Lexington, KY - WhatTheyThink, the leading online media organization serving the printing and publishing industry, today announced the availability of their most current report titled “North American Monthly Printing Shipments, Issue #48.” This report is available for immediate purchase at:

https://store.whattheythink.com/monthly-u-s-printing-shipments

“September commercial printing shipments were nearly $7.5 billion, down -10.8% compared to September of last year. September is the first of what are commercial printing's biggest three-month period, with catalog, retail, and advertising printing boosted by the holiday shopping season,” said Dr. Webb, director of WhatTheyThink's Economics and Research Center. “There are many reasons for the change in print's seasonality, but this one has been evolving for years, and can't be attributed to recessionary forces, no matter how tempting that might be,” he noted. Shipments had not been below $8 billion in a September since 1994.

Forecasts of corporate advertising spending for the next few years indicate little change from current levels, but a massive re-allocation of the dollars in those spending plans. Traditional advertising formats have been giving way to public relations, social media, and many other media that have lower production cost, and often have greater reach.

Dr. Webb portrayed the commercial printing industry situation as follows: “The communications market is so dynamic, that the guidelines for media selection and deployment are being revised every day. We know that, in most cases, print can work alongside the newest communications media to make strategies more effective and efficient. It's up to each printing business to join in this communications chaos with new ideas, compelling services, and creative approaches directed to individual client objectives. Printers must demonstrate their competence in new media by using these media in their own businesses.”

The North American Monthly Printing Shipments Report contains both current and inflation-adjusted analysis of commercial printing and print services shipments, for the U.S. and Canada, and forecasts for 2009 through 2014. Forecasts are updated every month, and changes are discussed in the report, which 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 report can easily repurpose the charts and data in presentations, webinars, and other 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.

https://store.whattheythink.com/monthly-u-s-printing-shipments

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.

About WhatTheyThink

WhatTheyThink is the printing and publishing industry's leading media organization; offering a wide range of publications delivering unbiased, real-time market intelligence, industry news, economic and trend analysis, peer-to-peer communication, and special reports on emerging technology and critical events. WhatTheyThink also hosts webinars and live events that are timely and relevant o today's busy industry executives along with consulting and speaker services that leverage a talented pool of writers and industry analysts.

WhatTheyThink consists of flagship site WhatTheyThink.com, discussion forum site PrintPlanet.com, and industry blog PrintCEO.com.