Paper or Plastic?

Yes, some print jobs have disappeared, but printing itself will not. It will change its appearance and create new markets.

By Bert Langford

Being a printer today can be nerve-wracking.

If you print software manuals, just forget it. Directory printers are close behind, as Google and Yahoo get better at localized searches. Newspapers are already losing market share, since anyone with an Internet connection can get the news faster.

Despite all this, however, print will never go away. Rather, it will continue to morph by changing appearance and creating new markets to replace old markets, albeit at some net loss to overall print.

Inversely, technology has tremendously benefited printers by helping them eliminate waste. Maybe your revenues will not be the same, but your profitability can actually improve if you can leverage technology in ways that will benefit you and the marketplace.

Fads abound with any new technology, but as the 2000-2001 Internet bust proved, any technology that does not produce a better product or service will fail; you have to be able to anticipate the marketplace with a pragmatic vision.

Yes, the products and services you sell will change. Some will cease to exist as a viable market. Overall, expect to be more service-oriented (the operable term is "value-added"). So, just like publishers today are fond of calling themselves "content publishers" instead of magazine or book publishers, you will become "content disseminators," helping content use the most appropriate delivery mechanism to reach the consumer.

Look at it this way: if you print wallpaper, your market won't change much: "virtual wallpaper" still leaves the wall bare. But, if you are a catalog or direct mail printer, your market is radically changing—and not necessarily for the worse.

As an in-plant, you can be more adversely affected. Forms-printing, for example, is probably irreversibly dead on a scale you might be used to. If the form can be filled in more effectively by electronic means, why print it out and fill in the form with your indecipherable penmanship (if you are like me)?

E-books Taking Over? Not Likely

If you are in the media printing business, you may be concerned with all the hype over emerging "eReaders" (which include laptops, PDAs, cell phones or portable magazine-like devices that can be folded). Don't be overly concerned: this is a faddish burst of foolishness by would-be "visionaries" who can't, literally, see the forest for the trees. The mass consumer marketplace will not embrace it on a scale that impedes print, as the technology will always be too impractical, too inconvenient to carry around for many, costly if lost, and subject to early obsolescence.

As for those who would argue about paper and its impact on the environment: the wood from which paper is derived is a renewable resource, while paper is recyclable. Plastic is awful for the environment and is derived from the world's most valuable natural resource: petroleum. Even the fact that eReaders can be reusable is misleading; how long would you truly keep your eReader before scrapping it for the next, better generation?

And print quality does matter: an electronic display, even with high definition, does not have the impact that high-quality print does; print grabs and holds the reader's attention. Plus, the reader is in total control and can easily skip ads (or not), page through with the flip of the thumb and decide what to view.

Printers have to learn to embrace New Media, not resist (nor attempt to ignore) it. Electronic and print media are beginning to converge, offering the best of each to consumers and marketers alike:

• Online sales are enabling companies to capture information beyond previous means, creating the possibility of more focused consumer targeting through means such as variable data printing (VDP) and high-volume geo/demo binding.

• Both VDP and database publishing are forming a new market for printing catalogs, direct mail and other promotional and consumer media.

• Meanwhile, the printed catalog and online catalog have begun to peacefully coexist, with the catalog you receive in the mail prompting you to go online to order merchandise.

• Expect a greater convergence in print vs. the Internet with technologies not yet in place. For example, RFID chips can be printed on paper, and printing can already be optically scanned.

In-plants need to—as the major printers are already beginning to do—offer value-added technology that enables customers to better manage their content and supporting activities. This requires extending beyond traditional print to offering such value-added products/services as management information systems in addition to digital content creation/production systems.

In other words, help your customers become more efficient and more successful and you have made your operation an integral force in your customer's success.

In a nutshell, whether you can benefit—or survive—depends on how quick and nimble you are at adopting useful and practical technology.

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Bert Langford is president of Bert N. Langford & Associates, a publishing consultancy in Denville, N.J. He can be reached at bert@bnlconsult.com