December 4, 2008 - Lexington, KY - WhatTheyThink, the leading online media organization serving the printing and publishing industry, today announced the availability of their most current report titled "Monthly U.S. Printing Shipments, Issue #37." Authored by Dr. Joe Webb, director of WhatTheyThink's Economics and Research Center, the report is available for immediate purchase at:

www.wttstore.com/monthly-us-printing-shipments.html

"October commercial printing shipments were $8.8 billion, down -$627 million (-6.6%) compared to October 2007," said Dr. Webb, director of WhatTheyThink's Economics and Research Center. "October has traditionally been the center of the strongest three-month period in commercial printing's year. The economic slowdown and the shift to other media have reduced the demand for print as retailers shift to direct mail, smaller catalogs, and downsized campaigns."

He noted that declines in newspaper circulation affect the volume of newspaper inserts that are printed by commercial printers, and that magazine ad pages are down as well. "There are still print businesses that are defying the odds with new technology offerings and emphasis on total communications management. Our most recent surveys show that one quarter of U.S. commercial printers are beating the inflation rate and are expanding their businesses."

Dr. Webb's complete outlook for the industry and the economy will be delivered at his quarterly economic webinar on Wednesday, December 10. "We have updated our forecasting models with these latest data, and look forward to presenting our forecasts based on these data."

The Monthly U.S. Printing Shipments Report contains both current and inflation-adjusted analysis of commercial printing and print services shipments, and forecasts for the remainder of 2008 and 2009 through 2013. It is comprised of Adobe PDF, Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint files, and an MP3 file of audio commentary from Dr. Webb. The cost of the report is $50.00. Those purchasing the it can easily repurpose the charts and data in presentations, and reports.

The report contains significant and proprietary analysis and by Dr. Webb and WhatTheyThink's Economics and Research Center. It is a top-level analysis of the U.S. commercial printing and trade services markets such as commercial offset, digital, and other printing processes, as well as prepress and postpress contained in the standard business classification NAICS 323.

www.wttstore.com/monthly-us-printing-shipments.html

WhatTheyThink's Economics and Research Center contains a blend of free and premium content for graphic arts and publishing executives. It offers an online library of primary research reports, executive summaries of economic trends, and related industry columns, videos, podcasts and webinars.

The Economics and Research Center is exclusively sponsored by MindFireInc, a provider of software technologies that leverage direct marketing and the Internet.