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 #54.” This report is available for immediate purchase at:

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

March 2010 commercial printing shipments were $7.39 billion, down -4.4% compared to 2009. Adjusting for inflation, shipments were down -6.5%. First quarter printing shipments were down -5.7% on a current dollar basis.

Dr. Joe Webb, director of WhatTheyThink's Economics and Research Center, said “March's shipment decline might indicate some moderation in printing shipment decline, as it was the lowest rate of loss since September 2008. That doesn't mean that commercial print will start growing again; it may just mean that the downdraft we have been dealing with might finally be ebbing. Some of our other forecasting models seem to have detected this moderation in the data patterns and are forecasting 2010 shipments at $86 billion, which is above our current forecast. We're hoping our forecast is wrong and that the model is right.”

The latest report includes a discussion of March's shipments, Canada's February shipments, and updated forecasts for the US industry to 2016. Dr. Webb's audio commentary also includes a discussion of how print relates to GDP growth. “We explain what the inverse relationship to GDP is, when it started, and how the relationship has been changing,” explained Dr. Webb.

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 2016. 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 online 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. Serving a membership base of more than 50,000, WhatTheyThink also hosts webinars and live events as well as providing content through a syndication program, which delivers content directly to related websites and through RSS. The organization also provides consulting and speakers bureau services to the industry.