News

There's a whole lotta shakin' going on in the US printing industry. Companies are changing in significant ways, and if you are aware of the trend, it's generally good news for print customers.

Printers are shedding their printing label. Out goes ‘printing’ and in comes terms like marketing, cross-media communications, and print solutions.

Progressive printers have seen the writing on the wall: we print customers can buy ink-on-paper anywhere – across the country, overseas, and online. Print quality is pretty good just about anywhere you go. Printers now turn around jobs in a few days and estimates are given even quicker. Prices are competitive, especially within a specific geographic region.

So how are printers doing more? By acquiring and/or leveraging other capabilities, ones that today’s corporate customer really needs (and will pay more for) – value-added services.

Common add-on services include mailing and fulfilment, promotional items, and website development. Some printers are taking advantage of their on-staff IT expertise and adding muscle in database management, so that they can help customers leverage their corporate databases more effectively, efficiently and creatively when communicating with their own prospects and customers.

Today, more printers offer web-to-print, personalised URLs, customised printing on-the-fly, and media services such as CD ROM creation and duplication.

This represents a new wave of printers, positioning themselves to compete with different kinds of media and communications firms. Printers are getting into mailing, mailing firms are getting into printing. The business of printing seems to be moving to the background in many cases. Out in front comes the new, add-on value services, which are more solutions-oriented.

Margie Dana is an independent print consultant in the US