Offset printers will survive info revolution’s changes

At the turn of the last century, as the old business saw goes, the trouble with railroads was they thought they were in the railroad business when they actually were in the transportation business. The history of technological innovation is littered with the relics of bygone eras, and the pace of change is ever accelerating. But trains are still here and are still the backbone of the transportation system.

Television was destined to be the death of radio but only because the soothsayers missed a major housing trend — the suburbs, which created commuting and drive time, which meant not only survival for radio but increased prosperity

When the PC revolution began a lot of heavy-hitters staked out their own brand names; entrepreneurs opened small retail computer stores. But expensive brand-name computers were run down by generics that were just as good but much less expensive, and a lot of big hitters took big hits. The small stores disappeared and were ultimately replaced by either the office supply outlets, the electronic superstore or e-mail/mail order. In 1985 who knew how computers would be built and distributed?

Offset printing remains fundamentally unchanged since its widespread commercial introduction in the 1940s, but market dynamics and prepress technologies have steadily evolved. It still is the least-expensive way to produce high-quality images on a sheet of paper in any kind of quantity, but it is in competition with multiple other ways of putting communication on paper and with communication that only exists electronically — most notably the Internet.

The increasing ease with which information can be transported electronically will have a profound effect on the printed page. Some would say print is dead, but they are wrong. Printing probably will undergo a fundamental change in its role in the communication mix — a technologically driven metamorphosis perhaps not unlike what happened to radio. Printed pieces will complement electronic communication and vice versa, but there will continue to be a big demand for printed products. Which particular printed products, however, is anybody’s guess.

On the other hand the electronic revolution has dramatically increased print efficiencies. Nearly every printer has computer composition capabilities and most have electronic prepress capabilities that often include direct-to-plate or even direct-to-press. Prices for such equipment continue to erode. Agfa’s Gallileo direct-to-metal plate system for larger presses now costs $400,000 and more to install, but a model from another manufacturer for 11×17 bleed presses is available for around $150,000. Those prices will almost certainly continue to drop over the next few years, or perhaps just as accurately, the price for accomplishing that function will drop.

The Internet itself offers substantial opportunities for printers to advertise their services to a local, national or even international market. At The Village Printer we have just put our Web page online at www.villageprinter.com. On it potential customers will find: (1) the inevitable “all about us” and “how to contact us” page, (2) free electronic prepress help — about 40 pages worth, and (3) published prices for 4-color printing.

To make this information freely available to everyone doesn’t mean one need become a producer of commodity products at the expense of customer relationships. But the new media has created an unprecedented level of quick and easy access to information that has changed customer expectations. The customers we work with are under increasingly heavy workloads and must gather information to make decisions faster than ever before, and those who can ease their burden by making that information more readily available will do both themselves and their customers a favor.

What does it all mean and where is it headed? Who knows? It’s certainly exciting, interesting and more than a little intimidating.

The other day I had lunch with a friend of mine from Xpedx who recently had returned from IPEX 98, the big printing equipment show held in Europe, and I asked him to articulate a mission statement for me for the year 2005. Not surprisingly, he couldn’t, so I imagine that a lot of my time over the next few years will be spent trying to figure that out for myself.

While I work at it I’ll try to keep this one thing in mind: Much of what I use at work and at home, in one way or another, comes to me by rail.

David Robinson and his wife Judy are the owners of The Village Printer in Boulder. They can be contacted at (303) 449-1020 or by e-mail at prepress@villageprinter.com.The Village Printer is online at www.villageprinter.com.

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