Cup-a-Joe

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 »

It’s time to get connected.  OK, I’ll admit it.  In my world, Social Media has not been #1 on the priority list.  I use LinkedIn several times a week and my Facebook page might get a visit every other week, and up to now, I refused to Tweet.  Well, maybe it’s time to rethink these topics.

It is becoming apparent to this old fogey that getting connected (networking) is becoming more and more important in the industry we call printing.  Why?  The people we need to be speaking to – or getting to know are no longer just “printers.”  It’s about mailers.  It’s about marketers.  It’s about online competitors.  It’s about foreign (no that doesn’t mean Illinois) competitors.  It’s about supplier/manufacturers who are also competitors.  How do we stay up with this new world?  Use the new technologies and find ways to expand our horizons.  We can no longer just hang around with folks who look like us.  We gotta spread our wings.  Tweet. Tweet.

So, I’m off to check Google Plus — more to come.

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.

I just read this factoid.  Per SmartTrend News Watch, the top five publicly held companies in our industry which have the most potential for earnings growth are:  Deluxe Checks, RR Donnelley, Consolidated Graphics, Cenveo, and InnerWorkings.  Who had the top potential?  InnerWorkings.  Now let me ask a Sesame Street question — who doesn’t look like the others?  Who’s not really a manufacturer — yet is considered a printer?  What does this portend for the industry?

This past week was a real eye-opener for many printers in Texas as one of the state’s best-known firms, and one of a handful which had been owned by the same family for over 100 years, shuttered their doors. Padgett Printing was a top echelon company for the vast majority of it corporate life. It was a company which utilized the latest technologies and was known for being a good corporate citizen. The family run business had a solid management team. So, what happened?

As is probably true of many firms in this recent industry depression (let’s not mince words), it was a victim of its own success. For the past 20 years, like many other firms in Dallas/Fort Worth, it grew at rates far exceeding standard industry growth. Investments were made in equipment. Personnel. Infrastructure. It was a good time to be in the print industry – and a profitable one. But, who could foresee the train wreck that was 2008 and has continued through 2011? Thus, like many firms in our industry, what seemed to have been built on solid ground, collapsed with the tremors created by a major economic recession and major shifts in print purchasing.

We can argue all day about what should have been done or what could have been done – but we really don’t have access to that insider information. And that’s moot. But there are lessons to be learned.

The days of mass consumption of print growing in excess of GDP are gone. In the past decades, in order to grow and be a “successful” printer, one had to add more and larger presses. You went from a duplicator to a 20″ press to a 28″ press to a 40″ press to ½ webs or more recently, long perfectors. Along with that growth came more debt – and more iron to feed. In the past, one could ride out the economic cycle — but not this one.

The sands of print are shifting and if one is not looking carefully at the road being traveled and not willing to think strategically, the road could rapidly disappear. The “build it and they will come” philosophy which worked for many years is a dead end. Today’s firm needs to understand the market dynamics of visual communications (not just print) and realize that success is still possible, but don’t plan on taking the same road as your predecessors.

On a final note since we’re speaking about different roads.  Check this out.

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.

I had a thoughtful conversation the other day with one of our members – a long-time sales rep and sales manager.  It was regarding the concept of value-added. He had seen a recent “Hotline” article in our newsletter and was concerned it was sending a message which was negative to the sales force. read more »

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.

These past few weeks have been awful quiet in regards to the print industry.  We continue to watch the economic fist-fight between President Obama and the Republicans and wait to see the results.  The Libyan mess has been relegated to the back pages – but the instability this has created in the Middle East is being reflected in oil prices.  Not a good thing for the economy, or our industry.

I’ve been reading a variety of blogs and articles on print and its “changes,” and continue to see a diversity of opinions.  One group will say – “the industry is not going away,” while another is saying “the sky is falling.”  Hmmm.  Maybe we can all agree that the next few years are going to be “different.”

The SFI/FSC fight of who’s holier-than-thou is filling up the blog pages and there still continues to be cynicism on producers and consumers on the whole issue.  Yet, one thing we should not overlook is that companies which have solid sustainability practices (this means a lot more than “being green”) have found ways to reduce their costs of operation by minimizing waste, in materials and production – and that’s a good thing.

I see that USPS has put IMb on the back burner — again.  Still too much confusion – and Postmaster Donahoe has bigger fish to fry.

Oh, baseball fans, note that the Texas Rangers are 8-1.  Not a bad way to start the season!

This past March Motheral Printing hosted an Association breakfast meeting on the generation “gap.” It was one of the best programs I’ve seen on this topic – and I’ve been to a few.

It was led by David Danforth with Eastfield Community College and Dr. Rick Lumadue with Texas A&M – Commerce.  These college professors, who are both Gen X-ers (born between 1964 and 1980), were very entertaining and candid with their observations.  These were not guys who are consultants or doctorial candidates writing research papers.  Every day they are seeing the new generation (Millennials) in the classroom, and they are also interfacing with the Boomers (administrators).

The key to this program was the observation that the upcoming Millennials (born between 1980 and 2000) are motivated very differently than the Boomers or Gen X-ers.  They communicate differently—via blogs IMs and text messaging rather than phone or face-to-face preferred by the older generation, who are frequently their supervisors.  They are heavily influenced by their parents and peers and are very team oriented.  Where Gen X-ers were highly independent and self-motivated, the Millennials need structure and very focused leadership. Millennials are multi-taskers and are not use to having lines of authority – they ask “why.”

Given that our industry’s workforce composition is beginning to change, managers and supervisors need to understand the dynamics of the groups they manage and how their own biases can affect their leadership. The more we can learn about ourselves and our workforce, the better leaders we become.  If you would like a copy of the PowerPoint presentation used by Danforth and Lumadue, please contact me.