Editorial: Opportunity in change

A month into the new year – and no news is good news in regard to collapsing print businesses, in contrast to last year which saw two high profile firms fall over before the rest of us had time to adjust our belts to take account of the Christmas mince pies.

The reasons for company collapses are manifold, and ProPrint readers will be more than interested to read our exclusive inside account of the demise of Sumo Visual which is in this issue, and which shows the impact on a business when management loses focus, bases its projections on less than sure foundations, and fails to respond quickly enough to changing market conditions.

One company that is responding to the changing market is Valley Edge Design, a small print business in Brisbane for whom the outlook was not looking particularly bright a few years ago. The owner made a relatively modest investment in business consultants – half of the funds came from the government – and the changes he made as a result have seen his business model change, a growth strategy implemented, and his company is now travelling on an upward trajectory, read the full story in this issue.

Opportunities to grow print in new fields are now emerging, and one of the biggest is probably in printed electronics, where the number of devices is set to skyrocket from the billions to the trillions.

Printed electronics is a specialist field, but there is no inherent reason why a print business cannot become a specialist, if it is prepared to put in the time and effort, which will be significant, but the rewards are potentially more than significant. Check out the feature story on printed electronics which is also in this jam-packed issue of ProPrint.

As we come back to work from the holiday season we come to a changing landscape, and, as the Japanese emperor said when the Enola Gay dropped its nuclear payload on Hiroshima, one that is not necessarily going in our favour.

Print is under attack on many fronts; as budgets shrink, as electronic media grows, as ill-informed environmentalists spruik their message, but printers can have confidence because printed communication works. More than ever though printers are going to have to get on the front foot to win.

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If you have a news story or tip-off, get in touch at editorial@sprinter.com.au.  

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