WhatTheyThink recently interviewed Print Council Executive Director Ben Cooper, also the lobbyist responsible for bringing together an unprecedented coalition of interested parties to work for passage of the Postal Reform bill. One question we asked him was why this bill was important to printers. Here is his response:
I believe that this bill probably has more significance for the printing industry than it does for others because print right now is a distribution-dependent industry, and its competitor—if one regards electronic communications as a competitor - doesn't have the distribution limitations that print does. Whether distribution utilizes the Postal Service or some other process, print has to get to its intended point of use. The postal system, because it is responsible for distribution, is critical for the next five to ten years of the industry. Think about magazines. ... If you are the publisher of a magazine, you have alternatives. The printer does not. ... I was at a recent conference where Joel Quadracci delivered a very impassioned talk about the role of print. Not too long afterwards, one of the publishers said, "We use print now, but our business does not depend on print and we are constantly seeking alternatives to print." That is a stark reminder that the customers of print have more avenues than the printer. Progressive printers are trying to be part of that movement into those different distribution models.
Watch for this two-part interview soon on WhatTheyThink.
Discussion
By Dr Joe Webb on Feb 03, 2007
What is this "printer has no choice" stuff? Most printers pride themselves on being entrepreneurs and have opportunities to invest in the technologies and businesses that have the potential to throw them out of business. It's not like printers can't create products that allow publishers to move and manage their content in new media applications. Why should electronic communications be viewed as a competitor? It should be viewed as a complementary opportunity. I wonder how impassioned we should be about print and a bit more impassioned about bringing new communications opportunities to clients. Postal reform did nothing to do any of those endeavors. Publishers, especially big ones, have convinced themselves that they can't financially tolerate new media. Just this past week, the head of Time indicated that a print customer was worth $100 and an online one was worth $5 in revenue. Big publishers are just as stuck as big printers are. The other issue is a company like Vistaprint. They're selling boring and mundane products that printers hate to do. Their financials released this week were impressive. But how many printers are interested in finding niches that require spending 33% of revenue on marketing? We can convince ourselves that we're stuck in things or we can decide to turn things on their heads like Vistaprint did.
By Cary Sherburne on Feb 04, 2007
I certainly don't disagree with your comments, and in fact, have been giving these same messages to printers for more than 15 years, as digital printing began to take hold in the market with the launch of the Xerox DocuTech in 1990. It has become even more critical in today's climate of multichannel communications. The interview with Ben Cooper was designed to get his opinion on the whole issue of Postal Reform, and it does just that without incorporating the opinions of the interviewer. In addition to VistaPrint, our recent interview with Terry Gill of Fetter Printing (January 26th on WhatTheyThink) was another great example of a printer that is taking the bull by the horns, so to speak. Fetter walked away from 40% of its revenue to focus on two key industries. When asked if he has been able to recoup any of that topline revenue, Gill said, "We haven’t recouped it in terms of top line sales, but we have made significant progress in recouping the value-added portion. Because our margins are so much better today, we don’t necessarily miss the top line revenue. We are doing much better with a smaller number at the top. Bigger isn’t always better, and we learned that lesson as well." A bold move from a printer who will likely be around through a myriad of postal and other reforms in the future. These are good examples for the printing community to study as they--hopefully--take a critical look at their own businesses.
Discussion
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