For twenty-five years I have been involved in the printing and advertising business. I have seen the highest and best of times and I have also lived through some of the slower periods of our industry. Nothing has ever been at the level we appear to be now.

The economy has taken a severe blow in the last year and in that time there has been a steady decline in the marketing budgets of many large and small companies. When the marketing budgets take a hit, the people who are Print Production Professionals also take a hit.

The number of people I know who are out searching a new employment opportunity is staggering. Every week I hear of another compatriot in need of a position.

As you know, I am also looking and this is shaping up to be a long hard trek.

I know of 5 advertising agencies that have cut staff dramatically over the last year. At some of these shops the cuts were done all at once. At others, the pain lingered as they went through a few waves of small to medium cuts. These cuts are across the board... production; creative, marketing, financial and human resource departments are all targets for these rollbacks.

For those of us who have specialized in printing that moves through the mail, the times are even more frightening. We have to deal with decreasing budgets and now are hit with this Anthrax scare. Let me also tell you that I live in the Princeton, NJ area. Our mail travels through the Trenton Post Office recently effected. Our mail has slowed to a trickle. We get one or two pieces per day.

As I talk to friends still employed, I hear campaigns are being put on hold; some even canceled totally. The American public is frightened of their mail. I have friends whom only collect their mail once a week. They wear masks and gloves when opening the mail and the only mail opened are bills and personal correspondence from those they know. The rest never even makes it into their home.

I read recently that Honda Motor began a mailing to 89,000 potential customers in Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio. The mailing was an offer to pay the first month’s loan or lease payment. The package contained a packet contained a brown granular substance. The substance rattled when the envelope was shaken. Now remember all those warnings on the television recently about envelopes that rattle with a "substance". In this case, the packet was ground coffee to illustrate their campaign of "Have a cup of coffee on us!"

The campaign was created this summer, well before our current state of affairs.

In addition, Nissan North America began a mailing of 200,000 pieces recently. The package contained a prescription bottle with an "Rx" on the outer envelope. All part of the Nissan "cure for the common car" campaign. After the initial mailing Nissan received some complaint calls. The campaign was halted with about a quarter of the mailing left on the letter shop floor.

So far, I have not seen anything from the DMA on this threat. Isn’t it time a cooperative effort is put into place to combat this threat?

This is what we are dealing with in our industry today.

How can it be worse?

Well there are ways. I truly believe we are all in this together and if we begin to snip at each other, our industry will take an even bigger hit.

As I said before budgets are being slashed, but does that justify a large publishing concern forcing the renegotiation and slashing of contracted printing by 25%?

Another large firm has just told their print vendors they are tearing up all existing contracts and that it is time to "sharpen those pencils."

I empathize with these companies needing to cut costs, but to force your "partners" to take drastic cuts does not help anyone.

What happened to partnering and working together to make everyone successful? It seems that the printers out there are going to truly begin to learn that "stuff flows downhill."

What is going to damage our industry more...the recession, the threats, or the pounding into submission the vendors we have always depended upon?

I, for one, hope we can all group together, make the public feel safer, and find ways to keep costs in check that will allow all concerned to remain solvent.

How are you handling these times? Write and let me know.

The more we communicate, the better we will be at our careers.