Page 12 - Print 21 Magazine Jul-Aug 2020

Leading Article
POn the essence of printing
rinting operates on so many levels The pandemic has highlighted expertise, which used to be called craft, needs it defies categorisation as a single what is irrelevant and unnecessary to be complemented by a contemporary entity. This pandemic has brought service culture.
into sharp relief the differing in business as in life. Deciding Many printers will seek to move into new
destinies of different types of print. While what is an essential service brings areas to supplement their offerings. Vertical
it has proved a booming opportunity for the packaging and label sectors, marketing, publishing, and commercial printing are almost completely shut down.
Whatever happens, the printing landscape will surely be very different when ‘normality’ returns. The beloved mantra of management consultants – ‘If you don’t plan to succeed then you’re planning to fail’ – is difficult to pursue when the future is so uncertain. How can you plan when you don’t know what the world will look like on the other side?
Commuting to the office in June for the first time in months, I had an entire train carriage to myself at what would normally be rush hour. Walking up Foveaux Street in Surry Hills to Yaffa Media’s Sydney HQ, I passed numerous boarded up shops and derelict cafes mouldering behind for lease signs. Apart from the individual lives disrupted and businesses ruined, the obvious lack of demand for print needs no explanation.
Marketing, which provides most of the demand for commercial print, has fallen off the cliff. Enterprises that cannot operate don’t require posters, menus, or brochures. The Traveller section of the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, formerly the newspapers’ largest single revenue stream, is reduced to a single four-page sheet as the cruise industry
technology and commerce into sharp relief. When newspapers are written off as ‘non-essential services’, it is obvious the world has changed forever. But it is imperative for every business to decide for itself what is essential to retain and develop.
sinks under the weight of the plague. Bauer, the largest magazine publisher in
the region, shuttered titles at a great rate before knocking down the entire business to Mercury private equity. Australia Post is seeking to cut back daily deliveries to once or twice a week with a knock-on effect for the whole direct mailing sector.
This litany of troubles hides the opportunity to recast printing into a more appropriate industry for the emerging economy. For
many years printing has battled technology headwinds and falling demand. The pause in activity now allows printers to conduct an audit to identify the essence of their business. When printing is ever more automated and computer-controlled, the traditional skills and mindsets are no longer enough to distinguish one company from another. Manufacturing
integration, swimming up and down the established supply chain, is a better bet than moving outside your area of expertise. For commercial printers there’s a whole range of technology innovations to consider. Developing the capability to automate personalised printing will open a new customer service. Enhancing the capacity of the art department to create marketing campaigns puts you in closer touch with customers looking for extra value. Taking advantage of the Covid-19- inspired tax relief to invest in in-house finishing and digital embellishing can radically change the profile of your business.
There will be a substantial reduction in the number of printing businesses at the other end of this travail. Those that remain will address a very different market. While you may not be able to plan in great detail for the new world you can safeguard the essence of your business. By all means go ahead and acquire new technology, but don’t neglect
to nurture the creative energy and spirit of the individuals that remain working in the business. This surely is the essential printing plan for the future. 21
Patrick Howard
— Editor-at-large
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12 Print21 JULY/AUGUST 2020
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