Unexpected, Disruptive Forces That Will Reshape Print

What disruptive trends, lurking in the wings, pose threats—or promise—for the graphic arts industries? Where should printers direct their investment dollars? At Graph Expo next month, organizers propose to offer answers in conferences and exhibits. Here's our take on the influences—technological, political, social—holding the business life of print in the balance.

Some obvious technology influencers: spot-color mixers that cut waste and speed match colors; compact, common impression cylinder offset presses that reduce waste in 4-color work; on-the-fly web changeovers, swapping black or color forms without slowing the reel; unified color and workflow systems, managing jobs through production. Also, technologies seen on recent GAM covers: press-speed cold foiling (July '06), vibrant variable-data digital print (Aug. '06) and VOC-free inks this month.

More notable than technologies that make it easier to produce print are the ones that make it easier to buy. Dozens of online sites offer everything from vanity book publishing to personal wrapping paper. More than 30 applications for everyone from quick printers to big-sized firms aid building online print shops. Not only does this expand the market as it guides non-professionals to order print; it also simplifies trade among print firms, bringing orders to the least-cost producers in an exhibit of classic free-market capitalism.

Benign neglect and governmental indifference in the political realm endanger print more than do wanton restrictions. There's a growing tendency by individual states to regulate matters more properly managed by the federal government: some levy sales tax on newspapers, for example, despite their special status under the Constitution's 1st Amendment (that's why news gets cheaper mailing rates); states want to tax postage for direct mail; regional environmental regulators adopt restrictive standards with no sensible regard for the effects on business or the practical outcomes. PIA energies behind broad issues, such as inheritance tax cuts, would be better channeled into pressuring the Feds to set standards national in scope or rules directly bearing on print—blocking Southern California's latest air quality restrictions, or the cumbersomely named outrage, “EPA proposed ruling 40 CFR Part 59 Consumer and Commercial Products: Control Techniques Guidelines in Lieu of Regulations for Lithographic Printing Materials, Letterpress Printing Materials, Flexible Packaging Printing Materials and Industrial Cleaning Solvents.”

Among social forces, the groundswell of approbation that greeted the National Do Not Call Registry has solidified into a fundamental right not to be solicited by phone during dinner—or at any other time. Now numbering 120 million listings that generate large fines when rung without authorization, the elimination of intrusive phone marketing has given a boost to print solicitations.

Despite the occasional whining that attends receipt of so-called “junk mail,” the reality is that consumers do want to be reached by advertising. (Valassis studies show newspaper inserts are the second most read item in papers, after the front page.) While a Google search for the National Do Not Call Register delivers 1.75 million references, the National Do Not Mail list appears on just 10,000 pages. People like mail. A woman who complains of receiving 165 lbs. of catalogs last year also admits to ordering from 11 of them.

While environmentalists may kvetch about printed mail, that industry remains safe from socio-political correction: green movements live and die by direct mail, as do its regulating politicians. Is it a coincidence that paper ballots and mail-in ballots for elections have gained new respect, as activists decry electronic voting with no paper trail?

bill.esler@reedbusiness.com