Five years or more ago, The Eagle wrote that printers were having trouble migrating from being a craft industry to a print factory, and that in order to survive they needed to morph once again into communications companies. Many seem to still be having trouble selling print as part of the marketing communications mix and performing more of the "mix" for their customers, from what we see. They sell "print" at a competitive price and not much more. Now, Andy Tribute, in Tribute Tuesdays on February 14, suggested that printers have missed another boat. The new interloper is called "logistics" and when done well, it is taking another bite out of the print market by providing print and distribution together. According to Tribute:

"What is apparent is the way the corporate world is dealing with document production and distribution. Such documents today are not just transactional documents, but all forms of information generated within the "enterprise." It appears more and more that commercial printers are getting further away from their potential customers. It now appears that logistics, the means of distribution of the document, is as important as the production of the document."

Tribute writes that companies, such as FedexKinko's, known for their store front digital print centers, also have large outsourcing arms. They take print away from the traditional printer by doing a better job at three tasks (rather than one), distribution and print management and print. Not noted in this article is Banta, another traditional printer that has successfully branched out and grown, but nowhere in its Corporate Mission Statement does it mention print. These are two large "printers" that have succeeded in learning how to grow in the current print world. We don't need to talk to them. We focus on those who still cling to the belief that as the economy gets better they will once again start to grow.