William A. Gindlesperger

Red Tape, bureaucracy, strict deadlines and even stricter specifications—securing a government print contract is no easy feat. And it’s even more intimidating considering what’s at stake. The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO)—the federal government’s primary centralized resource for gathering, cataloging, producing, authenticating and preserving published information—awarded $440 million in contracts in fiscal year 2008. The office is budgeting a 5 percent increase (approximately $22 million more) in print procurement for fiscal year 2009.

Leave your politics at the door. Whatever you might think of Congress’s productivity these days, the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) might be the most demanding and productive client—and the most diverse communications company—in the country. Between government forms, bound reports and books, promotional collateral and printing services for the federal government’s three branches, the GPO produced 100,000 jobs in-house and contracted out another 98,000 jobs in 2007, according to GPO public printer Bob Tapella. The in-house number is overwhelming—but, of course, the jobs up for bid are the most significant. And, those numbers don’t reflect an anomaly brought on by campaign season: due