While the worst years for the Australian printing industry are behind it, revenues are expected to continue to decline over the next five years, according to a new Ibisworld report. Digital disruption, excess capacity and low-cost imports are given primary blame for the industry’s woes, which Ibisworld expects to continue to at least 2019. Alen Allday, Ibisworld analyst, says, “Consumers and businesses are increasingly trading and conducting business online without the aid of printed materials.
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“New media continues to encroach into the domain of book and periodical publishing, as the printed word proves slow to produce and costly to distribute.” Bill Healey, CEO of the PIAA, says he is unsurprised by the figures, but ‘reports of our death are greatly exaggerated,’ as the study fails to take into account the migration of savvy printing businesses into also offering digital media services – the channel Ibisworld highlights as the industry’s major competition for advertising dollars. Printers, he says, are more adaptable than the report gives them credit for, and the PIAA with its Future Print programme aims to meet the industry’s challenges head on. He says, “These numbers are no surprise to anyone in the industry, the question is what are we going to do with them? I think there are some green shoots, and in many cases we have acknowledged that we are an industry in transition, through our Future Print project. “Part of our processes going forward are to help our members and the broader industry understand and assess how they can operate in what we see increasingly as a print information and communication world.” He adds that the jury is still out on whether digital and internet channels will remain popular with marketers; with a number of disillusioned marketing companies now questioning their investment in social media for advertising – particularly after an Australia Post survey found that Australians feel themselves to be more receptive to catalogues. While onshore book printing may be being undercut by low cost imports, Healey says printers can look to other sources of revenue set to grow in the future. He tells AP, “We need to help businesses to build relationships in other areas, such as packaging digital formatting and wide format – there are a number of sectors where people are blossoming, moving into healthy new revenue streams. “Australia is set to be a key element of Asia’s food security in the future; we know through our discussions with the food industry and government body that food packaging is going to be an integral part of that process. Our guys are key players in this space.”
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