Is print demand declining, flat, or increasing? Should you be expanding your business beyond the ink/toner-on-paper business. Or should you just decide that you produce magazines better than anyone else and just do that? Is print ad spending going up or down? All sorts of information and statistics seek to answer these questions, but it can be difficult to parse the load and make sense of it all. We try to report as many statistics as we can find that shed light on these things, hoping to present real information that you can act on. But, I know, sometimes the data can seem contradictory.
 

For example, in this issue we report that our balance of trade on printing has tanked. Our deficit stands at $43 million for July, compared to a surplus of $47.5 million last year. Worse yet, for the first time since we began reporting on trade, Canada is importing more from the U.S. than it is exporting. But, we also report that print shipments are slightly up from last year (see Print Watch on pg. 18 for all the stats). And on that page we show that printing is hanging on to its share of advertising spending in Canada. With the exception of newspapers that is, which are truly facing declining readership and troubled times.
 

We’ve also reported on companies that have become consultants to their customers and have fostered valuable relationships with them. And we’ve written about companies that have placed their fortune squarely on being commodity printers, notably the high-profile e-commerce shops that deal with millions of orders a week without ever speaking to a customer.
 

What are you to make of it all? 
 

I’ve been reading a report that tackles that very subject. Joe Webb, an economist and industry watcher in the U.S., has written a report, Renewing the Printing Industry: Strategies and Action Items for Success. I’ve always enjoyed reading and listening to Dr. Joe, as he’s known, because he takes a broad and intellectual approach to analyzing the print industry.
 

One of his themes has always been that print is part of a larger media universe and if printers want to be successful, they must understand how printed products fit into broad marketing and communication channels. In his report he extols printers to understand why people print, and to be knowledgeable about what print can do—and can’t—compared to digital communications. He says printers must stop being mere manufacturers of communications products and become involved in a consultative role at the genesis of marketing programs.
 

But Dr. Joe is also known as Dr. Gloom for his sometimes dire assessment of where the industry is going. One area in which he challenges conventional thinking is in his assertion that printers can’t really affect demand for print. That’s driven by larger forces such as demographics and economics. As an industry, printing can’t alter or impact them and that’s why industry campaigns to promote printing are ineffectual. 
 

Webb offers a list of actions for printing firms to improve and strengthen their performance. But the thing that resonates is his conclusion that printers can only be successful if they take individual action in their own sphere. Change, he says, is brought about by innovative individuals, not by group activities. Think VistaPrint and other innovative companies.
 

So, what are you to make of all the gloomy and often contradictory statistics? Well, read them for sure, absorb them, and use them as triggers for new ways of thinking. But in the end, the answers to all the questions likely reside in your own shop.