January 6, 2009 - 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 #38." Authored by Dr. Joe Webb, director of WhatTheyThink's Economics and Research Center, the report is available for immediate purchase at:

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

"November commercial printing shipments were $8.4 billion, down -$741 million (-8.1%) compared to November 2007," said Dr. Webb, director of WhatTheyThink's Economics and Research Center. " November has traditionally been the end of the strongest three-month period in commercial printing's year. Problems with large print consumers such as banking & finance, and the shift to other media by retailers reduced overall print demand." He noted that declines in newspaper circulation continue to affect the volume of commercially-printed newspaper inserts, and that declines in magazine ad pages, catalog pages, and other print formats are down as well. Dr. Webb reminded that "There are still print businesses that are defying the economic odds and that the commercial printing business at 2008's likely annual revenue of $98 billion still places it as one of the most important, and sizeable, U.S. manufacturing industries."

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.

http://store.whattheythink.com/economics/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.

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