly streamlined print workflows by reducing manual work, minimizing errors, and accelerating turnaround times, which ultimately lower overall costs for our customers. Companies that are not embracing AI will be left behind.