I'M BACK on familiar ground with this editorial. In August, I wrote that perhaps the time had come for us to start an industry-wide discussion about what we can do to improve the fortunes of print. It’s not often that I feel I really push buttons among readers, but this issue seems to have done it. I received several letters on the issue, ranging from the hectoring, to the wise, to the outright nutty. Most of the submissions are printed on pg. 8 and 9.
 

Maybe the time is right. Maybe this year, and its hard economics, dashed all hope that things will “return to normal” using time-tested formulas. Maybe we’ve collectively hit a wall and have no choice but to do something, anything, just to feel that we’re being pro-active in the face of dismal statistics and the digital spread. Maybe this is our last stand?
 

Certainly discussions about putting a newer veneer on print are proliferating, as is interest in exploring the issue. Ipex announced it’s mounting a panel at the trade show next May in England to discuss the future of print. A bunch of enthusiastic young print-industry employees, with the help of Heather Black from Mary Black Recruiting, are launching a website called Iloveprint.ca to try and engage other young people and encourage them to enter the industry. CPIA and the Printing Industry Sector Council are beginning to look at the issue and talk to other associations and bodies that can help give print a lift.
 

And, the Sun newspaper in the UK has created an effective video promoting the advantages of the newspaper, in its printed format, against digital versions. Go to YouTube.com and search for The UK's best handheld for forty years.
 

I must admit what I find most captivating is the debate itself, and not the programs or campaigns that might be produced and launched at various target audiences. This is the first time since I came to Graphic Monthly Canada that I have seen this kind of engagement and passion on an issue.
 

So here then is round-up of some of the feedback and other mood indicators.
 

Certainly there’s much disappointment and bitterness out there, and a few people wrote to say that there’s basically no hope for the industry. This view was complemented by some of the information presented in seminars during Graphics Canada and the CPIA conference in November: examples of print shops hanging on by their fingernails, and predictions from various experts and pundits that things will get much more grim before getting any better. 

Some of the comments we’ve received and posted on printcan.com, our news website, reveal a dark vein of disenchantment. Even Lyman Henderson, a key figure in the printing world for decades, is foreseeing a dim future unless we snap out of our myopia and develop a strong vision for the industry that goes beyond the blistering speed of the newest machines.
 

On the flip side, more optimistic souls have argued that print is alive; dented, but viable. They propose that if we were able to engage the general public and educate it about the role of print, it would help the industry. A kind of “if they knew us, they would love us” supposition.
 

Others have posited that the industry needs champions and promoters to go out and spread the word to young workers, print buyers, and others and get them excited about printing. And that we need to  fight the perception that printing is environmentally irresponsible and actively promote the recyclability of paper.
 

And there’s a few who are arguing that the very concept of what it means to be a printer must be redefined and that printers must explore new avenues that leverage skills they already posess. That it must expand its mindset and figure out how to deliver real ROI to clients.
 

Let the debate continue.