Market Data Reports Size of Printing Market

The overall number of printing industry establishments declined dramatically, according to both the U.S. 2002 Economic Census and industry-compiled data. The census profiles the U.S. economy every five years. The latest numbers, issued in October, show that from 1997 to 2002 the total number of printing establishments dropped close to 17%, from 30,416 to 25,412. Data from the National Association of Printing Leadership closely mirrors the census data, reporting a decline in the total number of establishments of about 13%, from 37,673 printing establishments to 32,945 from 1998 to 2002.

Drilling down to market segments, the census data reports that commercial lithographers lost the most companies, declining from 18,602 to 15,606, a 16% drop. Another significant (but not surprising) drop is in the number of firms that offer only prepress services, falling from 3,337 to 2,150.

Digital printing is the lone bright spot in the census data. It is the only category that posted an increase—and a significant one at that, with the number of firms tripling from 386 in the 1997 census to 1,133 in the latest report.