Is Digital Printing the Key to a More Nimble Industry?

We spoke to Marco Boer, chair and keynote speaker for the Digital Book Printing Conference, to get his thoughts on why digital printing is a priority for book publishers.

Why should publishers be interested in digital printing? What are the primary benefits and drawbacks?
Digital printing allows publishers the ability to take the risk on a small, unknown author who could turn out to be a real gem and enable him to get out via a traditional publishing route, as opposed to self-publishing -- which is really the biggest threat to traditional publishing. In order to take bigger risks, publishers have to be able to publish very short runs.