Offset in a Digital World

If you ask the average person to give a knee-jerk description of what “printing” is, they will almost certainly describe an offset press. The workhorse of the print industry, these presses continue to excel when it comes to producing long runs of printed materials for costs that no other technology can yet beat.

For that reason, in the last “Trends and Services in the In-plant Industry (2024)” survey, it wasn’t surprising that 22% of in-plants noted they are still running offset equipment to produce the materials demanded by their parent organizations. What was surprising is that just 6% of revenue is coming into in-plants via the offset presses — and that number is falling.

Like in the broader print industry, digital technologies have made massive inroads into the in-plant community. Runs have gotten short enough that it just doesn’t make sense to fire up an offset press — at least not most of the time.

Print & Mail Services at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln (UNL) is one of a handful of in-plants that breaks that trend. Director Mike Chaplin notes that about 50% of the work his team produces is done on an offset press. The shop has four offset presses in use: a six-color, 28x40" Manroland 706 PLV HiPrint perfector press with an aqueous coater; a six-color, 23x29" Manroland 300; a 12x18" Heidelberg Quickmaster; and a two-color, 10x15" Halm for envelopes.

“We primarily produce marketing, recruiting, and event promotional materials using offset printing, including items like postcards, newsletters, and magazines,” says Chaplin. “Most of what we do requires high quality to represent the university’s brand in a positive way.”

At University of Alabama (UA) Printing Services, about 40% of the work continues to be printed on either a five-color, 24x36" Ryobi 920 UV or a two-color, 12x18" Heidelberg QM.

“For the work that we flow to offset, it is the best fit,” says Director Wayne Meherg. “But we see changes that will drive us to inkjet in the foreseeable future.”

At University of Alabama Printing Services, about 40% of the in-plant’s work is printed on an offset press. Standing with the shop’s five-color, 24x36" Ryobi 920 UV are (from left) Barry Gunter and James Pylant (press operators), Brett Christman (assistant director), and Wayne Meherg (director). | Credit: University of Alabama

Brigham Young University (BYU) Print & Mail, in Provo, Utah, also currently sees about 40% of its work done via offset, primarily on a five-color, 40" Heidelberg, but the shop also has two smaller presses for envelope printing. Douglas Maxwell, managing director, Production Services, notes that in the past few years, the in-plant eliminated two Manroland presses, a two-color and a six-color. And at 35 years old, the Heidelberg is nearing the end of its life.

“Offset is shrinking, and we are going more to digital,” he observes. In fact, he adds, the in-plant is in the process of installing an HP 18000, and he anticipates starting to pull work off the Heidelberg once it’s up and running. With 52 full-time and 320 part-time employees, the shop already has two inkjet presses: a Ricoh Pro VC60000 and a Ricoh Pro VC40000.

At each of these in-plants, offset printing is used to produce nearly half of the materials that go out the door. At the same time, though, each anticipates major changes in the next few years as older equipment is phased out for digital options.

Limited Options for Outsourcing Offset

Of the three, UNL made the most recent purchase of an offset press when it installed its six-color, 40" Manroland 706 in 2018. One key reason it did so was because of limited outsourcing options in Lincoln, Nebraska.

“In our area, the number of vendors who can produce the quality our clients expect and deliver the product on time is very limited,” Chaplin reveals. “The headaches we experienced with outsourcing prior to the addition of our 40" press is not something we would like to return to.”

But digital printing is just as vital to the 31-employee in-plant. Last year it became one of the first in-plants to install a Konica Minolta AccurioJet KM-1 inkjet press.

“Although it has taken on some of the workload from our 29" offset press, the KM-1 wasn’t intended to replace it,” Chaplin insists. “Instead, it was acquired to handle higher-volume variable data projects more cost-effectively, without compromising on quality. The deciding factors for choosing between the 29" offset and the KM-1 remain the run length, and whether inline varnishing is required. Those jobs are produced offset.”

At the University of Alabama, Meherg notes that when it comes to offset printing, he is still running most of the postcards, magazines, posters, folders, and letterhead on that equipment. His 32-employee in-plant also produces marketing materials for the university and is G7 certified to ensure critical colors are correct on every job, every time.

University of Alabama Printing Services staff stand with the shop’s five-color, 24x36" Ryobi 920 UV press.

The Skilled Labor Problem

The last offset investment at UA was in 2016, before Meherg joined the in-plant. As he begins to look at future investments, one thing driving him to look more closely at digital technologies is the lack of skilled labor to run his offset presses.

“This is a heavy factor in the move to more digital workflows,” he says.

That’s a process that is already in motion at BYU, notes Maxwell, who anticipates that all work will move from offset to digital within the next three years in his in-plant, with the exception of a few specific jobs that are still not really a fit for digital.

“We do some really long-run jobs, journals and labels, and it is still just not economically viable to move those to a digital press yet. I even went to drupa looking, and the Inkjet Summit, and the press just doesn’t exist yet for [those really long-run jobs.] So we’ll try to do it piecemeal.”

Like Meherg, one factor driving Maxwell’s interest in digital presses has been labor challenges.

“That is one of the huge things with offset — we just can’t find operators anymore,” he says. “I had a position open for two years and finally found one guy who is 67 years old. We have two now, and three or four other guys we could move over temporarily, but that is a concern. With digital equipment, they don’t have to have the significant background training like with offset — my people running digital equipment are in their 20s. So we either steal someone or train them ourselves, which hasn’t been hugely successful; kids today just don’t want to put the time in. To keep someone engaged long enough to learn the intricacies of an offset press is almost impossible.”

‘A Persistent Challenge’

And while Chaplin still believes strongly in offset as a technology, he isn’t immune to the labor challenges either.

“Filling skilled positions has been a persistent challenge for us, particularly when it comes to retaining press operators,” he says. “One of the most effective strategies we’ve found is to create a pipeline of trained successors. We’re currently working with HR to establish a tiered pay scale for press and bindery roles, giving new employees a clear path for advancement. Fortunately, there’s a growing interest among young people in pursuing trades after high school. To tap into this, we’ve made an effort to engage students early by inviting high school journalism and graphic design classes to tour our facilities. The students who visit often show a genuine interest in learning how things are produced and exploring the career opportunities available in our industry.”

So what does all of this mean for offset in the in-plant environment? Just like with the broader print community, offset isn’t going to fade into the sunset anytime soon. Even Maxwell, who is already pushing to move as much to digital as possible, notes that while digital certainly brings a lot of pros to the table, there is still no overcoming the biggest con — digital still can’t compete on longer runs.

Offset won’t go away entirely, but the jobs where it makes sense are shrinking, and knowing where that cutoff is will be a critical factor for in-plants in the years to come.