Issue 2 available now!

Last year, WhatTheyThink, the graphic communication industry’s leading news and information resource, launched the WhatTheyThink Quarterly Journal, an online publication designed to provide in-depth commentary and analysis on printing industry trends. Every quarter, the Quarterly takes a deep dive into the various aspects of a single topic. The Quarterly Journal is a standalone publication on the WhatTheyThink platform, with content written specifically for the Journal. Contributors to the Quarterly Journal include expert contributors from both inside and outside the industry as well as WhatTheyThink’s regular stable of writers and analysts.

Issue 2 of the 2026 edition of the Quarterly—online now—is called “The Total Label Issue,” and is all about—yes—labels. A few of the long-form articles in Issue 2 include:

  • The current lay of the land and how “Technology and Markets Keep Opportunities Coming.”
  • An up-and-coming (or up-and-came, depending whom you ask) technology is direct-to-object (DTO) printing, and while it is not new, it’s starting to appear in the industry zeitgeist. But is DTO a threat to label printing—or does it present its own new and unique set of opportunities? (Also be sure to register for the accompanying webinar on June 2.)
  • We often hear the phrase “supply chain.” But what does that mean, and what is the “connected supply chain” in the context of label converters?
  • There are of course different kinds of labels that serve different purposes. And for many print providers, labels are not thought of as a print job, but, rather, as an enterprise data problem. Pat McGrew and Ryan McAbee take a look at “Labels as Data: The Software Stack Behind Automated Label Production.”
  • In this quarter’s installment of “Cool Tools,” Mary Schilling looks at the SnapPress LP-1, a high-quality, nimble, portable, and shop-friendly label solution.
  • And much more. 

Previous Quarterly issues include:

The Keeping Up Appearances Issue (Q1 2026)

The AI Reality Check (Q1 2025)

The Total Package Issue (Q2 2025)

The Intelligent Automation Issue (Q3 2025)

The Leadership Issue (Q4 2025)

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Become a WhatTheyThink member at https://whattheythink.com/join/.  

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