Commercial Printing Outlook: Don't Rely on the Economy

As for the industry, Davis felt printing would get a nice bounce from the rash of election-related printing. But even in a presidential election year, enthusiasm is somewhat tempered. Like Paparozzi, Davis is projecting less than 1.0 percent growth for printing.

As for 2013, Davis sees several variables at work. "It will be interesting to see what happens with postal reform, Saturday delivery and patching up some of these issues on the pension side," he says. "Among the bigger issues—the gorilla in the room—is the global economy itself...what's going on with China and Europe. Even though, in an ideal world, we would get our own fiscal house in order and address some of our domestic issues, we're still looking at the other 75 percent of the global economy that's not us. The big question is whether the global economy can stabilize and start to move forward."