December 17, 2001 - CAP Ventures and WhatTheyThink.com have released December’s Print Buyer Pulse. The data is compiled monthly and helps industry executives understand demand trends right from the end user. Highlights for December: - Average print spend per respondent is $750,000 - 73% of these print buyers will purchase print in December - 80% of buyers spending over $250,000 annually will buy print in December - Over the next 6 months, 34% will increase their spending, 13% will decrease - Expected overall increase in spending in the next 6 months, 2.3% Charts and graphs are available at http://members.whattheythink.com/home/research121501.cfm Print Spending Plans for December The majority of print customers (73%) plan to purchase print in December. There was little difference by size of company (number of employees) in the plans to purchase print in December. However, companies with larger annual print budgets were much more likely to be purchasing print in December than companies with smaller budgets. Over 80% of companies that spend $250,000 or more per year on print plan to purchase print in December. Just over 50% of companies that spend $50,000 per year or less plan to purchase any print in December. Of those companies that plan to purchase print in December the mean planned spending for December was just over $25,000. However, there is a huge difference depending on the company’s annual print budget with companies that spend $1 million or more per year planning to spend nearly $95,000 in December. 6 Month Outlook – Is the Cup Half Full or Half Empty? CAP Ventures asked print customers to indicate whether they expected their print spending to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 6 months. We followed that question by asking what percent they expect their print spending to change over the next 6 months. The good news is that 34% of print customers expect their print spending to increase over the next 6 months; only 13% are planning on the print spending to decline, with the remaining 53% anticipating their level of print spending to stay the same. The optimists can say 87% of print customers expect their print spending to remain the same or increase. The pessimists can point out that 66% of customers expect their print spending to be flat or decline. Overall, printer customers’ outlook for their print spending over the next 6 months is to increase modestly (2.3%). Another important observation is that companies with big annual print budgets are more likely to indicate an increase over the next 6 months than companies with small budgets. Between 42% and 50% of companies spending $100,000 per year on print expect their print spending to increase over the next 6 months. The net increase for these companies is around 4%. Only 19% of companies with relatively low annual print spending (under $100,000) expect their print spending to grow the next 6 months. The net increase for these companies is essentially flat. The research suggests that demand for print market may be bottoming out and not continuing the significant declines that have characterized 2001. The data also suggests that large corporate customers will lead the way for growth in 2002. About WhatTheyThink.com: WhatTheyThink.com is the print and publishing industry’s leading online community. The company offers a mixture of free and subscription-based content for industry executives. Additionally, WhatTheyThink.com provides a robust content syndication program serving related web sites. For more information, visit www.whattheythink.com About CAP Ventures: CAP Ventures is a strategic consulting firm for providers and users of business communication technologies and services. We deliver key research, analysis, forecasting, benchmarking, and strategy recommendations to make a competitive difference in our clients’ businesses. www.capv.com