The printing business has suffered enough in the last few years and didn’t need anymore bad news, but here are the revised shipments numbers from the Commerce Department as reported on Whattheythink.com
You don’t have to study this chart (click to enlarge) to understand the overall message, printing isn’t what it used to be and the challenges go way beyond the recession we’re currently “recovering” from. When the economy improves no one expects the industry to ever return to the good old days.
The Internet has certainly had an effect on the printing industry. From printed Yellow Pages to product brochures to printed newspapers to book publishing, they all have been hurt by consumers finding the same information in a digital format and consumers won’t return to ink on paper.
However, $84 billion a year in shipments is still a big number and we are a long way from doing away with printed newspapers, direct mail, packaging and point-of-sale displays.
So, to reach today’s consumers means we have to do twice the work we’ve done in the past. We still have to go with print and now digital, too.
Thank goodness the technology is here today in our modern ad builder to accommodate the old and the new for local marketering.