2016

Trends – Printmedia: reducing industry continues

Printmediacompanies have experienced poor years in the years past, where sales fell. The cause of this deterioration is an acceleration in the decline in volumes of newspapers and magazines in particular. And unlike 2013 and 2014, revenue from foreign orders declined. Anyhow is the printing industry in a structural decline: the already long contraction of the market for printed products creates permanent pressure on revenues, margins and profitability of printing. Since the beginning of the crisis in late 2008, the industry lost about one third of its turnover. Revenue probably cannot be won back.

The number of bankruptcies is also a long time well above the average in the industry. A majority of printers indicates loss or turning most breakeven. Especially the larger printing companies that provide bulk offset printing, are battling in the European market with serious competition. Many large domestic and foreign assignments go to Eastern European printers. They generally operate with a much lower cost basis. But also on the local market prices are under pressure due to persistent overcapacity of printing presses. A new initiative as print auctions on internet attempts to bring supply and demand to better together. However, auctioning of orders has also an additional pressure on the prices.

The vision - future branch is online 

The current economic recovery will not make for the printing industry little difference. For the coming years, experts predict a continued decline in sales in the print sector. The negative trends behind the steady decline in print volumes remain unaffected. The declining use of print in the society has two main causes:  

• decline in reading (preference for audiovisual content),
• digitization.

Of these two digitization has the greatest impact and provides several ways to lower demand for printing among consumers and in business. Consumers read their news and information which is free on the Internet or exchange their printed newspaper in a digital version on the tablet. Business automates and digitizes continued to cut costs.

Here goes digitization at the expense of printing forms, post printing and advertising leaflets.

Printing trapped in a structural contraction scenario, which is very difficult to break. The coming years will continue to lower volumes and pressure on some of the industry awards. The segment of the industry, where it has yet to see sales growth, are the online printers. There will grow a competition with a number of traditional printers who will bring their services more and more online. This probably is the future for the industry: offering a wide variety of services and products for various markets over the internet.