Dario Designs Signs Eight New Contracts

By: E&P Staff Dario Designs, Framingham, Mass., signed eight new contracts in the first six weeks of the year, half with small to midsized newspapers in the West -- two in Colorado, one in Arizona, and another in Texas. Two more are in the Midwest, and two in the East.

The projects vary in size, from several masterplans, including one for family-owned Casa Grande Valley (Ariz.) Newspapers, to full architecture and engineering services for Cox Communications' Austin (Texas) American-Statesman.

Several projects are for repeat customers, such as Bliss Communications, Janesville, Wis., along with more work for Advance Publications.

According to Dario Designs President Dario DiMare, most of the business resulted from a need to modernize or consolidate. DiMare attributed the larger number of opportunities to changing customer needs and "drastic changes in press technology" in the past eight years.

"The need for smaller, more tailored, more colored, faster-delivered products and lower operating costs has created a unique situation in today's newspaper market," DiMare said in a statement. Potential cost savings, added revenues, and positive return on investment have newspapers "considering replacing presses that are less than 15 years old," he said, adding that "until recently, it was almost unheard of to see a press replaced that wasn't at least 30 years old."