PRINT
IT
RESELLER.UK
DIGITAL PRINT
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The successful printer of the future
will deliver a full-service offering
that extends well beyond printing
and finishing. The exact mix of digital
communications, value added print,
data manipulation and logistics will
depend on the printer's customer
base, its market positioning and its
partnerships. But it’s already clear
what’s required for print to be a
successful communications medium
in the next decade: print has to be
relevant.
This wasn’t necessarily the case when
print was the prime channel for advertising,
information and customer communications.
However, much of this mundane printing
has transferred to digital and will never
come back, forcing print to evolve into
something smarter, more versatile and,
above all, more relevant to those who
receive it.
If a printer is not part of this
development, the only option is to sell print
services as cheaply as possible, and this is
no way to build for the future, nor to create
enduring partnerships with customers.
IT drives relevance
Tomorrow’s print service providers must
be as comfortable with IT as they are with
offset litho. This encompasses everything
from operating a website to creating
automated workflows that minimise touch
points where errors can occur; and from
using management systems (MIS) to view
performance information to handling
the data needed to create personalised
communications for more engaging
relationships. If that means using social
media alongside print, the print house has
to deliver.
The problem here is that printers
continue to prefer to invest in new printing
presses than in IT, with few giving thought
to how jobs are to be processed before
reaching the press or once printed. In the
first
drupa Global Insights Report
published
in October 2014, only 23% of the drupa
expert panel said they had increased their
IT spend in the previous five years. Almost
all decision-makers highlighted a lack of IT
specialists.
Yet IT knowledge is key for automation
at the process level. Those supplying
software to the industry take it as read that
JDF compliance is essential. Producing an
eight-page section on standard paper is
In the run up to drupa 2016, show organiser Messe Duesseldorf has
produced a series of articles on the future of print. In the first of these,
it highlights key trends affecting commercial printers, corporate print
centres and their customers.
Print in the
digital era
simple, but tomorrow’s customers will want
more than this; they will want their printed
products to stand out from the thousands
of marketing messages their targets receive
each day.
Highlighting this trend, drupa President
and CEO of KBA Claus Bolza-Schünemann
says: “Some years from now there will be
fewer printing companies but they will be
larger and more industrial with a broad
service range. In the commercial sector,
printers will turn into marketing service
providers for print and online services.
The connection between print, online and
mobile activities will grow stronger.”
This transition is in its infancy. Last year,
a well known commentator on advertising
and the internet pointed out that although
consumers spend vast amounts of time
with their smartphones, mobile attracts
only a small proportion of the overall
marketing spend, with the fast shrinking
newspaper sector continuing to receive a
disproportionate amount of advertising.
The share of one is bound to shrink as the
other grows – unless newspapers become
more relevant to readers. This means
hyper-local sections, printed digitally with
targeted advertising.
Print in a digital world
The same trends are evident in magazines,
where mass circulation titles that used to
be printed gravure are losing circulation
while special interest magazines prosper.
There will be fluctuations across national
boundaries and as fashions change, but
magazines that cater to a community of
readers with common interests will not
be displaced by digital delivery of content
because reading a magazine is about much
more than the presentation of information.
A decade ago it was predicted that
with the growth of the internet, video-
The problem
is that
printers
continue
to prefer
to invest in
new printing
presses than
in IT.
Scodix helps your printed products
stand out
High-speed, variable PDF printing on an
inkjet press
continued...
