PrintLeadership's blog

What is the difference between a printer and a stegosaurus?

The stegosaurus didn’t see the asteroid coming.

It’s sad, but true.

For years, the worlds of marketing and publishing have been shifting every more heavily toward electronic communications. E-zines, and online catalogs have supplanted their ink-on-paper counterparts. Email blasts and social networking are proving to be slick, cheap ways to get a quick promotional messages out to a wide and reasonably interested audience. Books can be downloaded wirelessly and read on personal tablets. And ad spending has moved online, accelerating the demise of the daily newspaper and some monthly periodicals.

The printing industry saw it coming. So why is it shocked, frightened, and downright indignant about the way things have changed? And why is it responding with “old-world” thinking and clutching ever-more-tightly to the 6-unit hunks of iron in the back room as if they were lifeboats, instead of the boat anchors they could become if printers don’t change their approach to business.

Can the printed page hold a candle to a Kindle? Is commercial printing destined to be an endangered species? Can today’s printer outfox the electronic juggernaut?

PrintLeadership believes that the future belongs to those who change. And, scary or not, by taking the plunge into unfamiliar waters, tenacious printers will not only survive, they will prosper.

Upbeat, outspoken, and occasionally outrageous, PrintLeadership founder Peter Nowack uses the Gutenberg is Dead platform to lay down a challenge to the graphic communications community:
Let go of the iron lifeboat and swim towards more prosperous shores – change your business paradigm.

PrintLeadership’s Gutenberg is Dead program offers insights, examples and exhortations to help printers:

• Break the “tie-to-technology” that keeps them from getting ahead;


• Become market-focused rather than production focused;


• Adopt a solutions-based business model that is far more vital than selling impressions;


• Use paradigm change to establish a leadership position in the marketplace;


• Understand the role of risk-taking as a tool for success in evolving markets; and


• Embrace change in the marketplace as an opportunity for growth and profit.

If your business publishes, prints or designs catalogs or direct mail, you need to attend PrintLeadership's latest market-education workshop, Insufficient Postage: The Truth About ‘Do Not Mail’.

Designed for catalog publishers, financial institutions, bulk mailers, printers and others involved in direct marketing by mail, the workshop analyzes the issues and motives behind the “Do Not Mail” market campaign launched in 2008 by the environmental activist group, Forest Ethics.

The workshop also dissects the real and perceived threats of the campaign and offers practical strategies and solutions to help companies respond appropriately and continue to prosper in the face of a changing business environment.

For additional information on workshop curricula, available dates, and fees, email DoNotMail@printleadership.com.