Premedia: Handling and Manipulating Content

Transformation of the Printing Industry

Jackie Bland, Managing Director PRIMIR/NPES 703-264-7200 jbland@primir.org www.primir.org The historic economic downturn caused major upheaval in an already tumultuous printing industry. New communication platforms present major challenges to traditional media outlets and their business models. Printers and their suppliers are seeking ways to increase productivity, reduce costs, and maintain market share. A number of industry-leading printing firms are transforming their businesses and capitalizing on the growing opportunities in the new world of interactive communication. But, unfortunately, many printing firms remain locked into old business models that eventually may lead to their demise. PRIMIR commissioned InfoTrends to evaluate firms that implemented new business models and corresponding changes in workflow that helped them not only survive the downturn, but, in many cases, thrive during those difficult times. The goal of this study was to provide an understanding of the best practices, characteristics, challenges, and nuances of a transformed successful printing firm. The research evaluated the different routes for transformation broken into five major print segments: Promotional printing (direct mail, catalogs, inserts); publication printing (magazines, books, newspapers); financial/transactional printing (bills, statements, prospectuses); commercial printing (including quick printing); and in-plant print shops/centralized reprographic departments (CRD). Before tackling industry transformation, it is important to understand technology innovations that enabled printing industry innovation during the last 1015 years and those anticipated for the future. InfoTrends adapted the concept of technology waves from an older NPES study titled Workflow Dynamics (Mills Davis, 1996). The first three waves are from the earlier study. Each wave depicts an S-curve, illustrating the adoption trajectory of the technology, and is built upon and coexists with one another (Figure 1). The technology waves include:
Digital-Analog. Use of computers to capture, access, pro-

cess, and store content and data in binary values or digital format
Networked Digital. Interconnected computer-based

technologies through local and/or wide-area networks

Interactive Digital. Support for dynamic content, new

media, and cross-media delivery

Social/Mobile Interactive. Going beyond the Interactive

Digital category by creating and deploying cross-media engagement through social media and mobile channels
Neural Interactive. Support for highly targeted, cross-

media engagement by leveraging behavioral data, psychographic information, or real-time biometric physical status The last two waves, Social/Mobile Interactive and Neutral Interactive, were added as a result of this study.

So What Does This All Mean?

The world has entered an era of interactivity where media usage converges. Many of the transformed printing firms studied have plans to capitalize on opportunities around cross-media marketing services or expand their electronic delivery services to include new emerging channels, such as smartphones, tablet computers, and social media. Successful (transformed) printing firms are moving upstream and downstream in the print supply chain, seeking new opportunities to differentiate themselves and, at the same time, offer added value to their customers. The biggest opportunities for printing firms to differentiate are upstream in the supply chainexpanding the scope of offerings to include content creation, data processing and analysis, and even marketing strategy or execution. Expanding offerings have major implications on a printing firms business model including the customer proposition, profit formula, key resources, and key processes. Each element works hand-in-hand to address the major question: What unique combination of key resources and processes are

2011 FORECAST PART 2: THE PRINT PRODUCTION PROCESS

Figure 1. Technology innovation waves.

Print Production

Online Publish

Content Creation

Content Aggregation & Management

Agnostic Layout/Packaging

Premedia

Mobile Publish Email Publish Social Publish

Figure 2. Channel-agnostic, cross-media content publishing workflow.

needed to support the customer value proposition within the constraints of the envisioned profit formula?

New Offerings Require Change

Many of the new offerings require thoughtful evaluation and changes in resources and processes. Workflow is a key processtransformed printing firms attributed changes in their firms business models as the key driver for workflow investments and transformation. The study notes that major transformations in workflow span content, data, and production. A printing firm must consider the various points of transformation in each area and assess where they have gaps and opportunities to transform to meet new business objectives. As printing firms face increased pressures from customers to speed up turnaround time and drop prices, they turn to workflow automation to

help squeeze efficiency from their operations. Data and content are leveraged throughout the business and production process to help automate the entire workflow, increasing efficiency and reducing costs by eliminating as many human touch points as possible. In a transformative workflow, the production is flexible enough to accommodate channels beyond print. The study found that successful transformed firms have a channelagnostic, cross-media content delivery platform. Their workflow supports moving content and data through the plant regardless of whether the final output goes to a press. Having the flexibility to design and deliver an integrated project with print, Web, mobile, and social media deployment is a critical aspect of transformative workflow and will be a requirement for the majority of printing firms as the media landscape continues to evolve.

2011 FORECAST PART 2: THE PRINT PRODUCTION PROCESS

A transformative channel-agnostic workflow looks much like what is shown in Figure 2. In a transformed workflow content is created, aggregated, packaged, and prepared in a uniform process until the production and delivery point of the workflow. Applying output intentions at this point results in a channel-agnostic content workflow, which can eliminate disparate preparation processes and will increase efficiency. Data is an increasingly integrated component of workflow and is leveraged for many different purposes. Data is the glue that binds content together with production in a seamless fashion and facilitates a tremendous amount of opportunity to streamline workflow and business processes. Business and information management systems continue to expand in scope to encompass order management, financial management, inventory management, and more. These newer components coupled with the ability to store, retrieve, report on, and manage data in a centralized placehave increased the relevance of data across the entire organization. In addition, a printing firms adoption of digital asset management, content management, marketing campaign management, response tracking, and similar types of systems reflects efforts to increase capabilities and, ultimately, the firms relevance as they work to move upstream within the media value chain. The study found that players across the industry take a much more holistic approach to workflow, starting by looking at the core production process and then adding layers on top to optimize the workflow further

upstreamin many cases, all the way to the customer. This model represents one of the biggest points of transformation in production across all printing industry segments studied.

Conclusions
Significant changes in the marketplace presented a strong case for transformative workflow across all print segments. It is in the best interest of the printing industry to embrace change and embark on the journey of transformation. Non-action could mean stagnation and eventual demise. Implementation of these capabilities requires significant investment in people, technology, processes, and time. Planning, ROI considerations, and technology selection are key factors in successful transformation. The scope and breadth of transformation present a significant opportunity for the vendor community. Some leaders have transformed, but the majority of printing firms still need a lot of help with gaps in technology infrastructure, skill sets, and processes required to make a successful transformation. The vendor community and industry trade associations need to take an active role in encouraging and enabling workflow transformation.
PRIMIR is a global source of data, analysis, and trend information about print and related communication industries. For more information visit www.primir.org.

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2011 FORECAST PART 2: THE PRINT PRODUCTION PROCESS

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The Magazine Distribution Patron

Cross-Media Workflow Implications on File Formats, Standards

David Zwang Zwang & Company 203-743-2275 david@zwang.com www.zwang.com As the demand for cross-media becomes the norm, the preparation and processing of content for multi-channel distribution would be faster and much less expensive if you could optimize the processes to eliminate the need for multiple silos of production. Many of the infrastructure tools are already available to do so, and the design and production tools are making their way to the market. In order to get to that point, we need to make sure we are using file formats that fit the requirements. The requirements vary based on the media channels; and while increasingly many are the same across the various channels, with the current state of cross-media standards, there can be differences. More important, the formats are determined or restricted by the design and production applications we use. The good news is there are quite a few groups developing standards that address these issues, which should make it easier and more transparent in the future.

CS5.5, has an EPUB export setting for eBook creation, as well as a Flash export option that will create an .swf file that is compatible with most browsers and some tablets. Quark 9.x now supports the export of EPUB format as well as iPad native format and even includes some negotiated distribution options for the eMedia content. More importantly, these familiar applications support the necessary metadata tagging required to associate the content with the context and ultimately the appropriate layout packaging and distribution requirements. They also support the addition of interactivity within the document either natively or through the use of additional plug-ins. So you could, in effect, start with a print document and within the creation application add the video, sounds, and interactive Flash content for a nice, publish-ready eMedia package. Of course, if you are willing and able to use other, more programmatic types of applications, there are more flexible tools to create feature-rich types of eMedia files. However, if you can minimize the need for additional eMedia production silos and get the work you and your customer require out of familiar tools, the better off you are. If history teaches us anything, we can expect there will be further development from Adobe and Quark that will increase the cross-media production features and functionality in future versions.

Automating Production Processes

If you are doing it right, you are automating as many production processes as is practical to ensure consistency and cost efficiency. Ensuring the use of metadata tags that are part of a standard, or in the absence of a standard, make perfect sense to you and your requirements is the first step in ensuring automation in a cross-media production environment. XMP (Extensible Metadata Platform), initially developed by Adobe is also beginning to be used to carry other information with the content object to facilitate process automation. The Ghent PDF Workgroup (GWG) for example, has created a series of production tickets that currently include Ad Delivery, Soft-Proofing, and Preflight to enable a PDF file to be transferred to the correct ad placement, one that has been preflighted with a validated soft proof and without the need for a corresponding paper ticket. Adobe has recently made XMP available as an open format to the ISO for standardization and future development, which should only help in wide adoption going forward.

PDF as a Cross-Media Format

PDF and PDF/X have been the de facto formats for print publishing for quite a while. Software, workflows, standards, and best practices are in place and somewhat ubiquitous. And, more importantly, there is a legacy of PDF files for books, magazines, newspapers, and other published materials that in many cases still have life in non-print media. So why cant we use it? Actually you can, but there will be limitations. First of all, there are services like Zinio for magazine distribution that uses PDF as its base format, although there is some processing required to reduce resolution and handle the packaging to meet the Zinio requirements. Additionally, recent tests done by VIGC, the Flemish Innovation Center for Graphic Communication, in Belgium have shown that most of the PDF reader/viewers dont properly handle many transparency and overprint requirements. While you may have a good PDF, it still may not look correct on a tablet or in a browser. There are also tools that will allow you to take your PDF and convert it to eMedia formats. Acrobat, for example, has a built-in translation from PDF to HTML. Realistically, the value of this conversion is not very useful unless you are prepared to do a significant amount of editing of the HTML file. Acrobat also provides an XML conversion, which can be used as raw data to flow into a template structure, but requires a significant skill set, the appropriate tools, and some metadata tagged content.

nextPub
There is a lot of new standards activity in developing file formats that support the exploding eMedia tablet and mobile device introductions and adoption. nextPub shows promise as one of those new standards. IDEAlliance, working in collaboration with IDPF (International Digital Publishing Forum), is working on this standard to reach beyond the EPUB format that is supported in many digital book readers. As the channel landscape continues to evolve and change, so too will many of these formats that support the design and production of cross-media processes, although each of the ones Ive highlighted are core or developing formats that will probably be around, in some version, for a long time to come.

Applications and Their Support of Formats

This is really where you can begin to find some practical cross-media workflow solutions. InDesign 7.5, the version that ships with Adobe

2011 FORECAST PART 2: THE PRINT PRODUCTION PROCESS

The Need for Automation in App Making

Dr. Carol Werl, Chief Executive Officer DALIM SOFTWARE +49 7851 919 60 carol.werle@dalim.com www.dalim.com Creating dynamic e-publications can be a challenging, time-consuming, and costly process. While editorial or advertising pages designed for digital interactivity can easily cost twice as much to produce as their printonly versions, the relatively low circulation of digital editions makes it difficult to balance higher manufacturing costs with borderline incremental revenue or benefits. There are a couple of different categories of magazine and newspaper apps to choose from, at the Apple App Store. They all come with quite different cost-effectiveness ratios, while they all try to achieve the same thing: maximizing revenues from publication downloads. Lets take a look at a few apps to better understand cost implications of the technologies chosen.

digital distribution of magazines, in terms of subscriber numbers, are so much greater than actual results.

Newspaper Apps
Now, lets move on to newspapers, and take a look at The Daily app vs. the New York Post app. The first offers you a free trial as enticement to receive $0.99 from you for a weekly subscription, or $39.99 for an entire year. Meanwhile, the Post does not give anything away. It collects $1.99 up front for 30 days and does not offer any lower deal than a $6.99 weekly subscription thereafter. The Daily is a $100 million venture. Its app is considerably custom designed and polished. It includes slideshows, videos, 360 pan views, and well-thought interactive features. The Post, on the other hand, relies on what looks like a relatively simple tabloid layout with HTML5-style scrolling articles and pretty much everything a reader could use, from hyperlinks to page jumps. This app is actually quite appealing, as it includes the minimum one would expect in terms of rich media such as video clips. It also has a familiar layout that looks similar to print, which works quite well. Long story short: Throwing millions at the making of an app is a lot more like throwing millions at the making of a website than the creation of a publication. At the end of the effort, when the app is online, the only thing that counts is how much more revenue/exposure did you get? And when all is said and done, there will be a controller looking at the numbers and asking questions. If youre running the department in charge of making apps, it had better be more successful than a 1990s multimedia CD-ROM distribution program.

Magazine Apps
Recently, Ellen Payne from Hearst Magazines said Popular Mechanics editing costs skyrocketed 180%just to produce the first, free, PopMech App. Similarly, first editions of Wired, Martha Stewart, and Cosmo apps were all quite rich and appealingand free to download on the iPad. Now, try to transpose this situation to a century ago, in the heyday of newspaper publishing. Would anyone ever imagine seeing pretty much the entire industry giving away costly newspapers to entice readers to buy subsequent editions? Actually, one of the most untold truths is that paid app downloadsfrom publishers far more often range within four-digits per issue (less than 10,000), rather than five-digit circulation. And, at the onset, they almost never reach six-digit circulation except for a few front-runners such as Wired magazines app. Extensively interactive apps offer engaging, interactive contentalong with articles worth reading. However, it remains questionable why anyone, apart from travelers and those from our graphic arts industry (for obvious research reasons), would choose an EPUB rather than the physical magazine itselfor the website, for that matter. The main reason is that the physical magazines interface is still, and will likely be for a while, vastly superior to its iPad cousin. This is not new. Multimedia CD-ROMs from the 1990s did not overtake the magazine industry either, and it is amazing how similar many magazine iPad apps are related cousins to them. This is not a good thing and actually turns out to be a fairly large problem when the expectations for

Effective Apps
For the purpose of building and distributing apps cost effectively, there are currently four main technical categories of apps that a content owner will have the option to tap into: 1) The 100% Proprietary App, where development involves a significant amount of coding for a maximum of interactive original effects. 2) The Design Suite-originated Designed App, where conception relies on a dedicated design of layout and content elements for a multimedia type of use. 3) The CMS-driven HTML5 App. 4) PDF-originated Apps, based on repurposing PDF files with some additional originality or quality. The Daily represents a pretty good example of using a Proprietary App model, dedicated to app-only distribution. However, what one must ask is whether the ambitious investment in top-notch journalism to assure quality content was well served by the Proprietary App features. (The Daily is quite alone in the app world, using similar navigation features.) Another great example of such designs is often found among the bestselling automotive print magazines. They have been used to selling millions of print copies every month. Now theyre scrambling to lift elec-

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2011 FORECAST PART 2: THE PRINT PRODUCTION PROCESS

tronic tablet readership beyond low five-digit distribution. Such apps are likely to be the most expensive to build and maintain, because they usually keep developers, IT people, creatives, and editors busy all the time. The wide majority of magazine apps, however, today rely on a conscious design of magazine layouts for use within Designed Apps on tablets. The creative solutions proposed by companies such as WoodWing or Adobe have led the way to a systematic new design process. In those cases, usually helped by templates, designers are generating portrait and landscape views aimed at adapting the layout to the orientation of the tablet. Rich media and connections are then added along the way. Not as costly as the Proprietary Apps mentioned earlier, Designed Apps range probably second in cost. Their main drawback is that manufacturing costs are quite difficult to trim downdesigners and editors need extra hours to create content, as the app relies on new designs every issue. USA Today, the Financial Times, most newspaper apps, and even the Huffington Post iPad apps are leveraging HTML5 website technologyand they represent HTML5 Apps at their best. Their content refreshes continuouslyas soon as online pushes are available and is well suited for daily news. Such apps, in which navigation inherits its principles from the Web, are a lot simpler to maintain than dedicated apps, where content relies on new designs for every issue. Maintaining a library of issues, though, is problematic. While early-stage development costs may be steep, the operating costs are a lot less, because content is automatically pumped to the apps by the CMS (Content Mangement System).

the startbecause if the business model of the app is successful, you will have demand for thousands to produce.
Dr. Carol Werl has directed DALIM SOFTWARE GmbH since the companys capitalization as a software manufacturing company in 1999. Obtaining a Doctorate in physics from the University of Strasbourg in 1985, Carol joined the company, then known as DALiM GmbH, in 1987 as its first support engineer. His first contact to the graphic industry was through Siemens Medical Imaging in Erlangen, Germany, in 1984.

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PDF-originated Apps
PDF-originated apps are the most common apps and are produced by a variety of service providers, from Zinio with its industrial approach to Blue Toad with its few dollars a page deals. Printers are increasingly entering the app-makingmarket, and this type of app is the easiest to begin with. More than anyone, printers need to work out smart solutions to produce apps cost effectively. Since the post processing of PDF files happens after or, at best, concurrently with the print deadline, automation is key. At the same time, enriching and improving the reading experience needs to be done efficiently. While it is relatively easy to categorize these apps today, what tomorrow will bring is certainly an increased complexity through a mix of the technologies within future apps. The reason will be found in part in interactive ads being delivered to a hybrid flatplan, including both HTML5 and PDF-originated content. Add to this an increase in the number of devices in different formats and ever-increasing screen resolutions, and you will have a fairly good idea where the challenges lie ahead.

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Where to Begin
So if you are already in the midst of it or are planning to jumpstart a business of providing apps to your clients, starting from the digital booklet of what you just printed for them is a good beginning. If youre a printer and hope to commence Business-to-Customer distribution of issues through the in-app purchase mechanism, aim at automating your process from

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2011 FORECAST PART 2: THE PRINT PRODUCTION PROCESS

Print Plunges into the Cloud

Julie Shaffer, Vice President, Digital Technologies Printing Industries of America 412-259-1730 jshaffer@printing.org www.printing.org It was inevitable. Most of Apples applications and devices start with the letter i. There are the applications, like iTunes, iMovie, iPhoto, iCal, and iChat and the iOS devices including iPod, iPad, and iPhone. So it only stands to reason that iCloud is the name the company would give to its new cloud-based wireless storage and syncing service, which automatically pushes user content to a server farm via the Internet. Welcome to the latest high-profile product in the increasingly saturated space that is cloud computing.

Cartoon by David Fletcher: www.cloudtweaks.com.

The New Pop Stars

New technologies are like new pop starsa hot topic that is endlessly discussed in the media and around water coolers only to fade out of the limelight once something newer and more interesting comes along. Cloud computing, while its been on the radar since sometime in 2007, is still in its rising-star stage. The cloud as a term comes from the cloud symbol that represents the Internet in flowcharts and diagrams. A cloud is appropriate, because there is no reason to note the specific path data takes when moving through the Internet, the route is determined by whichever path gets the data to the destination the quickest. The cloud computing model enables on-demand network access to a shared pool of computing resources (think IT data centers, with networks, servers, apps, services, and even operating systems) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. When we think of a companys computer network, we tend to think of a server room with racks of humming servers somewhere on the premises. When a company moves to a cloud platform, the physical servers where their data reside are often entirely unknown. Apples server farm is said to be in North Carolina. Amazon supports its Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) data centers in many locations throughout the world. To the end user, as long as their data is accessible on demand through their Web interface, where the data resides should not matter. Cloud computing can be either public, with the service entirely hosted by a third party, or private, owned and managed by an organization and restricted to particular users who can provision their own services.

desktop publishing phenomenon that entirely transformed the printing and publishing industry, moving control of typesetting and layout and image manipulation from production specialists to graphic designers. Cloud computing once again moves applications and processing and data storage away from the local computer and back to a remote physical location. Could this shift be as revolutionary as the PC movement was thirty years ago? Print service providers tended historically to own the technology they use, from presses and workflow solutions to bindery equipment and MIS solutions. While many have built their own e-commerce systems, more have adopted hosted Web-to-print solutions, including the ASP (application service provider) model, more often called SaaS (software-as-a service) today. In this model, an entire business or set of IT applications runs in the cloud. Printers are adopting more SaaS applications every day. Salespeople use CRM (customer relationship management) solutions like Salesforce.com, an SaaS application. Projects are managed using SaaS tools like Basecamp. Blogs are being written on a CMS (content management system) like WordPress. Use of public cloud applications, like LinkedIn, other social media platforms, and even Google apps is widespread. So as an industry we are beginning to accept and move toward cloud-based computing platforms for many types of applications.

2011 FORECAST PART 2: THE PRINT PRODUCTION PROCESS

Cloud Benefits
The benefits are fairly obvious: We have access to tools that are often free or very inexpensive. Cloud computing is similar to a utility, like electricity, where you pay only for what you use. Running our business applications on a cloud platform reduces the need for IT infrastructure, equipment, and staffing for a companysomething especially appealing to new business entrepreneurs. But there are also downsides. Amazon demonstrated one of them in April 2011, when the company experienced a massive data center failure that shut down many Web-based businesses running on its servers, including major websites like Foursquare, Quora, and Reddit. Backup systems that were to prevent this kind of massive failure failed, and millions of users could not access their data or files.

From the Mainframe to the Cloud

Cloud computing harkens back to the days of mainframe computers, when data was stored in corporate computer centers and accessed by the end user through a dumb terminal. The personal computing movement that began in the 1980s democratized computing because the operating system, applications, and data could reside right on our desktop computerswe owned it all. This same pendulum shift helped launch the

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Putting a companys data out there in the cloud can put a company in a vulnerable position. Information technology research firm Gartner published a chilling prediction in the report, Gartners Top Predictions for IT Organizations and Users, 2011 and Beyond: ITs Growing Transparency. The report conjectures that by 2015, a G20 nations critical infrastructure will be disrupted and damaged by online sabotage. They cite the increased number of hacking incidents in recent years as a precursor to such an event and claim the market impact will depend upon the target. Conversely, Gartner is also bullish on cloud computing, predicting in the same report that by 2015, 20% of non-IT Global 500 companies will be cloud service providers and in another that by 2012, 20% of businesses will own no IT assets. Other studies also show an increased interest in cloud computing, especially in the IT sector. IBM conducted a survey of 3,000 CIOs in 2011 and found the subject of cloud computing to take a big leap in importance as part of the visionary plan for participants, nearly doubling from the same survey conducted in 2009. A January 25, 2011, study by Electric Cloud and Osterman Research reveals that 48% of organizations surveyed report using or planning to use private cloud computing and 20% of organizations are currently using public cloud computing, with another 34% investigating with the intent to implement a public cloud. When it comes to cloud computing, the overall message seems to be to proceed, but proceed with caution.

scriptions in the world today, according to a June 2011 report by telecom company Ericsson, who predicts 80% of all people who access the Internet will do so via a mobile device. Odds are that people will want to print from the mobile device to a remote printer. While the concept of CPS is in its embryonic stage, several large vendors are developing platforms to facilitate cloud printing. Xerox and Cisco announced the companies were forming an alliance to provide cloudbased solutions, including mobile printing. Xerox Mobile Print Solution enables users to email print jobs to a Xerox multifunction printer (MFP) from a mobile device. The system returns a security code and holds the job until the sender gets to any MFP on the network and releases it using the security code. The alliance with Cisco will offer enhanced security, WAN optimization, and Internetwork Operating System (IOS) software to the system. Google Cloud Print is the Internet giants foray into cloud printing services. The system lets users send print jobs created in a Google application (Chrome OS, Google Docs, Gmail for mobile) from a computer or mobile device to any email-enabled printer or directly to a Cloud Ready HP ePrint printer. EFI offers a service called PrintMe, allowing users to send print projects to a PrintMe-enabled printer via email or a printer driver. We can expect to see more cloud printing solutions come to market in the coming months.

Cloud Printing Services

With operating systems, applications, and content all existing and running in the cloud, can printing from it be far behind? Enter the concept of cloud printing services (CPS). Just as cloud computing allows businesses to rent servers/apps/storage on an as-needed basis, consumers can rent print and distribution from a service provider as needed (home, office, and commercial). An April 2011 study from Gartner, Tactical Guidelines for Evaluating the Cloud Printing Service Business Case identifies CPS as hosted offerings that enable users to print documents and other content on any digital printer, copier, or multifunction product that is associated with the cloud. A CPS enables users who do not have access to their personal or work printers to print to any cloud-attached device. The report details a number of business drivers that will accelerate cloud printing:
Businesses/consumers want print on demand. Companies use cloud applications already. Employees are becoming increasingly mobile. Employees use new types of devices. It reduces IT, purchasing, and facilities management costs

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associated with printer management.

Users retain control of the printing process but do not have to

manage printers. Cloud printing solutions will be aimed largely at users of mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets. There are five billion mobile phone sub-

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Plug-In to Graphic Design: Programs Create Special Effects

Dennis Mason, President Mason Consulting Inc. 708-246-7786 masonconsulting@sbcglobal.net www.masonconsulting.com Recent literature in the printing industry has counseled printers to move beyond the traditional role of print manufacturer toward that of becoming a marketing services provider. But this is arguably a difficult goal to reach. Services often suggested for printers include mailing, kitting products for distribution, providing warehouse storage for printed items, and even reinstating the very prepress functions abandoned not long ago. But lets face it: Printers prefer business that keeps the press running. Not only have printers invested heavily in the press itself, but in the workers that know how to make that press produce what customers like. So the best expansion of print services, for many at least, is one that increases press utilization and works within the existing workflow. Here is a recent technology that could help printers achieve those goals:

The Latest Process

For decades, metallic printing has been the process that everyone hated. Graphic designers and prepress personnel found creating masks to be time consuming, tedious, and inexact at best. Press operators found it hard to control metallic inks and had difficulty matching the press output to the proof. Densitometers reading metallic prints produced differing results depending on the angle at which the measurement was made. Aqueous and ultraviolet coatings dulled down the metallics to the point of making them not worth the extra effort and cost. Bindery personnel complained about scuffing. The print sales force saw metallics as jobs to be avoided, since customers were seen as unlikely to be content with the result. Brand managers were concerned about consistency of packages throughout a run, and about their inability to faithfully reproduce a metallic package in collateral material or on banners or signs. Those using foil labels or foil board packaging materials were frustrated when they tried to show their package in print. The bottom line: When customers wanted a metallic look, plenty of people were waiting to discourage them and disparage the process.

In the 2011 Printing Industries of Ohio N. Kentucky Print Excellence Competition, member Stevenson Color of Cincinnati won Best of the Campaign Category for its marketing program promoting their ability to print metallics using offset.

2011 FORECAST PART 2: THE PRINT PRODUCTION PROCESS

used, but the company has closed and the inks are no longer available. The remarkable difference between MetalFX and Color-Logic is that while the MetalFX process was applicable only to offset lithography, the ColorLogic process works equally well when using offset, flexo, digital (such as the HP Indigo and Xeikon), inkjet (including the EFI Jetrion press), and wide- and grand-format digital printing. Thus, for the first time, entire marketing campaigns can be based on the use of metallic printing, using processes across the entire print spectrum. The Color-Logic process begins with a simple plug-in for conventional graphic design programs such as Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and QuarkXPress. The software produces five filesCMYK plus silver, or CMYK plus white for printing on metallic substrates. Masking is automatic, requiring only a mouse click. In addition, special effects such as watermarking and security features can be incorporated in the files. Of course, some images are more appropriate for metallization than others, but the company offers proven stock images on a royalty-free basis to designers. Video tutorials and telephone help are available for those considering metallics for the first time. Designers or print buyers can select a licensed Color-Logic printer from the companys website. Printers interested in the Color-Logic process can participate on two levels. The company offers all printers a perpetual site license to print. But licensed printers are encouraged to become Certified Color-Logic printers by submitting samples they have produced for inspection and certification by the company. Marketing materials and files for printing color swatch samples are part of the license, and printers are encouraged to

The Technology Change

But a recent technological breakthrough has dramatically changed things. Today, virtually every issue from the past has been resolved. And with that resolution comes the opportunity for printers to dramatically broaden their service offerings and effectively partner with marketing personnel and brand managers, all while increasing time on press. The metallic logjam has been broken by Color-Logic, a startup company that addressed the problems with metallics and solved them one by one. Color-Logic must not be confused with MetalFX, a short-lived British company that offered a seemingly similar, but markedly different metallic process. The MetalFX license stipulated that only MetalFX inks could be

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use the materials to demonstrate to graphic designers and brand managers exactly what they can produce. Printers with in-house design capability find the marketing materials effectively augment the efforts of sales personnel who must explain the process. In addition to qualifying printers who license the Color-Logic process, the company also qualifies inks, substrates, flexo plates, wide- and grandformat printers, and other commodities that printers may need to successfully execute the metallic files. The company also works with various press manufacturers to ensure that press support personnel understand the process and can assist their printer customers with any issues that may arise. The various levels of user support and qualification testing make this a technology that can be implemented quickly and easily. Today, more and more printers find themselves with several processes under the same roof. Offset presses are now complemented by digital presses and wide-format printers, and the ability to print metallics using a variety of machines means that printers can become more of a one-stop shop for print buyers. Label printers no longer need to worry about the economic crossover point between flexography and digital, when either process can produce metallics effectively. Point-of-purchase material and structures can now faithfully emulate the package being displayed. Store banners can show metallic packages, or simply be enhanced with metallic images.

This is not to say that offering metallics is a silver (pun intended) bullet. Graphic designers and brand managers need to be convinced that metallics are indeed not only possible, but practical. The print buyers that often constitute the major stops on print sales personnel rounds cannot make the decision to use metallics, so different specifying contacts such as brand managers and product specialists must be cultivated. Printers need competent prepress operators to check files and ensure the printability of files on their presses. Press operators must learn to think of proofs in a different context. Still, technologies such as Color-Logic, which trade on printers strengths, rather than requiring going in different directions, offer the best opportunity for growing sales in a stagnant economy. Licensing arrangements, such as those offered by Color-Logic, offer printers the opportunity to differentiate themselves from others, particularly those whose marketing dogma is We can do that, too! When all is said and done, what printers do best is print, so technologies which leverage that ability offer the best and quickest payoff.
Mason Consulting, Inc., is a firm specializing in marketing and technology issues in the graphic arets and electronics industries.

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2011 FORECAST PART 2: THE PRINT PRODUCTION PROCESS

HOT Off the Press

Where Do We Go from Here?

Fabian Prudhomme, Vice President Enfocus Software +32 (0) 9 216 90 24 fabianp@enfocus.com www.enfocus.com It is without question that our industry has experienced sizable technological advancementswith fairly regular frequencysince the late 1900s. drupa alone has undoubtedly had influence in creating a pattern distinguished by one or two moderately significant developments per year, punctuated by substantial innovations that, every five or so years, gives rise to changes that extend beyond product management to affect overall business models. Examples such as desktop publishing, computer-to-plate, and variable printing have brought major change to the segment. Frank Romano said in 2010, The printing industry is so exciting because it is constantly changing. Its changed more in the last twenty years than in the previous 600 years. We are very fortunate to be part of this industry and witness the digital transformation that is taking place today.

It was a good learning experience, and surprise! Print on paper has not gone away! We now know that printalthough a much smaller piece of the pie by itselfwill not only support itself in years to come, but its significance is now coming in a new form: its positive influence on the value of cross-media elements.

Where Do We Go from Here?

Its easier to summarize this history and bring us to this point, than to be a business owner and know how to proceed. Today we find ourselves in a world where digital printing and publishing is gaining in importance very quickly, but not necessarily killing conventional print at the same time. Printers who have managed to stay afloat and even set themselves up for growth are the ones who have mastered the art of combining print and cross-media, effectively making these categories as complementary in production as they are in the hands of the end user. You can bet it wasnt easy for them. Massive change of this type triggers a reaction. The key is to manage that change in a positive fashion. As soon as change like this is recognized, business owners can and should define their own change management process. Some companies pay attention to this, but most do not. All too often, change is assumed to have been dealt with by someone inside an organizationwhen in truth it has not, or it is pushed through from the top down. Failure to recognize that printing organizations need to progress through several majorsometimes time-consuming, but necessarystages before change can be implemented and supported, often ends in frustration, discontent, or operational inefficiencies. Here are a few points about how companies could have reacted/can react moving forward:
Find a niche. A friend told me that printing companies should

The Coolness Factor

During these twenty years, coolness overflowed its usual creative boundaries and started flowing, albeit upstream, into prepress and even the pressroom. Macintoshes abound, and the kids wanted to be in the business. Exhilaration and apprehension were mixed. Vendors were flush with patents and cash. Those on the shop floor knew they would start losing customers to the faster turnaround, increasingly digital shops, so they began teaching themselves how to code while they waited for their bosses to get it. Many bosses did (get it) and in those cases, relevant professional development, as well as hardware and software investments, were made. As the years went by, developments became more digital and automated (and expensive) than ever before. More and more mom and pop shops as well as larger operations equally in denialfought an inevitable wave of digital production and eventually ceased to exist. Then, in the middle of the last decade, the perfect storm began to form. The world economy began to collapse, while simultaneously many millions of mostly middle- and upper-class adolescents and young adults, as yet unaffected by the downturn, stopped reading on paper.

2011 FORECAST PART 2: THE PRINT PRODUCTION PROCESS

specialize to set themselves apart and guarantee their future. The danger, however, is that most printing companies can print whatever job is thrown at them, either directly or by using some workaround. Sometimes, they do so at very low (or no) margins, and even if they are hurting themselves costwise, they believe they are doing the best thing by never turning down business. A solution that satisfies might be one in which the printer assesses usual pricing for the type of printing in question, and in turn keeps its pricing in line accordingly. At the very least, the printer should communicate the effort required for such jobs, as well as the going price, with the customer. This is only fair to our colleagues who may specialize in that type of work and may be desperately working to retain the legitimate profit margins deserved.
Avoid pitting conventional and digital printing against

Stopped Reading on Paper

This was a completely different development. This was a fundamental cornerstone of modern society rocked to its very core. Those who may have only been scared, became paralyzed.

each other. There exists a battle-like undertone of conventional printing vs. digital printing in the industry. Many printers are rallying around the idea that the digital evolution will hurt the way (they) have been doing business, and push a point of view that sees their way of life being threatened. King Whitney Jr. once

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said, Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful it is threatening because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful it is encouraging because things may get better. To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better.
Recognize an opportunity to define the new graphic arts

production landscape. In line with Mr. Whitneys viewpoint, the confident went ahead and embraced the many changes that presented themselves to the printing industry. More importantly, they quickly began to understand that survival was not a matter of traditional vs. digital, or before vs. after, but rather a combination of both. When you look at thriving graphic arts businesses today, you will often see that they have found a way to combine the best of both worlds, thinking in terms of traditional AND digital, paper AND e-media, etc. I believe this is key to success. For the first time in a long time, commercial printers and editors had the opportunity to define the new landscape of their business, making it much more challenging, interesting, visually appealing, and cool than ever before. Those who are confident know that a magazine can no longer exist only as a paper-based medium of communication. To be relevant, especially to increasing numbers of younger and tablet-savvy populations, magazines will be paper with printed text and pictures like before but will add one or more elements of new, interactive communication vehicles that offer a variety of reader experiences, as well as new ways to generate advertising revenue. These include augmented reality, QR codes, and multi-touch offerings using PURLs. The fact is that people content consumers, for the sake of this discussionknow what

they want to read and view, where they want to get it from, when they want it, and how they want it. Moreover, consumers are willing to pay for these services. They are no longer paying for information alone; they are paying for increased levels of interaction. The greater the distribution of content, the more powerful the community around it. While we forge a path through this digital age, we are seeing that there are so many ways to be creative and to meet the requirements and expectations of an audience that we have just glimpsed the beginning of what is possible using a combination of paper-based printing and e-media. The bottom line is that the printing and publishing industry must identify and pay close attention to what people value. Be mindful of the digital content tipping point in order to be wary of what people are willing to pay for and what they arent.

Recipe for Success

We must remember that the major changes we are going through are not exclusive to people in our industry. Humans have a magnificent ability to adapt, both individually and collectively. Know that the survivors are not necessarily the ones that invested in the best technology or the most promising trend, but rather companies that are able to keep an open mind, analyze the various elements and steps that need to be considered before making a decision, and, above all, combine the best of what everyone has to offer. In the midst of this exciting era in our industry the landscape is changing whether we are ready for it or not. It is a time for flexibility and a true willingness to make things better, even if it proves a challenge to do so. We can all be part of Whitneys confident group, embracing what is new and thinking about how we can participate and be a positive part of it.

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2011 FORECAST PART 2: THE PRINT PRODUCTION PROCESS

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