Discussion

By Jonathan McGrew on Mar 03, 2009

I agree with you that the printing industry is a core industry and one that should be recognized for all of the parts it plays in the economy. As I mentioned in my recent article over at Outputlinks.com on the Youth in the Printing Industry, this is an industry the is in flux and will be around for a good long time. It may not be the same as it was 50 years ago, in the '80s or today, but it will be here. Nice article.

 

By Margie Dana on Mar 03, 2009

Bravo, Andy!!!!

Couldn't agree with you more. I am behind you all the way - ready to fight for this cause. Most people (at least here in the US) equate "printer" with a laser printer. Unbelievably misunderstood...that's the printing industry. It operates way below the radar.

 

By Joe Wagner on Mar 03, 2009

I also agree with your assessment of the public's pereception of Printing as an industry. We certainly need a public relations campaign to increase awareness. As individuals nothing will happen. There needs to be a grassroots effort by everyone in printing.

One quickly forgets the allied industries that are also connected with printing, specifically the paper industry

Let's not forget that the Graphic Design Professional Association, AIGA was started in 1914 by printers. That is an off shoot profession that gets more awareness than Printing. Simply, they make the effort.

 

By Erik Nikkanen on Mar 03, 2009

Is printing an industry? This is difficult to discuss, not because it is hard to make statements about it but because there is a lot of emotion involved. It is easy to see how people want to see printing as being important. It is understandable that people want to feed proud of their skills and knowledge and years of hard work. It is clear that people want others have a positive view of printing so that it will continue. But there is a tendency in the printing community to believe in Myths and the idea of printing as being an industry might be one of them.

Printing is a process for sure. Printing is a process, which is used in many industries. It is used in the publishing industries for producing newspapers and books. It is used in the food industry to decorate packaged food. It is used in several industries in order to advertise, market, produce and protect products. It is very valuable in what it does but it is not so important on its own. To think it is VERY important, is a Myth.

In the very past, printing was associated with the activity of publishing knowledge. It was the only way to distribute knowledge and that WAS important. Today things are different. There are lots of channels for knowledge to be distributed. Also there seems to be the tendency for printers to take some credit for that knowledge were in fact I don’t think that today, printers are generating much of the content. Someone else is writing the words or designing the images and printers are mainly reproducing them. People are not buying print for the print but for the content.

If printing is an industry it is a real hodgepodge of an industry. A small number of very large printers and a huge number of very small printers who have very little in common. Large printers that serve large entities. Mom and Pop printers which are family businesses serving a local community. I wonder if there is a “convenience store” industry.

Large industries invest large amounts of money in supporting and developing their processes and they invest in engineering both within their own organizations and at the top engineering schools. They take their processes seriously and are continually looking for ways to improve performance.

In the printing companies there will be hardly any engineers and many of the ones that call themselves engineers are really technologists from graphic arts schools. There is little investment in research and much of the research is of poor quality. The situation where this industry collectively has a poor understanding of the physics of its own processes is a testament to the abilities of the printing technical community.

There is also a strange attitude within the industry to not take risks. I have heard the same remark for years from printers and suppliers about a particular new technology or concept. They always ask, where is it being used? Or they will say, “Let me know when someone else is using it.” One could argue that small printers can not afford to take any risks but this attitude is not just limited to the small printer. It also resides in the small minded attitude of large printers and large suppliers. There is a sense of Smallness in printing and not a sense of Greatness.

Innovation within the industry is weak. Much of innovation comes from outside as a modification of processes used in other industries. One never hears about a printer that has built their own press technology which performs better than the state of the art. After about a 100 years or so, one would think that there would be more names of printers who developed printing technology. No they just sit there and seem to wait for it to be proved by someone else. If people love printing so much, one would think that they would risk a bit more to advance the process but that does not seem to happen.

I would say that printing is more of a process, one of many, that are used in different industries, but that is my personal view. Printing does not seem to have enough cohesive drive to call it an industry.

Trying to sell the importance of printing to the general public has to be done carefully. People will see through statements of self proclaimed importance that are not substantiated and view these efforts as being a desperate attempt by an industry in decline, wanting a bit more survival time. Well isn’t that what it actually is. If times were good for printers, they wouldn’t make such comments to the public.

Also the market will tell you if you are important. Believing in a myth of importance might feel good but if your business is going down the drain, then the market has made its view clear.

 

By Andy McCourt on Mar 03, 2009

Andy, I've been struggling with this for years, we are just a taken-for-granted industry. But, when you look at the Fortune list, printing is hidden in there all over as essential parts of the brands listed.
At number 5 we have Johnson&Johnson - where would their goods be without printed packaging? Same for #6 Procter&Gamble. #7 is FedEx - they own KInko's. Coke is #12 - everything they market is printed. At #13 Walt Disney - big publisher of books and magazines. IBM is 17 - they still have skin in the Infoprint game. 3M, a great company who I once had a close association with:Scotchbrand success depends 80% on print technologies and 20% on adhesive properties. #21 Pepsico - same for Coke. #27 UPS, active in print with its MBE franchises. Who's this at #30 - HP?? 'Nuff said. On it goes. Amex - statements and brochures at #28....
We are the phantoms of commerce, blithe spirits of another more ritzy world. We are used, abused and confused by every other industry. For paper dust we art and to paper dust we must return. We dwell in the Land of Nod, East of Eden; barred by flaming swords from partaking of the delicious fruits therein. And yet we are knowledge, or the means by which it is conveyed.
We are M&Ms - Media and Manufacturing. Talk about printing at a cocktail party and be alone. Talk about page 3 of this month's 'Hello!' or the new Dan Brown and the adoring crowds will flock around.
WTT is the closet we come to world fame, we are a club, a cadre of craftspeople who care about learning, entertainment, commerce, visual delights but, alas, like Cyrano de Bergerac, we will never be fully, universally recognised for our arts and contribution to mankind and never missed....until we are gone (which will never happen). I know my place.

 

By Michael J on Mar 03, 2009

It is the heritage of the black arts. Like very great designers of Print, they have done their best work when they are noticed least. The book is not supposed to call attention to itself. The truly great design is in the service of the word.

For so long, we've been bedazzled by the world of advertising and selling and marketing. Now it is moving to the internet. To which I, for one, say good riddance!

Now we can get back to the core value of print.

The most accessible, democratic media on the planet in the service of learning. With a history as old as civilization.

Printed information sits quietly on the page. Always available. No yelling. No nagging. The user controls the time. Information on paper plus a highlighter is the perfect tool for compare and contrast. Compare and contrast is how you learn to think.

We are like the restaurant industry. Mom and pops, new startups, chain restaurants, gourmet, hot dog stands (USA). Print is too embedded in real life and history to be captured in any simple concept.

Wall Street and Fortune mostly deal in very simple concepts. Lots of blah,blah,blah. Meanwhile, Printers go to work every day.

 

By Ryan on Mar 04, 2009

You're being quite delusional. Printing is just manufcturing. Fine you can argue about whether it's a service, or manuacturing, or a hybrid of both, but it's just a segment of general product manufacturing. Just like the guys that bottle hairspray and shampoo -- They just call themselves private-label product manufacturing. Or how about the fruit & dessert sauces & toppings industry? The ones that make every ounce of caramel for starbucks and put all the fruit in your yogurt and ice cream? That's a pretty huge industry. Yep, manufacturing. Sure, some manufacturers get their own classification, but that's usually only when there's dozens of multi-billion multinational corporations in it. Let's see, in printing, I can count the number of those companies on one hand.

Really, are newspapers in the same industry as packagers? Just because they happen to use a piece of equipment that works on a similar concept? That's like saying lumber manufacturers are in the same industry as hockey stick makers. They have absolutely nothing in common except wooden sticks, and packaging and newspapers have nothing in common except for an impression cylinder.

And really, there's not even a 'printing segment' of the manufacturing industry, any more than there's a 'mill segment' (Paper? Steel? Puppy? Who cares, they're all mill-based, so they're all in the same industry, right?). That aggregation of every company that has a piece of equipment that uses ink is baloney, and Forbes is smart enough to realize it. How about we just realize what we are: a commoditized manufacturing industry that in reality is a support industry. It's a support industry because printing is never the end-game. It's to print this book, to advertise that campaign, to disseminate this news, etc.

What our industry needs is education and lean manufacturing, not delusions of grandeur.

 

By Michael J on Mar 04, 2009

In defense of my delusional viewpoint:

I agree that the last thing printers need is a PR campaign trumpeting how great we are. I also agree that what printers need is education and lean manufacturing based on real science and smart management. Your point about dozens of multi-nationals is right on point.

But "Just manufacturing" is where we part ways. It reminds me of my designer customers who used to ask "Why can't you just. . ."

The issue is not how the world defines print, but how printers give meaning to what they are doing as they earn an living. Different people use different frameworks.

Here's what I'm trying to say. The "food industry" includes the family meal, my local Chinese restaurant, McDonald's Lutece,and the catering services for events.

Every enterprise is different, with different constraints and incentives.

But they are all united by the fact that it's about earning a living by feeding people.

The way I see it, print can be seen as food for the mind. Ideas, emotions, messages, information that are invisible, become visible once rendered in print. Once visible they can be communicated.

To me, it moves print from a "nice to have" to a "must have" to increase knowledge in human civilization. It makes me feel much better about spending 30 years being a printer. So it's the story I like to tell myself.

 

By Dr Joe Webb on Mar 04, 2009

There are times we in the printing industry lament our lot in life and start whining about a lack of appreciation. It turns out that every industry can do that.

Remember, banks are well known, and look at what that's gotten them. The Post Office is well known. Does that mean we hold them in higher regard?

I wrote a bit about this almost three years ago...
http://pfcperspective.blogspot.com/2006/04/hidden-industry.html

I still recommend Leonard Read's classic "I, Pencil." Though a bit dated now, the underlying points are not so.
http://fee.org/library/books/i-pencil-2/

 

By Michael J on Mar 04, 2009

Gentlemen,

This thread really got me thinking. My short story is "It all depends how you look at it. If you are seeing an integrated infrastructure that outputs Print, the outlines of the emerging Print Industry are becoming more clear every day."

The long story is at my blog at in a post that is called. Is there a Print Industry? Not Yet, But Soon.
http://toughloveforxerox.blogspot.com/2009/03/is-there-print-industry-not-yet-but.html

 

By Michael J on Mar 04, 2009

Gentlemen,

This thread really got me thinking. My short story is "It all depends how you look at it. If you are seeing an integrated infrastructure that outputs Print, the outlines of the emerging Print Industry are becoming more clear every day."

The long story is at my blog in a post that is called. Is there a Print Industry? Not Yet, But Soon.
http://toughloveforxerox.blogspot.com/2009/03/is-there-print-industry-not-yet-but.html

 

By Patrick Henry on Mar 04, 2009

A good way to begin would be to restrain some of our own rhetoric on the industry that many of us seem to have fallen into the habit of bashing. By “we” I mean we, the punditocracy—those of us whose writings regularly appear in outlets like this one.

When we say that we do young people a disservice by trying to recruit them for careers in conventional production, we undermine the credibility of the industry more than any snub by Fortune ever could.

When we imply that technical improvements on the offset side don’t matter because tomorrow belongs to digital, we moot the entire question of what kind of manufacturing printing represents.

When we upbraid print equipment manufacturers about their financial strategies and second-guess their commitments to R&D, we drag the industry in a direction opposite to the one in which it needs to go.

More p.r. campaigns? Please. Let’s start with attitude adjustments on the parts of those who offer themselves as the industry’s thought leaders. We don’t need to unleash p.r. campaigns nearly as much as we need to remember where our livelihoods come from and our loyalties ought to lie.

 

By Brad on Mar 04, 2009

Our "industry" is communication, printing is now one of many communication channels.

 

By Pat Berger on Mar 04, 2009

We are preaching to the choir in this thread.

Its the users of our services that we need to inform.

What are there options without us?

 

By Anne Stewart on Mar 04, 2009

The printing industry tends to be invisible because it's so integrated into the fabric of everyday life. A lack of printing is just an absence - a political candidate you never hear about, a movie you don't go to see, a concert you never know you missed, a trip you don't take, a protest that just looks like a random crowd of people, milling around on the street...

What we have to do is draw attention to our presence and influence. I try to do this every day on my blog at http://www.hotcards.com/blog, showing how print matters to politics, to unions, to the environment, to film, music, fashion, the list goes on, but I'm sad to say that not many people care (present company excluded, of course).

Getting active on the web is just the beginning. What we need is to come together as a community, share stories, and build ideas together. Figure out what Xerox and a small letterpress house have in common, rather than what divides them. That's what will turn us into a strong, noticeable industry.

 

By Bill Ruesch on Mar 04, 2009

If you think printers are invisible try being a broker. Not only do many printers treat us like a hiss and a byword, but the Federal Government doesn't even have a SIC number for us. In an effort to stamp out my invisibility I write a blog called Talking Through My Hat. Come around and see me at www.billprintbroker.com.

 

By Ryan on Mar 05, 2009

I will give you that printing is a 'must have' industry. I hadn't thought of it before, but your description Michael J made me realize we're a bandwidth deliverer, similar to AT&T & Verizon. We don't own or create the content, but we deliver it. Similarly, however, they are considered commoditized industries, which much smaller profit margins than enjoyed by most of the content creators.

However, you're a little off when it comes to food. What we really have is the agriculture industry, the food processing industry, the foodservice industry (all wholesale products sold to restaurants), and the retail food industry, which can be subdivided into the restaurant industry and the retail food products industry (sold at supermarkets). I would argue that if someone's job knowledge in one of the above industries doesn't help them in one of the other industries, then they truly are different industries. Thus a frozen peach manufacturer probably wouldn't run a successful restaurant with their existing knowledge.

This is my point about the print industry. Sure, P&G, Kinko's, Coke, etc. all have a press somewhere that puts ink on something. But that doesn't put them in the same industry, nor is there somehow a phantom link between that press operator and the other press operator that puts them in the same industry. Repeat after me: These are DIFFERENT INDUSTRIES. Just because they have buildings that have cement pads and are wired for electricity, it doesn't mean they're in the construction, cement pouring, or floor covering industries. A press is simply a tool for them, like many other tools they have. It is a MEANS TO AN END, not the end itself.

For those of us that just print print print, all we do is print, and print is the end and not the means, yes, that's different. We are our own little industry. But until we start selling household products and cola, we can't put ourselves in the same industries as P&G and Coca-Cola.

I'm not saying it's unimportant, or even arguing that printing has not revolutionized the world. I'm just saying that at this point, print is essentially a commoditized delivery system, and it's such a commodity that it's been incorporated into other companies internally, just like IT, advertising, etc. And that makes it a much smaller industry than it used to be.

 

By Michael J on Mar 05, 2009

Ryan,

Exactly!

When you say ".. it’s such a commodity that it’s been incorporated into other companies internally, just like IT,..."

Here's how I think about it. Print is a commodity business. The better the tech, the more automated, the more commoditzied. All the talk about fighting being a commodity never made any sense to me. It was a loser from day one.

But, commodity, if you have lean manufacturing and a maniacal focus on your market is a great business.

Computers and chips are commodities. Electricity is a commodity. Water and sewer are commodities.
Walmart and Staples sell commodities. When run correctly a Printer as commodity has a nice rules based, standard process business that hums quietly along whether the economy goes up or down.

Re the food business, I agree that trying to fit the complexity of real life into a simple category is a fool's errand. Perfect job for Wall Street.

But here's how I think it's like the food business,

there is MacDonalds and Dunkin Donuts - multi location commodity companies - (Alphagraphics? Staples? Sir Speedy?) -

there are niche higher priced restaurants (Mohawk Paper? + Sandy Alexander?),

There are mom and pop run successful, but very hard working local restaurants (Highlighter Press? and the surviving independent printers?).

Then there are the caterers for enterprises (in house plants) and the school lunch providers (Managed Print Services?

And of course, my favorite food type :-), "take out" VistaPrint and MFP's in home and work group situations.

It seems that the big boys - the vendors - are starting to see that they are the enabling infrastructure for a diverse, expanding "food-type" business. HP + MarketSplash + Staples and Tesco + Indigos at Conslidated.

VistaPrint with 17,000,000 customers for take out.

Alphagraphics in NJ installing ink jet newspaper press for deliver and Print of UK newspapers. And Alphagraphics on the west coast with a sophisticated commercial print piece.

 

By Paul Carney on Mar 05, 2009

Printing is a stealth industry. As has been said, we (printers) are incorporated in everyday life, and not really looked at as a stand alone industry. From Ben Franklin's first franchise print shop to todays VDP in your mail box, we have evolved and will continue. I expect printing to be different when the world economy begins recovering. Moving from the 'print shop' to a part of the 'Plan', we will change continually with all our clients needs, not ours. Update, educate and remain competitive, will be challenges. What, you've heard that before?

 

By Michael J on Mar 05, 2009

Just to get some perspective on invisible industries..I found this at wikipedia..

Foodservice sales to restaurants and institutions are estimated to be approximately $400 Billion, about equal with consumer sales of foods through grocery outlets. The foodservice industry is one of the largest employers in the United States.

 

By J on Mar 05, 2009

Why is our industry always on the defensive? It seems that we are myopic in our understanding of the greater economy and what exactly we do to contribute to GDP. First, if you view yourself as a 'printer' in the 'printing industry,' than that's exactly what you are...and I'll bet you'll be frustrated just like Andrew in failing to get a "honorable mention" in Forbes.

Andrew states..."Its about time we as printers fought back to get people to recognize the printing is one of the world’s core industries. Without printing almost no other industry would exist. Printing is one of the world’s vital and most significant industries so why is it so unrecognized. It is about time we fought back."

I say, WHO CARES? Don't waste your time trying to VALIDATE what you do and who you are...JUST DO IT! Spend your time and energy into transforming your organization in the new economy and forget about LABELS.

As has been said before, (and before that) we as an industry need to think much BIGGER & BROADER to accurately define what it is we do. The word "communications" or "media" come to mind. Would it be so bad if you defined the industry you're in at "communications" or "media?" Now beyond the description, what are you doing about your business to fit this?

Bottom line = stop looking in the rear view mirror and start looking forward...for this is where the solutions are.

J

 

By David S on Mar 06, 2009

Here is an idea.
Promote your "industry" through your medium.
I am sure Kodak or Xerox could do that for you with a good 1:1 campaign

 

By Erik Nikkanen on Mar 07, 2009

“We don’t need to unleash p.r. campaigns nearly as much as we need to remember where our livelihoods come from and our loyalties ought to lie.”

I am a mechanical engineer and I consider myself being one who has worked in manufacturing industries where there happened to be printing processes. I do not consider myself to be in the printing industry. In fact I have felt that I am not welcomed in the printing industry. So personally I do not make my livelihood from or owe any loyalties to a “printing industry”.

What I am very much interested in is the printing process. My loyalties, if there are any, are to improve what I find is wrong with the process. I started to look at the process in 1984 when I joined a company that printed liquid food packaging on board. Right from the start, I looked at the process with respect to understanding the density control problem in offset printing, since it was the most critical problem that needed to be solved if one was going to obtain consistent and predictable production and with very short set ups. It was a SMED view.

Over twenty years ago, I understood the fundamental cause of ink/water balance density variation. In the early 1990’s the theory was confirmed on press. In 1997, I explained the problem in a TAGA paper.

I have invented a very inexpensive technology to correct the fundamental cause of ink water balance density variation which is also critical in order to obtain predictability in the process. I got a US patent in 2005 and about a year ago I got a Canadian patent.

I have given up on printers wanting to do anything new and am mainly looking at press manufacturers as a potential customer for this technology. As I have said before, press manufacturers would prefer to go bankrupt before they would try anything new or different, so the chances are not so good that fundamental change will come to the process.

So I look at the industry as an outsider. I see that there are critical problems in the process that can be corrected without too much expense but that there is no imagination by the industry groups to think about it. I find this very strange but at every level of this industry there are excuses made to not think about these kinds of improvements.

Year after year, the industry complains about the critical problem of density control and ink water balance but will not listen when someone says it has been solved. They can only believe it when there is a commercial technology in front of their face. Until then they can not image any possibilities.

Getting back to the topic of promoting the industry, one has to think this is a waste of time. The industry situation is not the problem. The problem is where one stands within an industry. It has always been the issue. The whole industry can not be saved even though printing will survive. The loyalty of individuals maybe is better placed in how they can improve the chances of their company’s survival as opposed to anyone else. This is called competition.

The implication is that we should not be critical of the industry. I would say that one of the major problems in the industry is that they are not self critical enough of how they do business and how their technologies perform.

Economic times are bad and that just has made things worse but some of the problems offset printer have are due to their own collective disinterest in process improvement. By not being critical enough of the process, this has opened the door for other processes to gain some footing. Flexo has taken more packaging business and now digital presses are threatening to take over small offset business. Once other technologies take away business, it is much harder to get it back.

I will still wait for the pain to increase at some press manufacturer where they get to the point where they will try anything. Hopefully before bankruptcy.

 

By Erik Nikkanen on Mar 07, 2009

I would also like to add that the problem of ink/water balance and density control is THE critical problem in the process and has always been.

Even though this problem has been stated by others as being the most critical, all groups and movements have shown no interest in the potential solution.

Printers, press manufacturers, suppliers of ink and chemical, technical organizations, graphic arts schools and industry associations, Green printing environmentalists, Lean Manufacturing proponents and gurus, all have not shown any interest. How can that be?

 

By carlos almeida on Mar 09, 2009

This situation,printing industry being ignored by goverments and industrial statistics, is the same in Mexico. We do not have any reliable statistic and we are not considered in any govermente program.
We recently went on a business trip to some countries in Asia, and we discovered that they have the same problem.
Apart from printing, We have to be more in the political field. I would like to see an ex-printing man/woman as a senator

 

By Marty Olson on Mar 11, 2009

Clearly there's an identity problem, inside and outside the industry. It's something that PIA and local trade groups (such as PIM) could take a closer look at trying to fix.

The Internet has changed how companies manage documents, content, and customer relationships. Some of this has eliminated printing. However, there is still the need for digital content management. Printers are taking a more proactive role in partnering with their business customers to provide this service. They know that evolving to serve their customers is the best way to stay in business. This is a story that needs to be told, and better public relations would most certainly help.

 

By Paul Borkowski on Mar 12, 2009

All well said but this is basically the preacher talking to the choir. Our strength, as an industry, is the vital service we provide in the active employment of millions of people in high quality manufacturing jobs. We are a solid industry that needs highly skilled, intelligent individuals who are proud to manufacture a vital product.

The fact that the product is now made from recycled material and is recyclable puts us in the fore front of the green economy. Can solar panels and wind mills make this claim?

We reuse 90% of our solvents and use vegetable based inks. At least here in Loveland, Coloado we do.

We, as printers, need to support the PIA so this message gets out to President Obama and he realizes how important we are in the new economy and how many Americans depend on this key manufacturing industry every day.

We will not outsource the design, press check, fulfillment, mailing, personalization, quick turn capabilities of the process.

Again, we sell marketing communications but our industry cannot market itself to our own government. Shameful.

 

By Michael J on Mar 12, 2009

@ Paul,

How about instead of depending on PIA to get this message, why doesn't every printer call his Congressman. Give him/her a specific request for a specific amount of money to do a specific thing.

Since the next couple of months is going to be a huge money grab, I think the best approach is to go bottom up.

If the congressman is too far away, how about the State Senator or the Local Councilman or whoever you can get in contact with in the government.

Thoughts?

 

By Michael J on Mar 12, 2009

@ Marty,
You're right but. We have to face the fact that document management is not a trivial task. From what I've seen, the idea that most printers have the capability to be best in class, doesn't seem realistic.

Better might be to get in touch with seasoned experienced people and figure out how to make joint sales.

Of course there are some outfits that already have the expertise. But if they do, they are already probably doing it.

 

By Uncle Dave on Mar 13, 2009

Terrific discussion.
However I agree with comment: "this is basically the preacher talking to the choir". Keep in mind ... There is a reason for the preacher having to talk to the choir:)

How many printers participate on Twitter?

 

By Madjid Khosravi on Mar 15, 2009

I suppose printing simultaneously has three contents Art, Media and Industry.
In these years in shadow of new electronical and mechanical technologies, its industrial content develops more than the other contents.
Although many refuse to accept it as an industry, Printing in this century is not only a core industry but also a key part of all industries and trade.

 

By Michael J on Mar 17, 2009

My question is how many printers have a super efficent lights out production system?