I am traveling on business in Ohio, visiting Cyril Scott. So, posting is and will be light – at least until my fingers thaw out again.

Recently, I have posted several articles about the confused marketplace and printers re-inventing themselves to sound “cool” or perhaps confuse buyers as to who they really are.

I saw this breif video this morning posted on what they think, and it about sums it up – from a print buyers perspective. I encourage you to watch it!

Print buyer and marketing exec Brittany Fenning: What “marketing services provider” means

Value added services should be embraced by both printers and clients alike, but printers need to keep in mind what their core competencies are, and how they can truly help a client.

Thought that this article, published by WhatTheyThink.com, tied in nicely with my recent post on 2010 planning, where I wrote:

“Printers will be scrambling to re-invent themselves. Hey – look at us – we do PURL’s, we are a marketing firm! Look over here – we do e-Brochures, we are multi-media experts! Hey – we have mailing in house – we are now data experts! Look – our pre-press department is slow – we can design that for you! This re-invention will create a confused market place. Who are THE experts in any given arena? And, more importantly, how will the client know the answer to that question?”

I agree with Dr. Joe – it is easy for printers to reinvent themselves when the going gets tough – I have seen a lot of that in my local market – some printers even going as far as to change their home page to promote eBrochures instead of promoting the products (printing) that define who they have been for decades. Margie Dana (another link below) hits the nail on the head – we need to be proud of our core competencies and build upon them by hiring professionals – not merely repurposing some existing prepress operators who were not getting the full 40 hours. The company I work for (CGX) has hired those pro’s – we have built upon our position as a leader in print by creating a stand alone technology and solutions group, we have hired top-tier designers to help our clients,  and we have assembled a team of fulfillment experts to round out our offerings.

Enjoy!

Dr. Joe Blog

Marketing Services is the Easy Answer, Just Like Buying New Equipment Always Was

By Dr. Joe Webb
Published: February 17, 2010

Throughout my career, I have always heard that print is a commodity, that there are too many printers, printers always have the same equipment, and that printers don’t know how to market. There are many more, and I’ve dealt with all of them at various times.

This week, I was reminded of the issue because of a blogpost by Margie Dana, which happened to echo my general sentiments about “marketing services” and printers. What she describes, but may not have realized, has an economic underpinning. Businesses are defined, whether they want to be or not, by their major capital investments and their history, all of which combine with other factors to create a culture that is detected by others, even on their first interaction, even if they cannot articulate it. Therefore changing that definition is difficult.

We also know that in surveys that we have done in conjunction with the economic webinars that the business conditions of printers that state that they are marketing services providers are just as bad, and sometimes worse, than printers who do not. I have rarely found that printers who say they are marketing services businesses have any significant or sustainable economic advantage. We don’t know how the early adopters of this monicker initially performed. Nor is there a good set guidelines of what clearly separates a marketing services business with printing equipment from another business with printing equipment alone. A recent post to the WhatTheyThink peer group makes an attempt.

I’ve already explained somewhere in these pages that print is not a commodity (a commodity is a raw material that is combined with other things to create something quite different, which makes print a processor of commodities, but not a commodity itself). The marketplace has been correcting for the number of printers for years, forcing the net exit of more than a thousand a year for a decade and a half. Technology has narrowed the variability of the printing process and its operators, and instead stored essential and repetitive knowledge and craft skills in software. This created a predictable, rising, and reachable level of acceptable mediocrity that nearly all printers could achieve. (Regarding technology and craft, just think that almost every time you click a dropdown in Adobe PhotoShop, it’s probably something that would have taken more than an hour in the 1970s, used lots of film and chemicals, and would have billed out at $35/hour, plus materials).

The old saw about printers being involved in the production of sales and marketing materials for the entire economy, but printers not knowing anything about marketing seemed pretty astute at first hearing. It minimized the core capabilities and innate knowledge that our industry’s entrepreneurs and risk-takers used to profitably survive in the markets at that time. I always found it to be quite the paradox in the 1980s and 1990s when executives of money-losing tech companies would lecture printers about their inability to market. The printers had long track-records of being profitable and supporting generations of family members. The tech companies had trouble surviving from quarter to quarter. The marketing efforts that those printing organizations used at that time were appropriate for their marketplaces at that time. They are not the skills needed this time, because those marketplaces no longer exist in the same way or form.

The reason marketing services is not a panacea has a similar pattern to the way the industry made its equipment investments. For almost all of print’s entire history, there were limited numbers of early adopters of new technologies. In the ’80s and early ’90s, these folks would joke amongst themselves and their risk-averse peers that they were at the “bleeding edge of technology,” a recognition of the marketplace experimentation they were engaged in, and that it often included a period of economic loss until they got it right.

After the adopters were done, other printing organizations would jump on the bandwagon. As some would tell me, “we’ll let them take the arrows and the gunshots, and then we’ll jump in.” There was a mimicry, a keeping up with the Joneses, that was involved in the technology investments that printers would make. This was perfectly sane and rational: prior capital investments would usually have long lives, capital was scarce and had to be used wisely. The market was growing, which meant that there was enough business that could be competed for on a profitable basis unless one made big mistakes, even if that profit was often limited. So if a 28” press was hot, the reason was because it had been proven as safe to buy because the market for its output was proven by other printers the buyer knew. This is how our industry went from letterpress to offset, hot type to phototypesetting, film to direct-to-plate, and many other changes. This has changed, however. Consolidation means that there are fewer independent business owners that can emulate each others capital purchases. Technology changes so rapidly that the marketing life of the equipment is often less than its funtional life.

The problem with marketing services as it is often practiced is that it must co-exist with significant capital investment in print production equipment. Those investments still dominate the culture and operations of that business.

Unlike a bad equipment choice, there is no downside risk to claiming a business is in marketing services and being wrong. No one has to put a load of their own money, or agree to a bank’s conditions, to say they are a marketing services business. That alone would be a barrier of entry to the business, such as preventing a printer from saying they had a heatset press in their plant because they would hire someone to stand next to their AB Dick 360 holding a hair dryer. Capital investment would create discipline to claims, as well as making the differentiation clear to everyone. If I claim to be a medical doctor and start seeing patients, I can be arrested. If I claim to be a marketing services provider, no one will notice.

The real issue is credibility. How does a client know that they are dealing with a marketing services provider, and not “just” a printer? They will know it because the printers experience in marketing services will come from using the tools of marketing services themselves. Consulatitive selling, yet another buzzphrase, is not just telling people what to do and figuring out what freelancers you can assemble and markup their individual billable tasks.

Marketing services is not part of the printing culture, at least yet. So many of our great companies came from entrepreneurs who had print production insights that others of their time did not. Those advantages were right in those times, but now must compete among media alternatives that have advantages unique to themselves.

That competition is not always easily understood unless all of a business’ scarce resources are devoted solely to that cause. For that reason, I have believed that any marketing services business should be a set up as a standalone business, separate from the printing organization, with its own investment, management, and financial measurement. This prevents falling back to the familiar safety of printing capabilities (as in “we need to get some sales activity because we have a lease payment due for the press, so be more aggressive in estimating the next few days”). The shift to marketing services has to be made knowing one can’t fall into a safety net; that’s often more difficult for the owner than it is for everyone else.

Marketing services is a new culture, moving from a billable task or job relationship that is invoiced as completed like print, to a longer-term retainer relationship that is comprised of many services, and billed monthly, quarterly, or annually. It needs to stand alone because the culture and pace of the business is radically different, which means the staffing must reflect that difference, too. But the first hurdle is always to use the tools available in the marketing services business for one’s own business, and use it in a way that proves competence, demonstrates skills of wide range and insight, and makes marketing services more than a new business card.

By Clint Bolte on February 10th, 2010, writing for the PrintCEO

Recent posting by Purchasing.com to suggest that growth in Managed Print Services is being facilitated by the Corporate Purchasing Department is a shallow interpretation.

The Managed Print Services concept had its beginning with the management of corporate copier fleet(s). It began three decades ago with the bulk procurement – often leased – of remote analog monochrome copiers throughout multi-floor corporations or the corporate campus. In-plants were part of the successful implementation in many installations as they provided the daily operational management of delivering supplies to departments and monitoring the maintenance performed by the equipment manufacturer or distributor. The bulk buying contracts moved quickly to include the procurement of associated supplies and maintenance.

The copier technology improved and expanded in four directions; (1) inexpensive (under $100) desktop units that got hidden in the “other” column of departmental budgets and purchased by the user, (2) the integration fax, scan, copy, and print capabilities into a multi-functional device (MFD) or a multi-functional printer (MFP), (3) networking of these disparate units as the intranet took off, and (4) more cost effective multi-color digital printing.

Innovative corporate server mounted software escalated the “management of the copier fleet” to include (1) charge-back accountability, (2) feature usage for potential future upgrade justification, (3) and forewarning or “red-flagging” of needed maintenance back through the network to the copier manager. The current Managed Print Services definition has taken on a green tinge, as the next level of corporate administrative document strategy is to print less and therefore save trees.

This is accomplished by (1) training users to utilize the scanning and electronic faxing of documents on the MFDs to reduce the number of hardcopies made and later thrown away, (2) getting rid of the small desktop units altogether as their toner cartridges and therefore cost per copy are relatively expensive plus leaving a huge carbon footprint, (3) utilizing MPS software, which converts all digital copiers to a duplexing default mode rather than single sided copying (simplex) further saving paper.

Human Change Is Significant To Take Full Advantage of MPS

While each of these steps may seem to be incremental improvements, the overall MPS program is being perceived to be a significant cultural shift for many corporations. As a result of the human change magnitude and yet potential cost benefit, the MPS concept is gaining attention of specialized consultants to justify, prepare RFPs, and select the most qualified, full service digital print engine manufacturers or value-added resellers (VARs). Outsourcing of the management function is another issue on the table.

The inaugural gathering of 150 copier fleet aficionados committed to better control, cost reduction, and improved knowledge worker efficiency met this past spring in San Antonio, Texas. Digital print engine manufacturers, specialty software vendors, value-added resellers, consultants, and a few corporate end users heard Managed Print Services presentations on best practices and successful case studies. The MPS market research and strategic consultancy, the Photizo Group, organized this first topical conclave.

Corporate in-plants were not mentioned during this conference as playing any real or potential role in the successful implementation of the next level of distributed digital copier fleet management or Managed Print Services. The reason why is simple. The 16 digital print engine manufacturers, value-added resellers, and consultants all want to sell the implementation services along with the hardware and software.

The lessons learned of firms who are embracing MPS are simple. It becomes very obvious that the skills leading to successful implementation are often resident with in-plant organizations. This is an opportunity that in-plants must proactively and aggressively pursue well in advance of their corporation’s copier fleet renegotiation cycle.

The Photizo Group pegged the 2007 MPS market in North America to be $5.2 billion or about 14% of the total NA imaging market. They expect a 20% year over year growth for the next five years with MPS climbing to 35% of the total imaging market in 2012. One to three percent of corporate revenues, depending upon SIC category, are being spent on hard copy printing.

Converting a stagnant market to one of growth suggests a shifting or broadening of objectives by the corporate end users and an enlightened new business model by the manufacturing channel. Here are the proposed change elements from the low hanging fruit all the way up to moving the mountain;

1. Corporations of virtually all sizes have no idea how much they are spending in this space. The low cost of some desktop devices are under the corporate asset radar. Hence, most firms have much more equipment than they realize. As larger pieces of leased copier equipment come up for renewal, the clear, knee-jerk objective is to get control of this growing amoeba.

2. Contacting any of the sixteen hardware manufacturers and many of the VARs selling and servicing the equipment, a firm’s purchasing and/or IT departments learn that free equipment utilization assessments are available. Surprisingly simple software is linked to the print network and USB data capture ports are added to the stand alone devices to determine how much simplex/duplex, mono/color printing and by whom and how much downtime is experienced.

3. Proven cost savings venues are plentiful:
a. Economy of scale buying of equipment and supplies,
b. Moving the assets off the balance sheet as part of a cost per copy (cpc) contract,
c. Reducing head count by outsourcing the service,
d. Utilizing pop-up software on all equipment to encourage users to save money, such as default duplexing and sending the job to the least expensive device for printing, is a user behavior change initiative,
e. Utilizing the scan and fax features of the multi functional printers (MFPs) reduces unnecessary printing by capturing and moving documents electronically, and
f. Total chargeback capability via user code or card, i.e., no free copies, also contributes to fewer copies being made.

4. Process improvement adds to knowledge worker productivity:
a. Office mapping to assure that the appropriate equipment is convenient to all employees adds to efficiency and savings,
b. Client productivity and satisfaction climb with automatic software feedback embedded in the hardware; (1) forewarning potential maintenance problems improves up time and (2) controlling supplies reduces idle inventory investment,
c. Software queuing work (with user permission) to low production demand periods (nights) increased hardware utilization and
d. More energy efficient hardware, fewer copies, and recycling add to the corporation’s overall environmental efficiencies.

Free Assessments Aren’t Free

Ken Roche, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for the Print Operations Group (POG), offered several best practices for MPS benchmarking and assessment. Realize that “free assessments by VARs and/or manufacturers are not free” because of their inherent conflict of interest. They want to replace the prospect’s existing equipment with their own and prospect’s supplies sources also with their own. A clear and concise request for proposal (RFP) and service level agreement (SLA) based upon the actual current spend, integration with the corporate wide strategic objectives, quantifiable and continuously monitored key performance indicators, and issues addressed with the supplier on at least a quarterly basis are essential to a successful relationship. POG is one of several independent MPS consultancies with no ties to manufacturers or suppliers.

Measuring and compiling the key performance indicators of the copier fleet is the job of the specialty software. While some hardware manufacturers offer their own solutions, the independent VARs hold a strong market share. They include PrintFleet, PrintAudit, MWAi, fmAudit, Netaphor Systems, DocuAudit, and Compass Sales Solutions. The costs of their software can vary from $150 down to $9 per workstation depending upon the total volume of stations. This annual fee is typically rolled into the cost per copy (CPC) agreement. Many of these software vendors also provide training and marketing services to VARs, who are constantly improving their MPS skills. Hence, the end user may find this to be negotiable. Why can’t in-plants serve this same valuable monitoring and training function as the VARs?

Some best practices for MPS programs include gap analysis of where the user is and where they want to be. It includes four critical steps: (1) measuring the current state, (2) gathering end user input (and buy-in starting at the C-level), (3) identifying industry benchmark metrics, and (4) setting measurable objectives. He added that the end user input “was not creating a wish list.” A reliable source of metrics can be independent consultancies such as POG, Print Access, Newfield IT, and Photizo. Because the bar is always rising with users reaching for the business process enhancement stage, Crowley recommended that the MPS contract length not exceed three years. Again how much of this task cannot better be performed in house by the in-plant?

VARS Consolidating to Serve More Geographically Disbursed Corporations

Steve Reynolds, a Senior Analyst for Lyra Research, which is a digital imaging authority, acknowledged that more big players are entering the MPS space along with more mergers among regional VARs to be better positioned to service geographically disbursed clients. Korean manufacturer, Samsung, who claims to be the second largest manufacturer of digital copiers, has announced their entry into the MPS arena to be sold exclusively via the VAR channel. That is, no direct sales force from the manufacturer trying to go around their VAR partners. Ken Stewart, Technologies Solutions Manager for Sharp, remarked, “98 dealers had consolidated down to 7” (in recent years).

A case study offered by Marvin Reem, CIO of Greenville, SC’s Bob Jones University is most revealing. Renewing printer contracts four years ago, the school embraced MPS in an effort to better manage the document life cycle. Their IT budget had been flat for nine years with only modest labor cost increases. Reem found a number of “hidden” inkjet printers on campus when he asked purchasing “to forward him all purchase orders for inkjet replacement cartridges.” Their 20 page RFP resulted in third party leasing of hardware and a much improved partner relationship with a new VAR vendor. The fleet included 250 (Novell) networked printers and 85 MFPs serving 1,700 employees including an in-house publishing enterprise and 5,000 students. The only problem realized from the original RFP was the lack of an envelope printer, which was easily corrected.

Higher Ed Opportunity

An interesting human nature shift occurred when BJU set the pricing policy on students printing from the network. Ninety percent of the students’ historical level of printing would not be charged and then their student access card would kick in and be billed. In other words the intention was that only those students that were abusing the practice would end up paying for excess usage. This policy resulted in a 50% drop in the actual volume of student printing! Reem acknowledged that his own son, who was a BJU student at the time, immediately began printing out his papers on his dad’s printer at home to avoid possibly being charged at school. Following the yearlong MPS implementation, the school began to realize a $200,000-300,000 annual savings.

A major human tendency objection to be overcome by all corporations trying to realize maximum savings from Managed Print Services precepts is getting knowledge workers to give up their desktop printers/faxes/scanners. Sprint has successfully eliminated desktop units by telling employees that they could buy their desktop units for home use by making a $25 contribution to the Sprint Foundation. They employee would then be responsible for the toner expense of their home units. Justin West of Nationwide said that his firm offered a series of prizes to employees who turned in their desktop inkjet units.

In discussing the economics of MPS, John Macinnes, CEO of Calgary, Alberta-based PrintAudit, remarked that RFPs are becoming more sophisticated and are including more environmental objectives. The ultimate goal of corporate buyers of paying a penny a copy for mono, which previously was only attainable on high speed production machines, is now a reality with MFPs. The actual print costs are quickly becoming a commodity.

Doug Johnson, Principal of Red Sage Consulting, which concentrates on coaching for dealers moving into and servicing the Managed Print Services arena, offered a listing of caveats for end users that could lead to less than optimized if not failed MPS initiatives. Top of the list is a lack of C-level sponsorship and active engagement. While primarily IT and secondarily the Purchasing Department are involved in MPS operations implementation neither group manages all budgets impacted by MPS. C-level is the focal point to pace the timeline, gather costs, and approve strategy. He felt a brand specific approach to new hardware was limiting and results in replacing existing equipment unnecessarily. The vendor should be brand agnostic, which many VARs are. (Again the in-plant, not mentioned by this consultant, would be a logical and key partner to the corporation’s IT and Purchasing departments in accomplishing these tasks.)

Quarterly MPS Audit Is Essential

Johnson’s experience also points to end users not optimizing their fleet as frequently as they should. During the quarterly MPS performance review, an agenda item should include the possible movement of equipment due to departmental/division reorganization or growth to better optimize their access for the effected employees. Finally a lack of thorough communications of the MPS program to all employees only encourages “rogue buying” of desktop devices. (In-plants corporate newsletters would be the key venue to facilitate this communications!)

Though started only a decade or so ago with the advent of specialized software and multi-functional devices, Managed Print Services is quickly becoming the genre for the transition from a hardware concentric management issue to that of a knowledge worker productivity opportunity. Whether it is entirely outsourced or a blend of services from specialty vendors providing maintenance or supplies, MPS will surely be embraced by corporations of all sizes sooner rather than later. Many corporate in-plants can expand their mission and benefit the overall corporation as a result of closer relationships with their corporate IT departments to assist in the training of users on the MFD/MFPs.

• Presented By: Target Marketing and Printing Impressions

• Sponsored By: NewPage Corporation
• Duration: 90 minutes

• Speakers: Andrea Johnson , Director of Forest Campaigns, Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA); Elinor Colbourn , Senior Trial Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice; Rick Merdan , Marketing Strategy Manager – Environmental, NewPage Corp.

• Moderator: Hallie Mummert , Editor in Chief, Target Marketing

• View this Webinar

Is the paper you purchased for your next direct mail or catalog campaign imported? How about the fiber used to make the paper? Did you perform due diligence to determine if all parties in the supply chain legally sourced and imported the paper that you bought? If not, YOU could be in violation of the Lacey Act.

The Lacey Act, a 100-year-old statute originally passed to stop wildlife crimes, was amended in May 2008 by the U.S. Congress to also now ban the commerce of illegally sourced plants, timber and wood and paper products. Companies that import or domestically source such environmentally harmful products may face seizure of goods, fines and jail time.

To stay on the right side of the law, protect your company’s reputation and be a good corporate citizen of the world, you need to understand the requirements of this legislation and how they affect your role in paper sourcing NOW.

As mentioned before – I’m a tree-hugger, but a realist. I think the Lacey act is a great extension of that realistic approach.

When the first wave of environmental awareness struck our industry in the late ’80′s I was a pressman. I recall vividly the first press okay for what was then a small boutique hair care company (it is now a major brand, owned by a F100 corporation) when a recycled logo was used. We were running on one of the first “premium” sheets available that had been touted as recycled, and it sucked. The sheet was off-color, the printing was “picking”, and there were “hickeys” everywhere. The solution? We pulled it off press, pulled some premium (non-recycled) paper out of our inventory and ran the job –  complete with all the “recycled” logos and mentions all over it. The client doing the press-okay told me at that point “Oh – the end user will never know – they just throw these in the trash anyway.” Since that point – I hated recycled paper, and regarded he majority of the  people using it as hypocrites – the more and more I read up on it – found out about the de-inking process, looked at the amount of additives (chemicals with 15 syllable names ) we needed to use in the pressroom to make the paper “work”,  I soon started preaching about the detrimental impact of the paper.

Boy, how times change – the recycled process has much improved, and now I love, and was an early adapter of,  the idea of sustainable paper and printing. The reason I love it is the accountability afforded to the printer and the end user by the multiple COC’s available.  Part of that love has provided me the opportunity to help my clients (as a partner),  printers (as a consultant), and local municipalities (as an environmental advocate) develop a “plan” to procure “Green” print as part of their triple bottom line.

When I work with an individual buyer or a corporation, I offer the following advice in regards to paper. With the Lacey act going into effect Aril 10, these recommendations are even more relevant:

• When obtaining an estimate, always specify a specific sheet of paper, or a specific grade of paper with appropriate environmental annotations, for example: “100# McCoy Gloss Book, FSC” or “100# Gloss Book, #1, FSC Certified”
• If your printer replies on their estimate with “100# House Gloss Book”, make sure you know what they are going to use as their house sheet as many printers do not have an actual “house” sheet, but often time use that to describe a “best buy” sheet, which is normally a standard grade/sheet that they were able to negotiate a better price on.
• If you are specifying an FSC/SFI/PEFC sheet of paper, make sure your printer is certified to use the appropriate logo. Again, this may seem like a no-brainer, BUT, there may be some unethical printers out there. Also, as our industry continues to face unprecedented strain, a lot of printers who were able to obtain certification three years ago, may not have the fiscal resources required to keep their certification current.
• If you are large consumer of paper (Large Corporations, procuring more than 2MM in print annually on a national scale is a base line I use for pre-qualifying this particular approach) I recommend partnering with a paper company (such as Xpedx) to develop a paper buying strategy. This strategy, when properly executed, provides your printers ample flexibility, and the reporting metrics you need to quantify your environmental impact.
• Ask questions – ask for swatch books – ask for options. Let your printer do some leg work for you – its their job!

By following these suggestions – you can be relatively assured that you are going to be properly protected from any of the negative impacts of the Lacey Act.

The Lacey Act was originally signed into law in 1900, it was then the first piece of conservationist legislation. It was intended to stem the trade and commerce of threatened and endangered wildlife. I am not sure, but I think Al Gore was a cosigner of the bill at that time.

I think the IPad will be a game changer. I know I am supposed to say that the IPad, and the 9+ other devises that are getting ready to roll out over the next few months, will not change the way that people use print – and that print will still survive, but I think the game is about to change. Dramatically.

One of the things I have been hearing for years is that “digital magazines” and the like will never take the place of a magazine, a brochure or a newspaper for the primary reason that you cant take a computer into the “reading room” with you (also known as the bathroom). Well, I believe we can all agree that is no longer a valid argument, despite any inherent sanitary issues.

In looking at the technology, and the portability of that technology, I think that we will see print still being a very viable instrument for client attraction and solicitation, but will take a back seat to the IPad in regards to client retention. Imagine you buy a new car, and instead of getting the traditional bulky user manual, the dealership gives you a keychain that has a pre-printed QR code on it. You rush home, hold that QR code to your reader (note to apple: another reason why the IPad needs a camera), and you are instantly directed to a link containing and eFlip book of the instruction manual that is current, personalized and is constantly being updated by the dealership with recalls and relevant contact information.

We as printers need to start thinking about that – we need to be at the forefront of this technology, we need to embrace it and promote it, lest we go the way of the printers that said the Mac was just a phase. In my oppinion, the printers that will lead this charge are the ones that:

• Help their clients repurpose files to a reader friendly format without being asked
• Offer intuitive and robust DAM systems that will make sure that the aforementioned files are always current for consumer download, and allow the clients to track “who” is downloading “what version.”
• Offer storefront solutions that take print on demand a step further, by integrating the delivery of customized content for readers.
• Embrace the use of QR codes, and “clickable” print (check this guy out, he loves the QR code, and has some great ideas)
• Embrace the technology behind the readers – learn quickly the different platforms, and how to leverage that technology.
• learn how to tie it all together – VDP + PURL + QR + Ipad
• Learn how to design for a reader, and help our clients better understand the limitations of the platforms

Yes, the IPad will be a game changer – the other platforms will be important as well, but we need to step back and accept the fact that Mr. Jobs and the folks at apple have just created a new way to view print. And yes, that may be in the bathroom.

InfoTrends has released its “U.S. Printing and Publishing Market Sizing report for 2008 – 2013.” According to this latest research, continued decline is projected for the overall printing and publishing industries beyond 2010. While InfoTrends maintains that the economy will resume its recovery which began in the third quarter of 2009, it believes that the printing industry will remain in decline until at least 2013.

“While the overall economic downturn has certainly had a negative impact on the print industry, there are also new developments that are contributing to the decline of print as a primary medium of communication,” according to the report, which cites the Internet, a proliferation of mobile communication technologies as well as social networking.”These technology applications and new media alternatives pose a threat to print, particularly regarding marketing communications. In addition, e-presentment continues to impact statements, bills, invoices, and other transactional documents, and e-readers and other related technologies are impacting books and periodicals.”

InfoTrends notes several factors that “will help the industry maintain a certain level of vitality.” These include new print applications, particularly those that employ variable data and personalization. “Already a highly relevant and effective form of communication, this will make print an even more powerful communications tool. Furthermore, technologies such as QR Codes and Augmented Reality are enabling print to become an interactive means of communication. We believe that these factors will contribute to keeping print alive in the years to come,” according to the firm.

http://americanprinter.com/how-to/0201-infotrends-projects-print-decline/