Page 62 - Print21 magazine Mar-Apr 2023

| ASSOCIATIONS | PRINT NZ
PrintNZ CEO Ruth Cobb says the recent disasters clearly show the value of print as an unrivalled communication channel.
Print to the rescue once more
Printers in New Zealand at the start of the year thought that inflation was the biggest challenge we would face in
2023, and that it would follow a much more lineal path. Talk of Covid had all but finished, and businesses were able to plan for
the year ahead. But in another set of unforeseen and unprecedented events, the North Island suffered two horrific weather events, causing tragic loss of life and widespread damage.
In Auckland, the rainfall in the month of January was almost
half of what normally falls in the full year, with more than half of that falling in just one day. This caused widespread flooding across the region, which unfortunately affected a number of our members in the area, some to the point of being non-operational, as well as damaging employees’ homes and vehicles.
UNWELCOME VISIT
While the clean-up from that incident was still underway, Cyclone Gabrielle paid the North Island
a most unwelcome visit, and
caused havoc and loss of life
across a much wider region,
wiping out homes, businesses, services and infrastructure, to
a level not seen here before.
On the East Coast there was a complete failure of all services, including electricity and telecommunications, which left
communities
completely isolated, and many people not knowing what was happening, what they could do, and where they could get help. Thousands of people were reported missing, as family and friends tried to locate them, but without services there was no way for either party to make contact.
“Pamphlets were printed and distributed by volunteers each day, so that there
was useful, trustworthy information available.”
And what was the first communication channel that was able to get through to thousands of isolated people? You guessed it – print. In Gisborne, due to the damage, the Herald could not publish online, but printed and distributed an additional 22,000 copies free of charge every day. In
the Hawkes Bay, pamphlets were printed and distributed by teams
of volunteers each day, so that there was useful, trustworthy
information available to those that needed it, and this
information proved vital in keeping those communities
connected.
The prime minister
called it old- fashioned. I
pushed back and called it reliable
and far reaching. It remains the only way to communicate with every household in New Zealand, and that is not going to change
any time soon. There is still quite
a digital divide in this country across those in rural areas, low socio economic groups and the digitally challenged – and now as highlighted by these events, we have major infrastructure issues that can literally disconnect tens or hundreds of thousands of people overnight.
POWER OF PRINT
Educating officials about the powe of print is a constant part of our role to ensure that the importance of print is understood. It is not something you pull out of the bag when you need to – it is there all the time. And it is not just our job to educate people, it is everyone’s job to make sure that people know what a great job print does, and will continue to do always.
In the coming months the information that will be circulated in print in those areas that have been devastated will be vital to maintaining their connections with what is going on, supplementing what they read online (if they
can get online). And for those of
us that were lucky enough to be unaffected, it continues to be par of our everyday lives.
Once again it was print to the rescue – we are effective authentic, trustworthy, but most of all durable. 2023 may have some other curveballs in store for us, but print will be there through all of them.
62 MARCH/APRIL 2023