NEW YORK, NY -- August 1, 2002 -- The latest survey and analysis of the publishing industry by TrendWatch Graphic Arts reveals a healthy optimism by publishing executives addressing the near future. Yet this is not without an equally keen focus upon economic conditions for which 70% report as their "top business challenge." The economy became publishers' top business challenge a year ago and hasn't budged since. However, the level of concern seems to have eased a bit. According to the report, 13% less (70% this year vs. 83% last year) reported "economic conditions" as their top business challenge and 13% less (56% to 69%) selected "national economic conditions" number one. The subscription report, titled "TrendWatch Graphic Arts Publishing #13, Summer 2002" was made available today as the first of two annual publishing reports. For more information, please visit the TWGA website (http://www.trendwatchgraphicarts.com). Researcher's Quote... "Business conditions remained virtually unchanged from our last survey," noted Vince Naselli, Director, TrendWatch Graphic Arts. "For example, 14% of respondents experienced excellent business conditions, compared to 13% last time, and 45% experienced OK conditions, unchanged from six months ago. Looking forward, however, there's much greater optimism than we saw six months ago. Back then, only 15% expected business in the coming year to be excellent. This doubled to 30% this time. In addition, half as many expect poor business conditions [12% compared to 24%]." According to the report... -- PLANNED INVESTMENTS: With budgets remaining tight in most publishing establishments, the top two planned investments are software. First is desktop publishing software such as QuarkXPress(r) or Adobe InDesign(tm), cited by a record high 59% of respondents, followed by desktop photo-manipulation software such as Adobe Photoshop(tm), cited by 50% (also an all-time high); -- APPLE GOOD: Good news for Apple. Macintosh workstations, as planned investments, rebounded with 49% of respondents saying they'll buy one in the next 12 months, up from an all-time low of 42% six months ago; -- DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY: A full 57% of publishers currently own digital cameras; 28% plan to buy them in the next year. The most commonly owned digital cameras are prosumer models that cost greater than $500. These models are also the type of digital camera that respondents are most likely to buy in the next year. The most popular application for digital cameras is final high-resolution images for print advertising (56%), followed by low-resolution images for Web pages (42%). -- STOCK PHOTOS: Royalty-free digital stock photography took a hit this time: 41% plan to buy it, down from 47% six months ago. This is the second lowest level we've seen in this history of our surveys, beat only by the 38% recorded in June 1997; -- CROSS-MEDIA UP: Cross-media publishing is far more common than our previous surveys have indicated. Almost two thirds of respondents (61%) work on cross-media projects/campaigns that involve reusing the same images and text in print, the Internet, and possibly other forms of output, and published simultaneously. In addition, 49% said that cross-media publishing is strategic to their business survival. Availability... "TrendWatch Graphic Arts Publishing #13, Summer 2002" is available for purchase by contacting TrendWatch Graphic Arts by phone at (866-873-6310) or email ([email protected]). The price for the annual 2-report subscription is $6000. The second report is the Publishing Winter Report and is annually available in December. For more information please email TWGA at [email protected].