The print, and online printing, industry may be a bit battered, but it is not defeated. It cannot be vanquished, because the distribution of information is the cornerstone of a free and democratic society. Writers will write and printers will distribute that writing to a willing public. Our future is just as vibrant as it always was and, I expect, as necessary changes occur, it will manifest itself in positive ways we have yet to imagine.
So, as we begin, it is the right time for us to take a moment or two for reflection, review and reassessment. It is a perfect time for evaluating the current and future possibilities of our professional and our personal lives. Sagging economic times will require a better strategy for the print industry to survive and then thrive again.
Perhaps we should look back with pride on what we have accomplished before we look forward into an uncertain future. As a group and business we are indispensable. As purveyors of information we are the glue that holds society together. We provide that mortar known as knowledge, and we make it available to all.
Technology has given us expanded methods of distribution, unheard of a decade ago. Though the outreach and growth is exponential, our profits haven’t been able to keep up with the new technologies. We clearly need new business models. There has to be a willingness to attack those technologies and bend them to our will.
The nation has grown and will continue to grow — most likely in directions that are unexpected — but we will always need printed materials to read. Our former sphere of influence is changing, and our business models must grow with the times and the ages before us. The printing industry may go through a complex series of transformations before it finds who it is going to become -– new age information distributors. This is not a might be, but rather will be the state of affairs.
A look at history proves that wars come and then they go; that economic down turns have happened before and will happen again. They appear when least expected and retreat with the same regularity. We know that the winter is cold only to be followed by the joy and beauty of a warm summer’s day. And, so shall the fortunes of the printing industry emerge from the cold of the times into the warm summer of prosperity and security.
