As we begin 2004, the not-so-subtle reshaping of the printing industry continues unabated. Our only constant is change.

The depth and breadth of this change on each industry segment, market, customer and printer is not completely clear. What is clear, globally, is that most print-based business opportunities are increasingly linked to digital imaging or messaging in some form or fashion. Traditional print products and manufacturing systems, particularly those involving lithography, are slowly being reduced or downsized in some way. We are in a classic paradigm shift.

The printing industry is a mature industry struggling to re-invent itself. For printers, there is a dark side-light side scenario here: Companies that are not flexible, innovative or knowledge-based would lean toward the dark side, while printers that take an innovative, dynamic view would tend to be on the light side. Dark side printers will survive for a while, but will experience increasingly fewer business options as time passes and will ultimately go out of business, be acquired or merge with a surviving light side company.