It is unsurprising that the printing industry might find themselves in a strange sort of limbo in the advent of new media and technological integration. This industry relies heavily on traditional mediums and now print media is quickly losing readers and advertisers to newer mediums such as I-Phones, I-Pads and laptops. During the 2009 recession panic, print companies did not know what to do or where to go, and many people were laid off because of fear, convinced it was the only way to survive. What is the way to survival for these companies?

People are changing how they receive information. Because of these new mediums such as Twitter many people now prefer to receive their news in smaller bites of information, thus a shorting in attention span. Thus print companies need something that will allow themselves to stand out, and this would be to adopt an integrated and personalized approach, identifying niche audiences and catering to this new egotistical media culture.

Making marketing programs conversational with and contextual to niche audiences that naturally gravitate around a specific theme … is the essence of social marketing. It may also hold the key to surviving and prospering in the recessionary economy. – says Jeff Zabin, Aberdeen Group

What the industry needs is a big push toward embracing new media technologies. Merely print isn’t enough, these companies need to start offering an integrated solution, Web-to-Print, to connect their printing services with the power of digital media. Surely there is information clutter to wade through to get to that point, but instead of making mountains out of mole hills, these companies should gather their options and take a step forward, otherwise they’ll be left behind.

“There will come a time when web-to-print will be standard operating equipment. Customers will expect it, and for printers, having web-to-print won’t be a positive differentiator; not having it will become a negative one. “ – Heidi Tolliver-Nigro (Insights Four51)

There is certainly a lot of talk in the Industry about Web-to-Print and the move forward, but according to The Industry Measure study, only 2% of printers consider it important to change sales compensation models, and 6% of digital printers consider it a top priority.

“Most printers have the terminology down; they say the right things but when it comes to actually doing it, that’s where they fall down,” Julie Shaffer, PIA. (Printing News)

Clearly these companies see hurdles in the way to Web-to-Print, such as having to install servers. However the market is seeing a shift to external server hosting and Web-to-Print services. There are companies dedicated to such services that do much of the integrating process for their clients. These mole hills made into mountains will begin to cease as the market and technology changes, and if companies can’t see past this now, they will disappear into the clutter that everyone else in the business can look past.