We’re deeply involved with the changes taking place in local advertising and one place we monitor for the depth of that change is commercial printing. Whattheythink.com is a great source for our information about the printing industry and they recently published this chart.
It’s easy to see the downturn in the industry over the last several years as more and more information is moving online and therefore less need for printed brochures, not to mention the rise in e-readers, tablet computers and smartphones.
In the blog entry accompanying this chart, the author makes this point:
Last week, Facebook announced its long-awaited IPO, and reports indicated that the company was valued at $100 billion. To put that value and the shift in digital media in perspective, the commercial printing business generated approximately $4 billion in profits in the four quarter period of Q4-2010 to Q3-2011. At a generous 20x earnings, the entire US commercial printing would be worth $80 billion. The printing industry has about 475,000 employees, and Facebook reports its number of employees as “3000+”.
Recognizing the media shift, and getting out ahead of it on behalf of customer objectives, is becoming a critical strategy for commercial printing businesses.
All I can add is that recognizing this media shift is critical to all of us and especially to brand managers. It’s not the good old days, nor will local marketing ever be the same again. Make sure you’re providing your retail channel with the modern tools they need to promote and protect your brand digitally.