First up is the unhappy news in the form of the Gold List, which, sadly, missed its mark of 100 participants this year. Now, there have always been printers who refuse for their own reasons to participate in this ranking, but this year extracting information seemed particularly difficult, perhaps because 2009 was such a difficult year. 
 

The group of 79 that did participate in the Gold List posted collected losses of roughly $2 billion, or 16% down from 2008. Almost 50 reported sales losses and 37 reported layoffs. 
 

If your sales were flat or you magically achieved some revenue growth you can take heart that you are in very refined company. We all hope that this performance turns around next year, but reading this litany of bad news tends to make you loose faith for the prospects of this industry and makes it easier to overlook that there are printers out there who are attempting to implement new visions for their businesses.  
 

So we also present the third installment of our new Pathfinders column, focusing on printers who are trying to chart new paths in printing and expand its traditional reach. This issue we put the spotlight on Denison Print, a small shop in Waterloo, Ont., who had plodded along for some time until reality jolted its owner out of his mind-set. After watching sales nosedive, Tony Denison decided to explore other avenues of growth. For him it came partly in the form of Bill Waters, an internet expert who had worked with the print shop. The result is Waters Denison Internet Group, dedicated to internet marketing for their clients.

The result: Well so far so good, and Denison goes so far as to predict that within five years, the internet business will outstrip the printing business. But, according to Denison, the new venture has helped to bring in a couple of new printing clients as well. His main message to others out there facing the same challenges: you can no longer operate with a business as usual mentality.
 

In this issue we also talk about a couple of printers who are beginning to leverage the opportunities of mobile to print. Mobile to print is the next evolution of web to print, in that users can download apps to their iPhones specifically to order print. Both Tukaiz, in Chicago, and Shoot it!, an internet company, have gone down this route with successful result—they’re using the apps to sell, create, print and mail personalized postcards. Travel is what comes to mind with these apps, but there are many other ways in which they can be used for effective marketing. Read about them in the Shop Talk section on pg. 41. 

Now, it may well be that all of these initiatives will fail spectacularly as it’s too early to tell if these business ventures  have legs over the long term. But what stories like these show is that some cold-eyed thinking, coupled with imagination and the willingness to embrace and explore new technologies can create new business models that really do push print forward and show it in its best light. And it’s this kind of individual initiative, more than just about any other effort that will help to jump-start the industry. It’s easy to give in to the gloom, sometimes it’s even the right response to a situation, but a wise person I know is fond of pointing out that every challege is an opportunity. Maybe we can all learn from those who try.