Monthly Shipments Report Expanded to Include Canada and New Forecast Horizon to 2014

Lexington, KY - WhatTheyThink, the leading media organization serving the printing and publishing industry, today announced the availability of their most current report titled “North American Monthly Printing Shipments, Issue #40.” This issue marks the expansion of the report to include Canada monthly printing shipments and forecasts of both markets to 2014, as well. Other enhancements to the report, authored by Dr. Joe Webb, director of WhatTheyThink's Economics and Research Center, are planned throughout 2009. The newest report is available for immediate purchase at:

http://www.wttstore.com/monthly-us-printing-shipments.html

“January commercial printing shipments were $7.2 billion, down -7.5% compared to January of last year,” said Dr. Webb, director of WhatTheyThink's Economics and Research Center. “We closed 2008 with a difficult fourth quarterwhich was down -8.9% as retailers cut back on magazine advertising, catalogs, and newspaper inserts. Problems in the automotive and banking sectors, two of the industry's most important customer sectors, have not helped. It's hard to take comfort in things being 'less bad' than the prior period, but it appears we must, and prepare for harsh times.”

Dr. Webb explained that 2009 will continue to challenge the commercial printing industry. “There are companies that are doing well as they take advantage of weak competitors. There are reports of severe price cutting among printers. This is not always negative, but for those companies that do not have lower prices as their long term strategy and manage accordingly, this can be self-defeating. Being a low cost competitor requires skillful investment, superior financial management, and closer attention to workflows than competitors. Wal-Mart is registering profits now while their competitors are not, a tribute to a consistent and strategic investment in information technology and logistics. Printers, too, need to plan for these kinds of times with their investments to weather them better than their competitors.”

The North American Monthly Printing Shipments Report contains both current and inflation-adjusted analysis of commercial printing and print services shipments, and forecasts for 2009 through 2014. It is comprised of Adobe PDF, Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint files, and an MP3 file of audio commentary from Dr. Webb. The cost of the report is $50.00. Those purchasing the it can easily repurpose the charts and data in presentations, and reports.

The report contains significant and proprietary analysis and by Dr. Webb and WhatTheyThink's Economics and Research Center. It is a top-level analysis of the U.S. commercial printing and trade services markets such as commercial offset, digital, and other printing processes, as well as prepress and postpress contained in the standard business classification NAICS 323.

http://www.wttstore.com/monthly-us-printing-shipments.html

WhatTheyThink's Economics and Research Center contains a blend of free and premium content for graphic arts and publishing executives. It offers an online library of primary research reports, executive summaries of economic trends, and related industry columns, videos, podcasts and webinars.

The Economics and Research Center is exclusively sponsored by MindFireInc, a provider of software technologies that leverage direct marketing and the Internet.

About WhatTheyThink

WhatTheyThink is the printing and publishing industry's leading online media organization; offering a wide range of publications delivering unbiased, real-time market intelligence, industry news, economic and trend analysis, peer-to-peer communication, and special reports on emerging technology and critical events. Serving a membership base of more than 50,000, WhatTheyThink also hosts webinars and live events as well as providing content through a syndication program, which delivers content directly to related websites and through RSS. The organization also provides consulting and speakers bureau services to the industry.

About MindFireInc

Since 1999, MindFireInc has provided innovative applications and services that help marketers synchronize their direct mail campaigns with the Internet. MindFireInc's flagship product, LookWho'sClicking, is a web-based application suite that links the impact and power of direct mail with the interactive capabilities of the Internet. MindFireInc offers its product through a network of Value Added Resellers (VARs). The company's web site is www.mindfireinc.com.