To kick off 2012, I asked three people whom I greatly admire to weigh in on this thought: It’s the year 2017. In 100 words or less, please describe what the print industry looks like.

From Frank Romano, Professor Emeritus at RIT, world-renowned print industry authority, consultant, author, speaker and educator

Frank Romano

2017

Amidst the clutter of tweets, spam, blogs, e-mails, animated gifs, pop-ups, linked-in and facebook “friends,” only print commands attention. Marketers who shifted to electronic noise in 2012 to save money have been let go in shame, and print is experiencing a renaissance.

The US Postal Service is now a division of RR Donnelley and McMail Postal Centers abound. UPS and FedEx are now FedUP.

Junk mail has been replaced with targeted and relevant messaging, and although coupons have remained in electronic form, you are paid to print them out with your ink and paper. Instead of ATM machines, you can print out your own cash using special Q codes.

Environmentalists insist that all print is edible and sheets must contain Federal nutrition information.

Print is back big time.

From Dr. Joe Webb, Director of WhatTheyThink’s Economics and Research Center, and one of the industry’s best-known consultants, commentators, and forecasters

Dr. Joe Webb

The printing industry in the year 2017:

What's happened in the last five years? iPhones, iPads, Facebook, Twitter, cloud computing… they're such a familiar part of daily life they seem to have been around for a lot longer. There is a cluttered and crowded effort to communicate information in real time (such as Twitter) and also in archived form (such as websites, books, periodicals). By 2017, the new role of print as a means of standing out from the clutter and getting a target audience to cut through information overload will be implemented better than it is today. Whether it's signage, direct mail, or promotions, these applications will have renewed prominence in new formats as many traditional high-profile print formats (magazines, catalogs, newspapers) fade to the background. Digital printing will dominate for its flexibility and its natural relationship with databases and digital content.

From Cary Sherburne, well-known author, journalist, speaker and marketing consultant; senior editor at WhatTheyThink

Cary Sherburne

The world of print in 2017 will be almost unrecognizable. Sure, we will see many of the same technologies in operation in print shops around the world—offset, flexo, gravure, and of course, digital. But inkjet will have made significant inroads by that time, displacing much of the volume that might have gone to traditional analog production processes, and the value of electrophotographic printing will have begun to fade.

Overall print volumes will be way below those seen in 2011—I will leave the exact forecast to the statisticians. But the print volume that does exist, for the most part, will be comprised of higher margin, higher value pieces that are integrated into a multichannel strategy.

The remaining print service providers will be largely unrecognizable in the commercial and publications print space. Packaging operations will change as well, shifting more volume to digital and having highly digital workflows. But that Cheerios package still won’t be available on the web or on your mobile device!

The big question is how these future commercial/publications printers will define themselves. Will they be communications providers who happen to print or printers who also offer multichannel communications services? I think the former. The challenge will be to find the right balance between digital and printed communications, the role each should fulfill, and when or whether to use each medium.

As for publications, predictions are that printed newspapers will be obsolete in the U.S. by 2017, and magazines can’t be far behind. The book market will be

dominated by e-books, with printed versions for all but the biggest sellers being printed on demand, many right on site at the bookstore, library or at home.

Perhaps by 2017, there won’t even be a printing industry per se. I hope the U.S. Census Bureau is listening. Their classifications today are already obsolete, and if they don’t move to change them by the 2017 economic census, they will be completely irrelevant. Statisticians will need to figure out a different way to measure this in-flux market.

Here are my own 2 cents:

In 2017…

The number of commercial printers across the U.S. is down to about 20,000. Some are “purely” printers; most offer a wider range of print + emedia services. Printers are tethered to marketing agencies. There are fewer and fewer dedicated print buying professionals employed in companies across the country, as their roles have evolved significantly. They’ll have print-production responsibilities, but they will really be media generalists who need to prepare content for wide distribution across multiple media. They’re part of marketing teams in most companies. Firms are outsourcing print production responsibilities more and more. Independent print production professionals thrive, and print management firms and brokers are more popular.

There is a renaissance of high-end print materials for marketing campaigns. We’ve all become numb to years of ongoing bombardment of social media touches. Spectacular tactile campaigns make the best impressions. There are all sorts of new, incredibly beautiful substrates that change dynamically.

Print is now special again.

© 2012 Margie Dana. All rights reserved. You’re free to forward this email. However, no part of this column may be reprinted without permission from the authors.

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