Don't be so quick to place the marker.

The Internet has been buzzing with reports of the demise of printing. The book industry in particular has been all aflutter about The Kindle, The Nook, and iPad. Are they right? Have electronics finally won? Is printing dead?

I am old enough to remember all of the predictions of a paperless office. Computers were supposed to eliminate the need for paper. Instead, printing flourished at a time when the era of paper was sure to be over.

It is different this time. Although I think it is too early to write off printing, I do believe that the boom we saw with the advent of computers won’t repeat. The business climate has changed, not only for now, but also for the future. There are several reasons for this:

• Direct Mail Advertising has been wounded–not fatally, not yet.

1. The first arrow to strike was postal charges. Unfortunately, the post office has a blind spot when it comes to pricing. They don’t understand that there is a direct correlation between rising prices and declining customers. The higher stamps cost, the more people turned away.  The US post office has been the greatest friend email could ever have.
2. The second arrow was the Internet. Websites provide options that ink on paper can never duplicate and at incredible prices. Electronic advertising has eliminated much of the need for media. No paper. No ink. No presses.
3. The third arrow was the recession. Companies of all sizes hunkered down behind walls of cash refusing to spend until the customers were ready to buy. The customers, of course, having lost jobs, having had salaries decreased, and in a tightening credit market find themselves unable to buy. It’s what is known as (with apologies to our neighbors south of the US) a Mexican standoff. Where were the easiest places to cut their budgets? Printing, particularly direct mail.
4. The fourth arrow is book readers. Book readers are coming on strong. I myself, love books. I have a well-stocked home library, but there are books I can get free and others that I would like to be more portable. I, the defender of printing, will get a reader for myself. Actually I already have one in my iPhone, but every book bought electronically is a book that isn’t printed.

• Form Printing and Envelopes have taken one to the chest.

1. Nearly everyone uses on-line forms to pay bills, buy something, or get credit. It’s quick, user friendly, and no one has to buy a stamp or wait several days for delivery.
2. The changes is bill paying greatly reduce the need for envelopes. From the millions upon millions of envelopes purchased by the financial industry alone to a bare trickle.

• Catalogs, Newspapers, and Magazines are dropping dead in their tracks.
  

1. Pundits warned us of the paperless office, but they didn’t tell us about the paperless home. Who could have predicted a family breakfast scene without the father figure sitting behind the daily news? Oh sure, we still have many of the same magazines, but their page counts are down to half or more. And their sell price has gone up. They raise prices and just as surely decrease buyers.
2. Catalogs are experiencing the same problems as magazines. It costs too much to mail, so they reduce their page count. The point where catalogs split from magazines is the Internet. Newspapers and magazines have served for hundreds of years as paid information sources. Information on the Internet has been free. People expect the Internet to be free and therefore they are unwilling to pay. Catalogs never had, and never will have a paid subscriber base.

I could go on, but I think you get the idea. Printing has changed and many of the changes are permanent. All that being said, I’m optimistic about the future. There are innovations introduced all the time to make printing, better, cheaper, and faster. The Internet for all its puffery and bluster has been proven to be less effective than direct mail as an advertising medium. Yes, you can get a great CPM (cost per thousand) but there is such a massive overwhelm that customers have learned to tune the advertising out. If you want a buyer to pay attention to your message, put something in their hands.

Where To Start

One problem with writing a blog like this is knowing where to start. There is so much about printing, publishing, and mailing that needs to be said. With my nearly forty years in and about the printing business I’m probably the one who needs to say it, but where should I start? What do people need to know the most?

Created More Paper

Rumors of a paperless office leading to the demise of the printing industry have come and gone twenty years ago. The high-tech age dawned and instead of creating less paper created more. Books, manuals, and brochures were all needed to explain the new reality. You’d think by now that we should be very clear on all of the new processes, but we aren’t. Just as soon as we start to get a handle on it, it changes. I remember when I got my first personal computer. It was just after Windows was released. My bookkeeping wife was used to working with computers at her job, so I assumed that she would help me rev up. I was wrong. She had been working with DOS and knew nothing about Windows. Manuals and on-screen tutorials helped me some, and calls to the technical people (who didn’t cost anything but the long-distance phone call way back then) got me over the hump, at least enough so I could work the darn thing. Whether it was my ignorance for not knowing how to do things right, or it was the fault of the software, it seemed to me that the computer would crash more often than it would run smoothly. Did anyone else have that experience–I wonder?

Computers Run Everything

There weren’t any Idiot books to fall back on then either. The manuals were written to explain things to people who already had a basic understanding. I didn’t know what a drop down menu was. It could have been something that happens to a clumsy waitress.

Now, of course, things have changed. The computer revolution has invaded everything. It’s rare nowadays to go into a printer and see a press that isn’t operated from a computer console that adjusts ink levels, fixes registration, straightens the plates, and performs a myriad of diagnostic functions. A multicolor full-size 40″ press used to take three to four people to operate it. Today two operators are common, and if necessary, it can be run by one.

Typing vs Keyboarding

When I was in high school and being presented with class options my father said to me, “I don’t care what classes you take, but you must take typing (keyboarding for those who have never used a typewriter).” He told me it was a skill I would need for the rest of my life. He was right. Neither of us foresaw the high tech computer world as it is today, but I used those skills throughout and beyond my high school needs. In fact, I’m using them right now as I write this blog.

Computer Savvy Out of the Womb

I’m a little jealous of the students in grade schools, Jr. highs, and high schools now. When I was memorizing multiplication tables then, they are learning CSS and HTML today. I swear, they come out of the womb computer savvy. It’s a new world now, and will be another new world tomorrow. My job, as I see it, is to shed some light on how printing, publishing, and mailing are changing and give you some help rolling with it.