The broad brush generalization: Print 17 was better than expected if you’re in the digital printing and workflow production business, and also binding and finishing that’s tied to digital output. In many cases all of that was all in one booth! I’m certain there were exceptions, because all generalizations are that way.

But this is not a generalization: the industry is changing, and it always is. This time, there’s a twist. The best companies making new investments are not the biggest ones. Selling technology to small and mid-size businesses has always been challenging for industry suppliers. There are credit risks galore in print businesses with less than 100 employees, some real and some imagined. The dynamic tension between those risks and suppliers that need to book sales, usually means that the suppliers have to assume those financial risks. This isn’t new: this is why “click charges” for copiers began decades ago, because they shifted financial risk from the buyers who were skittish about the investment to the sellers who needed placements to expand the marketplace. It usually worked out well in the end. Printers traded margins for financial risk reduction.

The print markets are shifting to shorter run specialty products where value added is higher but the volumes may not be large. A direct marketing printer, for example, proves its value by data management and implementation in a manner that mitigates rising postal costs. Shorter run work means more jobs are needed to keep revenues and gross profits at needed levels. These pressures are the kind that create production specialization where large numbers of low volume orders are consolidated into a small number of production locations. That’s easier to do today with modern communications and the always-improving ground and air logistics infrastructure.