Margie Dana

While driving home last week, I heard a guest on our local radio station say something that went like this:

“There are no manufacturing jobs in the United States anymore. They’ve all gone overseas.”

I beg to differ.

Now, I don’t work for a printer (and never have), but I was still annoyed. In spite of the fact that there is commercial printing and packaging done abroad for American customers (I’m thinking of books and greeting cards and tags), a lot of printing is still done here, folks.

There are about 30,000 printing companies in this country. Is it a tough industry these days? You betcha. If you’re a businessperson, chances are excellent you’re using fewer printed materials today than you did a handful of years ago. If you’re a consumer, you’re probably getting yours news online and reading books on a tablet of some sort, if not your smartphone. All of your user guides for electronic devices and appliances are now digital. Mine, too.

I get it. It’s 2013, and we’ve got our heads and our information in the clouds. Trust me, I find it as cool as you do.

And yet, there are still 30,000 U.S. printing companies manufacturing printed materials day after day after day. Within my eyesight at this very moment at this very desk I can see the following printed things:

Magazines

Postcards

Envelopes

Invoices

Packaging

Flyers

Labels on boxes

Business cards

Direct mail

Letterhead

Wrapping paper

Newspapers

Personalized Post-it notes

Notepads

Event promotions

Books

Playbills

Posters

Without hunting down the origin of every product, I guarantee you that most of them were printed right here in the U.S. of A.

Non-industry folks don’t know about commercial printers. These companies are off the beaten path in more ways than one. Their facilities are not typically in town, so you don’t ever see printing plants unless they’re your destination. And this country has fallen out of love a bit with anything that’s ink-on-paper. Not cool. Not sexy. Not newsy enough.

So I’m writing today to shine a light on 30,000 companies that manufacture products you and I use and need every day. Printers make magic happen. Just because they fly under the radar doesn’t make them invisible. I see them and applaud them. I hope you do, too.