Cup-a-Joe

OK, the bad news first.  For those of you who live in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, have you noticed how much more road congestion you’re seeing? Per the U.S. Census Bureau, the Metroplex saw the nation’s largest increase of residents in 2009 — 146,530.  The total population is nearly 6.5 million AND it exceeds the Houston metro area by 600,000.

Good news?  There’s plenty of opportunity for the print industry in Texas!

If you are waiting for things to get better, it might be a long wait.  There are too many unknowns out there and the folks in Washington aren’t making many of us in small business feel better.  Thus, we wait for things to get better.  The folks with money wait for it to get better.  And we all sit and watch to see who’s going to blink first. read more »

I just read Cary Sherbune’s article in Print CEO on Canadian Printer Magazine deciding to no longer use print as a method of distribution.  Along with Electronic Publishing and Graphic Arts Monthly shuttering their operations, this poses an interesting question.  Is it that print can no longer deliver the message, or is it that there is no longer a substantial market within the print community to support magazines?  Or all of the above?

If you have not been paying attention to Clean Air issues — you better start!  As an industry, offset lithography has been a target for good reasons.  We use volatile organic compounds, which are precursors to low level ozone which can create health issues, and print producers tend to do business in heavily populated areas.  These areas are continuously having the EPA crank down on the restrictions.  This summer the EPA will set new ozone standards which will adversely affect many cities such as Austin, Oklahoma City, Wichita, Tulsa, and East Texas within the next few years.  Although some digital technologies may remove the target from the industry’s back, that reality is many years into the future, and the regulations are impacting today’s industry in the midst of the most sever economic downturn in its history. read more »

I’ve been remiss in putting my thoughts down over the past week or so.  Is it due to being busy?  Summer doldrums (summer temperatures and haze is upon us)?  Or just lack of “thought?”  Probably the latter.  Regardless, here are some vague thoughts on the world of print and business . . .

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I was attending a meeting this week in Austin, Texas hosted by the Texas Society of Association Executives (TSAE) regarding advocacy.  The featured speaker was Margaret Spellings, former U.S. Secretary of Education during the Bush Administration.  The program was beneficial, but what was really interesting were the participants.

There was a room of 40 folks, many who are full time lobbyists.  Nearly 70% represented either the medical or education industry, which says a lot about whose voice is heard in Austin.  What I truly found ironic was the person seated to my right led the charge by Texas educators to replace printed textbooks with digital media.  When I introduced myself and who I represented, I felt her desire to be somewhere else – but fortunately she stayed, and we were able to have an intelligent conversation regarding education and media.

What if found fascinating was that those of us in the print industry easily get blinded by our history and our love for process.  We forget that print is just another method of communicating.  As she and I spoke, I realized that she had nothing against print per se, but that digital media provided flexibility necessary in today’s world of education.   And that my friends, is why it’s so important for us in the print world to better understand our customer’s business. 

If our customers need another form of communication/technology to solve their challenges, we should find a way to provide them with that form of communication.  Waiting for them to make that decision for us is not an option. Today’s world does not belong to the meek, but the swift of foot.

For the past decade, we have heard from the manufacturers of variable print equipment about the power of 1:1 marketing.  Yet, it’s been a very slow struggle to get there.  Initially it was technology.  Remember the first variable print engines? RIP processing speeds?  The cost?  The quality (lack thereof)?  Those are no longer issues.  Yet, the needle is still moving slowly. 

A recent study by the Annenberg School for Communication, UC Berkeley School of Law, and the Annenberg Public Policy Center shines an interesting light on how consumers react when they realize how data is gathered.  Check out this interesting summary on Print In The Mix.  The issue of 1:1 marketing is a lot more complex than what one is led to believe.

There’s an argument brewing in Texas regarding banning books in the classroom – and it’s not going to be pretty since Texas has a major influence on the purchasing of educational textbooks in the United States. read more »

During the past decade, numerous pundits declared that the small printer (less than 15 employees) would rapidly go the way of the dodo bird.  Granted, over the years we have seen many go away but at the same time we’ve seen (and continue to see) major firms go bankrupt, liquidate or merge/consolidate (Vertis, Quebecor, Bowne, Narrowgate, Southwestern Colorgraphics, Buchanan, Townsend, Banta, etc.).

In our industry, no company is too big to fail – and that is one reason why many “small” companies will continue to thrive.  Regardless of what we call ourselves (printers, print providers, marketing service provider, visual communication company), we are still in the business of producing a custom product.  More often than not, that requires creativity and commitment along with the ability to be a truly committed partner – and that’s much easier to do when you’re small.

Last night I attended the Dallas Advertising League’s Print-a-palooza which is an annual event focused on print advertising issues.  The highlight of the event was a panel led by printer John Barry with ColorDynamics.  The topic was “A World Without Print.”  The panel was comprised of Ed Bardwell, a graphics/web designer; Jason Dove, an executive from the Dallas Morning News; Russell Viers, a software trainer and consultant; and Byron Racki, a marketing exec from Neenah Paper.

What was fascinating were the discussions which ensued once the topic was introduced.  Everyone agreed that print is not dead but then proceeded to provide all the reasons why it’s in decline (dying?).  I could see that some of the individuals who were part of the print design or production community were not very comfortable with what they were hearing.  Especially when several of the tekkie’s started talking about the power of social media as a channel and the potential power of software and hardware to make everyone a “printer.”

If you are part of the print community, I challenge you to start listening to individuals/companies who see “connectivity” as the future of communication.  It is the future.  More importantly start looking for the opportunities in this changing visual communications world.  There will be plenty — but you can not just think of yourself as a printer.  Otherwise, as one young lady in the audience said, “you are just providing a commodity.”