In forty years of selling printing I’ve landed accounts in some odd ways. Once I walked through the door of a monthly magazine and the receptionist shouted, “WE DON’T HAVE ANY PAPERS, THE PRINTER IS LATE – AGAIN.” To which I happily replied, “I’m here to see the publisher about solving that problem.” I met with the publisher and we printed them the next month.
Still, nothing seems quite as odd as our landing The Osprey from HSU this month. The student-run magazine of Humboldt State University was printing in Oregon. When they sent their files for the spring issue the printer edited a photo of a nude woman in an article named, “The Art of Nudity.”
Journalism major and photographer Jennifer Padilla said in the HSU Lumberjack article No shirt, no shoes, no printing service “They blurred her nipples and her pubic hair… it was stupid, the whole story is about nude models.” The printer refused to go to press without their edits.
So, Osprey contacted us, we handled everything and delivered a week later. We already print The Lumberjack for HSU. The twenty employees of Western Web are very happy another HSU publication has come home to Humboldt.
Just as a publisher can choose to reject an ad they find offensive, a printer can refuse to print something they find objectionable. Still, I’m with Jennifer, editing a photo to meet your personal standards is stupid. Refusing to print this issue of Osprey because of artfully photographed nudity in a story about “The Art of Nudity” is, hello, just plain stupid.
I so appreciate stupid printers.
