Commercial Printing Shipments Are Down

April 2011 commercial printing shipments were $7.08 billion, down -$109 million  (-.5%) compared to 2010. Adjusting for inflation, shipments were down -$366 million (-4.5%). "This shift in April shipments may indicate that another restructuring of the communications marketplace is now underway," explained Dr. Joe Webb, director of WhatTheyThink's Economics and Research Center. "We expected that this would begin in the Fall, but it may be starting a few months sooner than originally expected."

Dr. Webb continues to emphasize that print businesses and their executives need to urgently prepare and aggressively participate in the media changes that are underway. "General economic indicators are softening, with GDP for the first quarter only +1.8%, and unemployment still at 9%. In light of the slower-than-expected economy, businesses are likely to re-examine their communications budgets and possibly shift spending to other media. They believe they can manage their costs and take advantage of new technologies at the same time. Print businesses need to be involved in those decisions with their expanded media capabilities to assist them in their decisions, and potentially manage their media deployment and logistics."

Dr. Webb believes that "2011 is likely to be a critical transitional year requiring urgent and decisive actions by print executives. Creative destruction is a painful process, and it often comes without much warning, but our industry has had breathing room to adjust this past year, and many printers took advantage of that."

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