J: Well, from what I’ve seen of the data from Statistics Canada these last few months, Canada’s print business has had a tough summer. Here’s the question we need to ask ourselves: is this something that is related to the economic slowdown, or is this a shift in the way people communicate?
There is a wider range of communication media now, more than ever before. Some newer media, such as e-marketing, have been around a while and people believe they know how to use it well. Then, of course, you have traditional media like broadcast and print. When you have a marketplace that has been disrupted, lately by social media and smartphone technologies, the companies or applications that would have been the “old guard” seem to get into a lot of trouble. While they’re busy trying to protect themselves, the real entrepreneurs of an industry start to come out and thrive.
The basic theme of my talk at Graphics Canada is that we don’t need to rekindle print; we need a good dose of entrepreneurship. For decades, people have been running print businesses claiming to be entrepreneurs, but currently I don’t see the dynamic, vibrant essence that an entrepreneurial market should have. Are these owners really entrepreneurs? Or were they just riding a wave all those years?
I believe this is the time for the real entrepreneurs to step out and become active. There are tremendous opportunities in digital media, and the way all communications interact, in which print plays an extremely valuable role. Print, used well, can pull information users in a whole range of different directions. Strategically, you must be relentless in getting your message out to a marketplace. You have to be constantly out there and you can’t just be digital. In the long run, the opportunities for printing companies are in the logistics of communications. The best opportunities lie in working with small- and mid-size companies.
K: What are your thoughts on the future of the Canadian printing industry?
J: There are a couple of aspects to that question. Firstly, I find it interesting to hear U.S. printers talk about the danger of printing imports. The biggest victim of imports from China to the U.S. has in fact been Canada. The U.S. is importing the same dollar amount of print, as a percentage of total shipments, as it has in the past. But, there has been a major shift. Canada’s exports to the U.S. have gone down considerably – almost exactly the amount of the increase of U.S. imports from China. This might be partly because of cost issues and exchange rates, but printers in near-border cities like Vancouver and Toronto have been hurt in that regard. For many of the larger printers, this has been an important part of their business that is now lacking. This continues to be a real problem.
Another issue in the printing industry is that there has been a recent major downdraft – steeper in Canada than in the U.S. – of print volume. I don’t know why that is yet, but I suspect it’s due to a broader use of the Internet in marketing strategies by Canadian businesses. It seems to have been hit really bad over the last year. The main impact of the Internet in the U.S. occurred around 1998 and about five years later in Canada, around 2003. It appears that this is something very strong and negative that has impacted the value of print in recent years. This month at the WhatTheyThink research centre, we have put together a five-year projection for the future of the Canadian commercial printing business that shows the continuation of this decline.
K: What do you think is a major trend that we’ll see for the industry in 2010?
J: On one hand, there’s always the temptation to point at something technological. We know that digital printing is still making inroads into colour offset volume. It will continue to make even more, as market run lengths change and as more users are no longer able to differentiate between the print processes.
But the real issue for me still remains on focusing more towards print businesses themselves as opposed to print media and printing technologies. There are many print businesses that are diversifying their services and changing the way they interact with the markets, whether it be in the way they sell or the kinds of offerings they bundle with print media.
There will also be a lot of unwinding of legacy equipment and its financing over the next few years. That’s been a real impediment to the industry’s ability to adapt to the marketplace.
K: What is your biggest piece of advice for small or medium print companies that are struggling right now?
J: What I would say is the same advice I have in my book Renewing the Printing Industry: Strategies and Action Items for Success, which is to step back, start with a clean sheet of paper and begin to rethink your business in a digital media environment from the client’s perspective. It’s not going to be the printing business it once was. Anyone who thinks that things are going to get better once the economy picks up – well, they’re going to be disappointed.
There has also been a shift to the PR side of media. Printers have never really called on PR executives, but because of social media and e-marketing, a lot more budget dollars might need to be under the direction of those professionals rather than on advertising as it has been in the past.
K: What do you think is a personality trait or skill-set that many print industry leaders and executives have, which has helped them become so successful and to get to where they are today?
J: Well, I have a big vote for resilience, and its main partner, determination.
J: I am currently reading The Management Myth: Why the “Experts” Keep Getting it Wrong by Matthew Stewart. Another recent favourite of mine, though, is Seth Godin’s Meatball Sundae.
Dr. Joe Webb, a 30-year veteran of the graphic arts industry, has been called “print’s iconoclast and most accurate forecaster” and is the director of WhatTheyThink’s Economics and Research Center. He is known for his contrarian approach to printing industry issues and opportunities in a manner that challenges industry common wisdom. Webb is a Ph.D. graduate of the NYU Center for Graphic Communications Management and Technology in 1987, and he serves on the center’s Board of Advisors. He holds an MBA in Management Information Systems from Iona College and was a magna cum laude graduate in Managerial Sciences and Marketing from Manhattan College. Webb started in the industry with Agfa’s Graphic Systems Division and was later a marketing executive with Chemco Photoproducts, entering consulting full-time in 1987. Among his publications is the controversial Renewing the Print Industry, now in its second edition.