PARAMUS, N.J., SEPT. 14, 2004 – The Printing Business Index (PBI) of the National Association for Printing Leadership (NAPL), the Association’s broadest measure of print activity, was 56.3 in July 2004. This marks the 13th straight month that the index has been above the critical 50.0 mark—the point at which more printers report activity is picking up than report activity is slowing down. “The fact that the PBI has remained above 50.0 for more than a year is a strong indication that the developing turnaround is sustainable,” said Andrew Paparozzi, NAPL vice president and chief economist, noting that “immediately prior to these consecutive positive readings, the index had been below 50.0 for eight straight months. During the 32 months beginning November 2000—the approximate onset of the downturn—the PBI was below 50.0 for 27 of those months.” The economic analysis comes from NAPL’s Printing Economic Research Center (PERC). The PBI combines input from NAPL’s Printing Business Panel about work-on-hand, current business conditions, expected business conditions (confidence), hiring plans, profitability, and other key indicators into a single measure of activity. The NAPL Printing Business Panel is a representative group of more than 300 printers that the Association surveys monthly on a range of key printing issues. Since the same companies are surveyed every time, data are strictly comparable from period to period.