Cup-a-Joe

Back in November I wrote a blog titled “Print Is The Medium.”  Since then I have seen more and more “thoughts” on the importance of selling print as a media.  Several good points were made by Tom Wetjen at Graphic Communications World.  Let me summarize.

1.) Promote the effectiveness of print in new, compelling ways.

2.) Change the perception that print harms the environment.

3.) Coach print buyers to view the relationship between print and digital as “and,” not “either/or.”

4.) Explore, understand and provide technologies that make print come to life, such as QR codes.

None of these thoughts are new, but Tom did an excellent job of stimulating thought.  Bill Farquharson, who’s no stranger to stimulating thought, this past Monday shared a link from a friend of his in Boulder.  It too is worth sharing; so, check out this blog written by David Heitman in the Boulder County Business Report.

Remember, print is NOT dead.  Spread the word!

I was recently reading an article in “Business Week” by Rob Hof about Google’s newest tool and was pleasantly surprised to read these words by Hof, “Print has its advantages. In addition to its portability, a magazine or newspaper is easy to flip through to find what you’re looking for, or run across articles or ads you didn’t know you’d want to read.” 

This issue of readability is one of the big advantages that print has over electronic media.  BUT, Google is presently attacking this with the subject of his article, their Fast Flip tool.  

If one is to find ways to defeat the Barbarians (or at least slow them down), one has to realize that today’s technocrats (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Adobe) are constantly finding ways to make visual communications easier AND more like print!  Thus, it becomes more important than ever to look at print’s strengths and continue to explore ways to have our clients understand these strengths and how they can parlay them to help their business.  Sticking our head in the sand and hoping the Barbarians will go away is not the answer.  Of course, a long-term answer is to find ways to assimilate the Barbarians and make them part of our solution.

Last month 25 of our industry’s Association professionals met to discuss various issues pertaining to Printing Industries of America and its affiliates.  Needless to say the mood was not entirely up-beat, but there was a sense of cautious optimism.   Everyone recognizes the challenges facing our industry in the economic times we face, as well as the ever-changing world of visual communications.

At the conference, there were two presentations of special interest.  The first was presented by Adobe’s Will Eisley, Director of Product Management for their Creative Suite products.   He re-affirmed Adobe’s commitment to print, but the underlying message was “more change is coming.”  Adobe (as is Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Oracle, HP, etc., etc.) sees a world in which Internet-based communication will be ubiquitous.  Whether it’s on your PC/Mac; PDA; phone, or lord-knows-what, communication will be instantaneous, mobile, and in the “cloud.” 

The other message came from industry stalwart, Stuart Margolis.  Margolis’ accounting firm has over 300 printing clients across the U.S.  Because of the economic and technological changes occurring with the industry, he sees the need for firms to consider the merger/acquisition route so they can a.) increase their sales base or b.) realize the value of their business through a sale.   His recent partnership with Paul Reilly and “New Ventures” is an indication of how strong Margolis feels about this business strategy in our industry.

Our Association also sees a need for members to better understand these options of growing/selling their business.  We have contacted several M&A professionals, including Paul Reilly, Stu Margolis and Charlie Oppenheimer, to develop various articles on merger/acquisition.  This “white paper” should be available to our membership later this summer.

Two weeks ago the New York Times Company reported a first-quarter loss of $74.5 million. Advertising revenue at the company’s publishing segment fell 28.4 percent in the quarter, including an 8 percent decline in Internet advertising at the News Media Group.  The New England Media Group, which consists primarily of The Boston Globe and its site, Boston.com reported that it’s on track to lose $85 million this year, and as of Monday there were talks of closing this venerable institution founded in 1872.

Many individuals see this type of news as a condemnation of print as a media.  I see it as a condemnation of newspapers as a channel of advertising – and let’s not get newspapers confused with printing. 

Print will continue to play an important role in visual communications today and well into the future.  Those of us in the industry just have to remember the mistake the railroads made at the turn of the last century and the newspaper made in this one.  In the early 20^th century, railroads did not understand they were in the transportation business – not the railroad business.  Newspapers forgot they were in the business of producing/packaging news – not in the print producing business.