Students of U.S. history know that Freeport, IL, was the site of the second and most famous of the seven Lincoln-Douglas debates. Students of U.S. printing history, however, know that Freeport is the home of Wagner Printing Co., reportedly the oldest familyowned and operated printing company in the U.S.

In 1853, Wilhelm Wagner founded a German-language newspaper, Deutscher Anzeiger, and 150 years later, the family operation is still going strong, although it's no longer in the newspaper business. Today, Wagner Printing Co. is one of three entities that make up The Wagner Companies — there's also Chicago-based InfoComm Print, which specializes in digital printing, and Jade Creative, which offers Web- and print-design services.

Mark Wagner, 65, owner and chairman, says becoming a full-service printer allowed the company to grow sales to existing customers while retaining complete control of jobs. Six sheetfed presses at the Freeport plant are used for larger sheet print production and mailing and fulfillment jobs. During the late 1980s, Wagner, who is also a pilot, flew to Chicago four times a week to cultivate new customers. The Wagners established a permanent Chicago presence in 1987 with InfoComm. This division began as a service bureau, but transitioned to digital printing with the installation of an HP Indigo press and a Heidelberg Quickmaster DI.

Three of Mark and Susie Wagner's 11 children have joined their father in the family business: Matt, CEO; Eric, CFO; and Willie, director of sales. We asked Matt to tell us more about the Wagner Companies.

How is work divided among the Freeport and Chicago facilities?

If a job is a short-run, process-color piece, it fits the digital equipment in Chicago best. Since Freeport boasts a more extensive bindery, bindery-intensive jobs go there. Also, a lot of the spot-color work and larger projects with higher run counts are a better fit for our conventional sheetfed presses in Freeport.

Why was Wagner an early adapter of direct-imaging and digital printing technology?

Despite being very successful providing prepress services in the early 1990s, we understood this was just a necessary means to get to the end product: printing. We realized that the prepress boom wouldn't last.

The transition was easier for us than other prepress houses because of our history in printing, but it was still difficult. It's a competitive marketplace where printers are giving customers every bit of savings that can be derived from new technology just to secure a share of the market. Our goal was to create a niche market of quick-turnaround, high-quality process printing in downtown Chicago that conventional printers couldn't match in terms of service and pricing. So we needed to invest in the technology that was changing printing.

What percent of your jobs are printed digital vs. offset?

We are currently running about 75 percent of our jobs digitally, but this represents only about 35 percent of our total dollar sales. Both numbers are steadily growing, but it requires a lot of small digital jobs to add up, dollarwise, to a large conventional print job.

Give an example of a recent variable-data job.

We recently did a very successful postcard mailer for ourselves that had several places in which the text was variable, including colored text and knockout text of a colored box.

We're working on a more extensive variable-data project that places our target prospect into a gender-specific comic strip that tells a story about the recipient saving the day by having us produce his or her job. We'll get customers' attention and educate them about how creative they can be with variable-data. Most customers understand the name-change bit, but they often don't grasp other ways to tap into the information they have gathered.

What equipment or service would you most like to add?

We offer such a wide range of services — we'd hesistate to add much. The one thing we would consider is a coater to accommodate the demand for aqueous and specialty coatings.

Where's the best place to eat in Chicago and Freeport, IL?

We enjoy family-run restaurants with a lot of history and personalized service — similar to our own business. In Chicago, we like Club Lago on Superior St. In Freeport, our favorite restaurant is Cannova's for delicious steak or pizza.

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