We can be heroes: Print 21 magazine article

When threatened with danger, humans are capable of performing remarkable acts of courage and skill to ensure their survival. It’s an example that everyone can learn from, not least printers who, every day, encounter reports of their imminent ‘demise’. Andy McCourt, a man known for never losing his sang-froid in the face of impossible odds, puts on a brave face.

As I write this, two significant pieces of news have broken.

In the USA, a hero airline pilot named Chesley Burnett Sullenberger III, no less, successfully landed his plane – in the middle of the Hudson River. Shortly after take-off, bird strike knocked out two of his Airbus A320’s engines and it ceased to fly. Mr Sullenberger’s 40 years experience, including time in the USAF, combined to make the first known successful ditching of a commercial passenger jetliner. He saved 159 lives; no one was seriously hurt.

The second story also involves a hero. Trooper Mark Donaldson, a soldier serving with the Australian Army in Afghanistan, became the first recipient of the Victoria Cross medal in 40 years. He rescued an injured interpreter whilst under constant and heavy enemy fire, administered first aid and then went back to returning fire.

What has this to do with print media? Well, an increasingly vocal band of bloggers on various forums are smacking their chops at the ‘imminent’ demise of newspapers, and the ‘death’ of print. It’s like they see the print ‘Airbus’ in trouble, and they relish the thought of it ditching. They focus their idolatry towards the temple of the internet, Web 2.0, Web 3.0 and I’ve even seen salivating expectations of Web 4.0, although no one appears to know what that will be. They don’t wish to acknowledge that there are a lot of quiet but skilful Sullenberger-types who will take the appropriate action when faced with difficulties, and save a lot of livelihoods.

Puff and stuff
One such blogger, Peter, on www.buzzmachine.com, concerning newspaper journalists wrote: “Paper journalists produce something nobody wants and they whine nobody is paying for their worthless shits.” Did he mean ‘sheets’; I think not. He also wrote: “Bottom line, most of the so-called news out there are just a waste of ink. That’s why no one wants to pay for it.” Now this Peter is connected with the Book Industry Study Group www.bisg.org and American University Presses, so he knows a thing or two about printing and publishing.

But he knows nothing of the fourth estate and the function of journalists-versus-book writers. He seems deficient on democratic values too; maybe he got some bad press once. Sure, there’s a lot of puff and irrelevance in newspapers … now how about we look at the internet in this regard? Newspapers are changing and will change more but, amongst the dross, they remain the only dependable source of inconvenient truths that people and groups with something to hide would rather not have published. In 2007, 64 journalists worldwide were killed or murdered in direct connection to their work (source: Council for the Protection of Journalists). Why?

Without newspapers, we won’t have freedom of expression. Blogs and websites do not deliver the same touch points as newspapers and are much easier to block, change and corrupt. Without freedom of expression, we do not have democracy which, for all its sins, is the better of all governmental evils.

Change from a trillion
PIRA research puts the value of the world printing market at $942 billion in 2007. In Australia, ABS data puts its value at $9.39 billion. Growth is slowing, but it is still running at over 1 percent per year. By 2012, the global industry will be worth $996 billion and in Australia $9.9 billion. Such industries do not suffer ‘imminent demise’. They change – for example offset is set to decline 5.7 percent between 2007 and 2012 while digital is set to continue its march with a 105 percent increase (source: PIRA International).

They also suffer regional shifts in the type of work produced and where. Colour bookwork involving elaborate bindings, tip-ins, add-ons etc is almost all printed in Asia now; it is virtually impossible to produce it profitably in Australia. This is why digital is so appealing because it shifts the goalposts in such a way that offshore printing finds it challenging to score.

The opportunistic offshore brokers offering ’30 per cent cheaper’ prices, such as www.realprintsolutions.com.au, find it hard if not impossible to compete against ultra-short print runs delivered the next day, personalised, targeted, data varied. This is the technology that goes a long way to ‘bringing the plane down safely and saving lives’.

The internet is the best thing to happen for printing in a long while. Used wisely, W2P delivers more customers; lower operating costs and leaner manufacturing. I’ll close with the words of a UK-based printshop co-owner and sales trainer, Nick Devine. You can find him on www.theprintcoach.com.

“This is the best time ever in the history of the printing sector to be a printer. There are so many opportunities available right now to win new business that it truly dazzles me.”

And if worse comes to worst, the spirit of Trooper Mark Donaldson should get you out of trouble.