There’s just no good news in any of the data. Though shipments picked up a little in March and April, the numbers for January and February were the worst we have ever reported, falling below $700 million a month. Our databases of shipments go back to 2002 and none of the numbers are this dismal. (See Print Watch on pg. 14 for more statistics.)
 

Our printing exports are dwindling, and our balance of trade has been in deficit territory for almost a year without any signs of rebounding. Revenues for public printing companies in the first quarter sagged by more than 13% from the same time in 2008. And the market cap of each of those companies has shrunk—our Henderson Index now claims half the value it did in 2000.

In addition to all this, news abounds that more and more marketing and advertising dollars are migrating online and to social media outlets, while print is left to fight off charges of irrelevancy and costliness. Example: Governor Terminator in California has proposed doing away with printed textbooks to help ease the financial burden on the beleaguered state. What if his proposal works?
 

Now you can argue that this is just a particularly treacherous patch that the print industry has to endure along with everyone else. But, a strong consensus among industry watchers says this is just not the case. We are dealing with fundamental structural shifts.
 

Depressed yet? And more to the point, where am I going with this?
 

Well, I hope, to a solution, or at least to a conversation about a solution. Simply put, print needs a little—no scratch that— a lot of PR and marketing to bolster its tarnished and sagging image. Admittedly, I haven’t been a huge fan of these group campaigns in the past, in part because they try to craft a one-size-fits-all kind of message for an industry that’s full of specialized niches. But the industry can no longer sit idly by doing nothing, and you can no longer pin your future on cost cutting, delivering better service, or the hope that your competitors will implode in that long-awaited industry consolidation.
 

Truthfully, I’m not entirely sure what should be done, or how, or who should take the lead.  So, I’m asking you what you think. What’s our best defense? Should the industry mount an advertising campaign? A brochure-distribution program? Should we put videos on You Tube? What are the key messages we should put out there? Where exactly is the ROI for print? Or, maybe you or someone you know has done something that’s worked in your market to promote print that you can share with the rest of us? It’s possible that nothing can save print from whatever inevitable fate awaits it, but if there is something perhaps we’ll find it by communicating. Like Mike Myers used to say, “Can we talk?”