Some rather disturbing, but not altogether unexpected news came this week as some of the largest and oldest newspapers in the USA decided to cease publication. While many sources are available as to why newspaper business models are failing, it is important to look at the history as a lesson to give us insight. We are all deeply ingrained in the print industry, and our livelihood is dependent upon its existence as a profitable business.
For the past few hundred years, that has been a pretty fair assumption, [that printing can be a profitable enterprise]. It was not until the drastic shifts in the past decade that it became apparent that the consumer is changing the way they use print, and the realisation came that the word document is not necessarily a physical entity anymore. Periodical print models are in trouble of being made obsolete, and it is mainly due to the combination of near ubiquitous internet access, and high-quality displays, and printers on computers and devices.
While I was born in an era where computers were things in laboratories and television was being blamed for the demise of the newspaper, print still commanded the most cost effective means to distribute timely content. Periodicals can convey much more detailed information than a nightly evening newscast, and that kept print firmly in the driver’s seat as far as the publisher was concerned.
The content creators and publishers are beginning to see that their physical printed assets are costing more to produce, and are looking at more cost effective means to market their content to the consumer. Many of these publishers were quick to jump on the digital bandwagon, and are offering parity with both electronic versions and their more traditional print products. These publishers are also seeing a trend that their market for traditional magazine and newspapers (printed assets) is declining, while the demand for their electronic publications is growing. Publishers know that print (and subsequent logistical issues involving transportation and delivery) is one of their most expensive overhead costs, and in the recent economic struggles that many business in the world are encountering, it may not be out of the realm of possibility to think a lot more print will go away soon. When the cost of producing, publishing and distributing an electronic version of a printed document is literally often orders of magnitude more cost-efficient, publishers will see it as a first-step to savings, and continued viability. That is why we in print need to look to alternate sources particularly when vested in periodical printing.
Opportunities…
While many of my readers may see my topics as a doom and gloom precursor to the industry, I like to be sure to offer insight and solution as well. I see opportunities in print that span far beyond the scope of the services print professionals have provided in the past.
Packaging: Every new widget needs a box, a carton, or a package, and you cannot download that over the internet. As packaging becomes more complex, ecological, and automated, print service providers will be asked to do more in the way of packaging. I can see no more market-safe print segment than packaging. Due to its nature of being not timely periodical information, and more on logistics, packaging is going nowhere but growth anytime soon.
Printed Electronics: There is a new and emergent industry based upon ink-jet printing of circuitry and other esoteric materials. I see no reason why those of us in the printing industry would not be almost ideally suited to pioneer that technology.
Variable-Data/Digital Printing: Now having evolved well beyond low-resolution ink-jet form-letters, customised and low-run digital print services are a growth industry that is being targeted by companies with little or no print expertise.
Print service professionals are ideally suited to transition from working with customers’ documents to assure they will print, to working with customers to develop and offer digital print services. I would see that any pragmatic print service provider should at least explore some new means to offer services that may be unfamiliar to us. We are, after all, experts at dealing with customers’ documents.
