Cup-a-Joe

The board of directors of Printing Industries of America (PIA) recently allocated a quarter of a million dollars to support a variety of activities which will continue to spread the word of why print still has value.  While to many of us that is significant money – in the land of mass media, it’s peanuts.  It’s a 30 second commercial during a national football game; it’s a series of weekend ads in a local market.  It’s chump change.

Yet, the question remains – is it worth doing?  Many take the position that for the industry to try to stop/change the perception of print being antiquated is not achievable, while others feel that something has to be done – if for any reason just to make us feel good.  Well, PIA has taken on the role of making us feel good – and more.

Over the next 6-12 months, an upgraded website will be developed focusing on best practices, along with continued support of “Print In The Mix,” “Print Grows Trees,” and “ChoosePrint.org.” Regardless, of ones feelings to the value of this type of campaign, it can not be ignored that information can influence.  If every print producing company in the U.S. can influence 3 – 5 buyers, the needle will move in the right direction, but it has to start at the grassroots level.  If we don’t influence those local buyers, tell the fat lady to start warming up (thanks Dandy Don!).

Print in all its forms is still the most prevalent way of communicating.  The web; smart phones; signage; and tablets (in all their forms) are all vehicles for distributing the written (visual) word.  If one was to think about it, print is more powerful than ever – it’s just the way it is delivered that has everyone disturbed.

Think of all the new careers which have been created because print is no longer in the realm of craftsman using archaic ways to reproduce the printed word.  Today anyone can be an author, publisher and printer.  No longer do we just listen to the opinions of a handful of individuals who control the newspaper publishing industry.  Anyone with a blog site has the power.  The genie has been released from its bottle.

Here’s one more point which provides additional food for thought.  Per Gartner, a leading IT research agency, there will be approximately 64 million tablets in use by the end of the year.  That number goes to over 900 million by 2016!

Yet, if one is to consider the opportunities which abound for entrepreneurs who can think beyond ink on paper, there are fortunes to be made.  Or at least a good living for the next few decades.

A month or so ago, Joe Webb wrote an article where he covered all sorts of topics (when doesn’t he?), but here’s a tidbit that got my attention.  Especially in light of the industry’s trade associations working on “Value of Print” campaigns (including PIA MidAmerica). read more »

Many of us have heard the story before — print is an essential partner for online transactions, but the word is not getting around to senior managers.

Time and time again we hear the stories of retailers eliminating their catalogs in order to reduce costs (and sometime to improve their “green” color) and then watch their sales drop.  The latest was JC Penney.  Their decision to stop printing their catalog may have cost them $400 million in sales per a recent “Dallas Morning News” article.  Per the article, they did not realize that shoppers were using the catalog to help them shop online.

Many marketers have become enamoured with mobile and social media and thus assume that print is “so last century,” and it is no longer effective.  They don’t realize buyers are not a homogeneous mix and must be reached through a variety of channels — including print.   JC Penny’s decision to exit catalog sales may have made sense in saving short-term dollars — but in the long-term, may have had been very damaging.  Time will tell.

One thing the Tea Party has right is that less government is better.  The problem with any bureaucracy funded by the public is that it has a life of its own.  The idea of getting smaller is an anathema to the employees who work in the government; thus adding fuel to the fire in the fight we’re presently seeing in Washington D.C.  And since bureaucrats/regulators are frequently much more influential than the legislators (who can be voted out of office), they begin to find ways to interpret the legislation which may not be its original intent.

Case in point is a recent “dust-up” we’re seeing in Texas with the Texas Comptroller’s office.  A field auditor has decided that USPS postage should be treated as transportation and is revenue to a mailing service provider – with no offsetting expense.  This is a 1% tax on the top line.  Not a pleasant thought if you are in the mailing business in Texas.  Oh, don’t forget that if one state starts using this methodology successfully, others will follow.

PIA MidAmerica is in the process of working with the taxpayer/mailer and his CPA to find a way to bring logic into this discussion with the Comptroller’s Tax Policy experts in Austin.  More to come.

As of this week the NFL lockout is over and everyone is getting back to business as usual.  For the true NFL fans, they can start breathing again.  For us casual fans, it’s nice that we’ll have football this fall.  And there are dozens of printers, mailers, designers, agencies who have collectively said, Thank God it’s over.  We might just have a good year!

Everyone in the print industry is constantly hearing about the need to re-invent oneself.  While there’s a lot of truth to that concept, it’s more important for company CEOs and their teams to understand the environment and then develop the winning strategy.  There are a lot of thought leaders out there on this topic, but I just finished reading a text which should be on every print CEO’s “must read” list.

The book, which is a very quick and straight-forward read, is titled “Business Transformation, A New Path to Profit for the Printing Industry.” The author is John Foley, Jr., and unless you’ve been sleeping under a rock for the past six months, you’ll recognize John as one of the industry’s voices on social media.

I thought John’s book was chockfull of information and more importantly contains the steps one needs to take to either re-invent their company, or to make modifications to be properly positioned in the visual communications industry (we used to call it print.).

One of the key issues which has been raised by many folks regarding the Internet world is the financial model.  How do you pay for this stuff?  This has specifically been the question when it came to the world of newspapers and publishing.  It seems that things are a changing.

Several studies recently reported by “News & Tech” indicate that online publishers are beginning to develop “for pay” solutions – which is crucial for the success of content on the web.  A report from FTI Consulting indicated that a landscape in which consumers will pay to receive news and information on their mobile devices — a reversal from how consumers perceive content on the Web.  The firm stated, “The data … suggests that the public’s desire for consuming content on-the-go will drive strong growth for e-reader friendly devices. And these models hint at a return to paid subscriptions and a print-like advertising model.”

Another study by the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) stated that newspaper websites continue to dominate the Internet landscape.  Citing analysis conducted by comScore, NAA said that newspaper websites attracted 102.8 million unique visitors last  September, 61 percent of all adult Internet users. The survey also indicated that newspaper websites reach 55 percent of 25-to-34-year-olds and 73 percent of individuals in households earning more than $100,000 a year. “This data from comScore reinforces how newspaper publishers are leveraging original, high-quality content to build a powerful and engaged audience in the digital space,” said NAA President and CEO John F. Sturm in a statement.

Yes, everything is changing — but there are still plenty of opportunities.  We just can’t keep looking under the same bushes.

Trade associations tend to move relatively slowly – OK, very slow – when dealing with industry issues.  Boards are comprised of diverse leadership and frequently the staff has a different perspective on industry concerns.  But I was very glad to see the action which the Printing Industries of America’s Board of Directors took late last month.

Printing Industries of America (PIA) is going to take an aggressive role in working with its affiliates (there are 24 of us), and other organizations, to develop messaging to reinforce the “value of print.”  PIA developed material and a web site last year, but it was PIA Southern California which took the bull by the horns and created a serious campaign, which may very well be the one adopted by the national organization.

Although we may not see anything in the next month or two, this action will help focus the industry’s efforts to combat the insidious messaging that print is dead.  Congratulations to the Board of Directors. They stopped kicking the can down the road.

The one constant in the past decade for the print industry has been the ever-expanding world of competitors.  It’s no longer the guy across the street who just added a piece of equipment.  It’s the corporate communications department that just added a digital press.  It’s the big box office supply company that is now offering print management.  It’s the fulfillment house that’s added print capabilities.  And the USPS is now in the fray as well.

Their Every Door Deliver program might be a way to create more volume (more print?), but it does have a dark side as Cam Swegman  recently observed.  The program threatens the mail house.   And if you’re a printer, don’t ignore this new kid on the block.  There is a test campaign going on in several cities (Austin was one of them) in which the USPS acts as the “print provider,” or at least as a broker.

With all these competitors, one would think that it’s the end of the world as we knew it.  Yes, it is if we continue to operate as “normal.”  No, if we look as this as an opportunity to sell our differentiation.

What is it that your firm can do better than FedEx Office?  The USPS?  Staples?  InnerWorkings?

There are more than likely a multitude of things your firm can do much better and effectively.  One of the constant complaints I hear from print buyers is that when dealing with the “big boxes” is that they lack knowledge of print — and that should be one of the first differentiators which needs to be pitched to clients.   Just because you can buy your stamps or office supplies at the “big box,” it doesn’t mean they understand how to solve the customer’s communication/print problem — and that is a BIG difference between the “newbies” and the “old timers.”