Absolutely loved this quote yesterday from York Mailing’s Chris Ingram:  “I’m probably more excited about the prospects for print than I have been for the last 20 years.” How great is that to hear? And this is coming from someone in the web offset business, generally a scene of angst where people are gnashing their teeth over margins and overcapacity. Ingram’s quote is an example of what might be described as a two-tier printing industry:  a top tier involving successful and profitable companies, who have created the right business model regardless of what sector they’re in; and a second tier of those who for one reason or other don’t, and for whom it’s all doom and gloom. PrintWeek’s upcoming Top 500 survey will provide an illuminating read in this respect. One of the things Chris is excited about it is demand from internet retailers for high quality catalogues to help drive sales on their websites. The oft-quoted and highly-effective ‘flick-to-click’ model. I’m sitting here now looking at a growing pile of Christmas catalogues, many of them from retailers with no actual shops. Just the other day Royal Mail announced an expansion of its Parcelforce business driven by the need to deliver more parcels driven by online purchasers. Companies like Next are heavily promoting their next-day delivery service for that must-have party outfit. Etailer Net-a-Porter now has its own branded vans whizzing around London delivering that piece of must-have Missoni same day. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, etail is a big, big opportunity for print in all sorts of ways, from transit packaging to luxe bags, catalogues, magalogues and cross-media using top notch data. It’s good to see smart printcos like York Mailing are all over it.