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Restructuring at Printing Industries of America

As we all know, our industry continues to change and evolve. Just as printing and media companies must adjust to new and often challenging realities, so too must the trade associations that represent them.

We recognize that Printing Industries of America should reflect and adapt successfully to rapid changes in our industry and we are taking strong and deliberate steps to respond to current industry conditions, while staying true to our core mission statement.

Recently, Printing Industries of America announced a major restructuring in the model for its delivery of technical training. Whereas once we had the luxury to maintain a state-of-the-art facility for hands-on technical training, the business realities of today have made this model unsustainable from a financial perspective, particularly as fewer and fewer companies have availed themselves of such hands-on, equipment-focused learning.

In an age where more and more individuals are learning through online sources, our training model must reflect and embrace this new paradigm.

We are thrilled to announce that in 2014 Printing Industries of America will introduce a new online training platform that will offer top-notch training for our members without requiring them to spend hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in travel costs to Pittsburgh. Offering distance training allows us to be more nimble in our educational content development, providing timely courses on cutting edge technologies.

We will, of course, continue to offer classroom style learning and face-to-face networking opportunities through our Continuous Improvement and Color Management Conferences and the Print Leadership Summit. And vendors within our industry have also graciously offered their training facilities going forward for hands-on equipment training.

Just as organizations must adapt to new technologies, they must also accept current market conditions and operate within their means. To sustain a viable organization going forward, Printing Industries of America has had to right-size its staff complement, not unlike many of you have had to introduce within your own companies. It is true we will be a smaller organization going forward, but our commitment to our core service offerings will remain unchanged. We will continue to be represented in Washington with a government affairs presence, maintain our economic research for the industry from market surveys to ratio benchmarks, continue to offer expertise in the environmental, health, and safety arena, and continue to provide human resources assistance and educational offerings.

While our business model going forward will no longer include the presence of capital equipment for training at our facility, Printing Industries of America is by no means vacating its presence as a technology leader for the industry. In addition to the aforementioned online training platform, we will continue to offer a toll-free technical hotline, unbiased research and commentary on the latest technologies impacting the industry through white papers, case studies and our monthly Tech Alert Publication, conflict resolution services with our lab, and technical consulting.

We believe that multi-channel marketing and cross-media strategies will be critically important to the future of the industry and as such will continue to expand The Integrated Print Center to keep our members current on integrated marketing communication trends, tools and techniques through hands-on applications, online video training series, learning management systems, reports and relevant information feeds.

Change is never easy but we must embrace it to move forward. The restructuring of your national association was responsible and necessary. I am confident the committed and professional team of men and women serving this organization will embrace the change and move forward excited with the opportunities to come. Thank you for your continue support of the organization.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions at is 1-800-910-4283 (ext. 777)

Michael Makin, MBA

President & CEO