The Evolution of the Book Industry: Implications for U.S. Book Manufacturers and Printers, an I.T. Strategies study commissioned by Ricoh, concludes that offset and digital production printing of books will coexist for the foreseeable future. At the same time, though, I.T. Strategies predicts that few book manufacturers will be able to justify reinvestment in offset printing technologies and will have no choice but to invest in digital production printing systems (primarily inkjet) if they are to survive and grow share.  The study states, “The risk of sitting still and maintaining the status quo for offset book manufacturers is greater than adopting a production inkjet strategy.”

According to data acquired by I.T. Strategies, there has been a decline in printed book purchases since the 2008/2009 recession at about 4% to 5% annually. Orders for books are becoming smaller and more frequent, like much of the rest of the printing industry, but at the same time, more titles than ever are being introduced each year.  We have seen this movie before.  Once average run lengths fall below a certain level, it becomes much more economical to use digital production technologies, and that is exactly what is happening with books.  Blame it on fewer readers reading fewer books and a proliferation of electronic reading devices.

We visited with I.T. Strategies VP Marco Boer and Ricoh’s Worldwide Manager Inkjet Technologies, Mike Herold, to learn a little more about what they learned during this project.