First Four Months of 2012

The Premature Death of Print

While the first four months of 2012 have not been good to print (FAICS Shipments off about 3.8% from the same period last year), some magazines out there are generating close to a billion dollars for their printed version. The publisher, catalog company, and agency are now faced with multiple channels to reach the reader. While smaller now than the good ole days of the late 1990’s, print still has a role with over $81.5 Billion in shipments forecast for 2012.

For the printer that greets the day with “It is competition, Stupid” they will survive and prosper. Drupa demonstrated the new digital print technologies that will continue to make print more cost efficient, targeted, and relevant even as the pie gets smaller. 

The following is an excerpt from Bo Sachs. His daily updates on trends in publishing and print is a good read for anyone in this space.

“Not too long ago there were basically three ways to communicate. Print, Radio and TV.  Now there are dozens of ways and variations of each to reach out to readers, and businesses.  So when some of us declare that print is dead it implies that we just don't like competition and wish we were back in the days of wine, roses, and no competition.

The modern printer has no doubt what-so-ever, as to what he will be doing five, ten and even twenty years from now.  The modern printer will be printing.  The publisher on the other hand is filled with self-doubt, consternation, and fear of death.  The modern printer will continue to print, while increasingly becoming more efficient, with greater quality controls and perhaps lower or at least stable pricing structures. The publisher on the other hand has a basic business model and strategic choices about how and where his revenue will come from in this new age of multiple forms of competition. The revenue could come from print or in conjunction with some other venue. The modern printer is solely focused on doing what they do better, faster and sometimes cheaper.

The bottom line here is that the printer will always have clients, where some publishers should, but may not.  The publishing community must stop whining about the death of print, which isn't actually happening, and get back to producing products that are valuable on any substrate.  There are too many examples to mention of the successful reinvention of the magazine model. These titles are very busy emerging from the doldrums and creating relevant content on any and all substrates that their audiences wish.  And they are getting paid for their stellar performance.  If your once successful magazine isn't doing well now, where have your readers gone to and why did they leave your establishment?  If your magazine (TAT adds catalog or book) is dying please, don't blame it on the death of print - print has nothing to do with it.”

In closing, if you think print has challenges, try being in the paper making business!