The other day I had the privilege of listening to one of the lead industry economist serving the print industry, Andrew Paparozzi of NAPL. He was giving a “state of print” address and indicated that this recession is atypical of any that he has experienced. Most printers will be or already are going through a “structural change”, a change that affects the operation and profitability of a print shop.
Structural change is redefining our services, markets, clients, competition, work force, critical skills, value proposition, and everything else that counts. – Andrew Paparozzi
Some of this change is being driven by competition in alternative media streams and changing tastes in the consumption of information. The Pew Research Center’s opinion poll from this past December, for the first time, registered more people reading their news online than from newspapers. For the internet savvy, there are even more options to find relevant news with near instant gratification – news in real time. Facebook, YouTube, RSS feeds, and Twitter tweets are just a few methods for digesting loads of news and information. Can these new outlets replace the distribution channels and vast audience of printed newspapers? The Obama Presidential campaign would suggest the power of new media was instrumental in getting the candidates message to a far greater audience than traditionally thought possible. The campaign also illustrates the organic nature of new media where the readers also become the promoters of the message by linking and recommending the message to their own social networks (Facebook, Reddit, StumbleUpon, etc.)
Personally, I still subscribe to my local newspaper but only on Sunday for coupon clipping. I get the majority of my news updates through RSS feeds (currently 60+) which I check on a daily basis.
As an industry, we are just starting to dip our toes into these uncharted waters through company blogs and wikis. With such changing media trends, how is your print business harnessing the power of social media to benefit your clients?
