Publishers Turn To Digital Printing

By Ellen Harvey

Diminishing the Digital Stigma

One highlight of the conference was the Publisher Panel, moderated by Book Business editor-in-chief Denis Wilson. Panelists dispelled some of the stigma associated with digital printing and explored how publishers are using it to make their companies more nimble and efficient.

Digital printing is not just a new way of printing books, noted the panelists, it's also a catalyst for new publishing processes. For example, pointed out Bruce Watermann, senior vice president of operations at Blurb, it can extend the life of a title.

"At the beginning, a new title will be published digitally," said Watermann. "If the title is successful it will move into offset or high-speed inkjet. Once the title moves into the author's backlist it will go back to digital"-and continue generating revenue after the height of a book's popularity.

A by-product of the speed and short-run capabilities of digital printing is the reduced need to warehouse books. Brandon Nordin, vice president of sales, marketing and web strategy at American Chemical Society (ACS), describes digital printing as "inventory-less publishing." He says that improvements in the quality of digital printing have led ACS to produce titles digitally that it wouldn't have considered in the past.

Fellow panelist Bill Gadoury, vice president of strategic sourcing and supply planning at Macmillan Science & Education, agreed that digital printing should change how publishers assess the cost of producing books.

"It used to be, when offset was the only weapon, we tried to print at minimum cost," he said. "Now because digital printing can save on inventory costs, we look at the total cost of ownership over the life of the title."

This has helped Gadoury's team assess audience interest and demographics and weigh whether offset or digital is the appropriate means of production.

Although digital printing is an important tool for all three panelists, they admitted that it has not replaced offset. But Watermann noted, especially in the realm of inkjet, the difference in quality is diminishing. "It's just a matter of time for [digital printing's] quality to match that of offset. It's getting consistently better."

More than 150 book publishers, book manufacturers and suppliers met at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square recently for the first Digital Book Printing Conference, organized by IPG's parent company, NAPCO Media (formerly North American Publishing Co.) The networking and educational event featured an insightful keynote from Marco Boer, VP of IT Strategies.

Setting the stage for the sessions to come, Boer explained the forces that have made digital printing not only a viable solution, but a necessary one. He credited self-publishing and ebooks with inundating the book market with a greater volume of titles and contributing to the dramatic drop in single-title sales the industry has experienced.

"There has not been a bestseller that has sold more than 40 million copies since 2007," noted Boer, "and that was Harry Potter." With less volume per title, continued Boer, publishers are suffering substantial losses from returns and warehousing costs.

Boer, as well as several of the other speakers at DigiBook, lamented that the book industry employs printing and inventory strategies from a bygone blockbuster era of book publishing. Yet market forces have compelled many to reassess the entire life-cycle costs of a title. Though it's certainly no panacea, digital printing presents some solutions for altering how publishers procure and distribute physical books. Technology advancements have enabled more efficient, cost-effective digital printing and higher-quality products than what publishers may have experienced from digital in the past.

Reaching New Markets

Following Boer's keynote, a panel of leading book publishers took to the stage to discuss how they are reinvigorating their businesses with new printing technology. (See sidebar.) Then Kirby Best, former president of POD book manufacturer Lightning Source, spoke to the crowd about using digital printing and print-on-demand technologies to reduce risk, reach new markets and save costs.

"The ability to print the exact quantity needed, when it's needed, and not fill warehouses full of books that will never be read is a real possibility with digital printing," said Best.

Speaking from the the "storyteller's" perspective, Karen Romano, a former production executive at Simon & Schuster, discussed print's resilience and its future.

"Ninety seven percent of people who read ebooks are still wedded to the printed book," revealed Romano. For print to continue to thrive, publishers and printers need to work together. "The relationships between printers and publishers are crucial. Both need to understand the complete supply chain."

To capture the point of view of the retail end of the supply chain, Peter Glassman, president of children's bookstore Books of Wonder and Michael Norris, book industry research consultant, fielded questions on how the industry is and should be responding to ground shifts caused by Amazon, ebooks and the like. Both panelists spoke to the "experiential buying" that customers enjoy when shopping in a brick-and-mortar store—something that can't be replaced by Amazon and which publishers should embrace.

Norris encouraged book publishers to find ways to embolden and empower traditional booksellers, whom he feels are the true advocates of publishers' powers.

"There are two kinds of retailers out there," said Norris. "The kinds that have a stake in [books] and those that don't."

Digital Print Technology

Later in the day, digital printing equipment manufacturers, including Muller Martini, HP, Canon, Ricoh and Kodak, shared their thoughts on the adoption of digital printing technology by book manufacturers. By providing modules that can modify existing machines, these suppliers are helping printers scale up their digital printing offerings as technology evolves.

Of course, printers themselves shared some thoughts on how they are implementing digital printing to respond to the needs of publishers. In some cases they're seeing the economics working out so that books that used to be printed in China can be printed in the U.S. and with quicker turnaround times. Elsewhere, George Dick, president of Four Colour Print Group, noted that the quality of digital printing is approaching a point where it is comparable to offset.

Connecting all the individual sessions was an undercurrent of excitement about digital printing's potential and the great lengths it has come over the past two decades. Bruce Watermann, SVP of operations at Blurb, observed during the publisher panel, "It's just a matter of time for [digital printing's] quality to match that of offset. It's getting consistently better."

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Ellen Harvey Author's page

Ellen Harvey is a freelance writer and editor who covers the latest technologies and strategies reshaping the publishing landscape. She previously served as the Senior Editor at Publishing Executive and Book Business.

Publishers Turn to Digital Printing