Printers Go Digital or Get Left Behind

The printing industry is rumbling into a complex business landscape of declining newspaper circulation, an uncertain economy and a demand for quicker, cheaper and more technologically advanced services.
As with many other industries, printing companies have a choice of investing in rapidly evolving digital equipment or being left behind.
“It’s a shrinking industry, and we are seeing more and more companiesconsolidating or going out of business,” said Ed Shalifoux, president of the Printing Industry Association of the South, a seven-state regional trade organization. “Every printer has to invest in technology and more efficient pre-press processes in order to stay economical and efficient.”
The printing industry in Arkansas comprises 331 printers employing more than 8,500 and competing for more than $1.3 billion in annual revenue, according to the PIAS. Nationally, there are more than 35,000 companies that share about $90 billion in revenue.
Several international printing conglomerates have revenue in the billions — one of which, Quebecor World of Canada, has a Jonesboro operation. But most printers, especially in Arkansas, are small- to medium-sized companies that operate with about 20 employees and record annual revenue of around $5 million. Those printers include The RoArk Group of Rogers and Weldon Williams & Lick of Fort Smith.
And many of those printers supply — directly or indirectly — the retail industry with signage, collateral materials and custom published magazines.
Only 4 percent of the country’s printing companies have more than 100 employees, according to the Rochester Institute of Technology.
The digital age and computer technology helped Arkansas’ larger printers by essentially making a small series of big changes to better accompany its traditional presses, but it is forcing smaller companies to constantly broaden their entire business plan to offer more services.
“Smaller companies have to deal more with advanced marketing technology and newer forms of printing that serve a broader scope of customers quicker,” said Frank Parke, executive vice president at Democrat Printing & Lithographing Co. of Little Rock, one of the state’s largest independent printers. “A lot of that doesn’t affect us. We had to make a big switch from film to digital in pre-press techniques, but our main business is still magazines and catalogues off traditional presses.”
On the flip side, Paul Strack, president at Custom Printing of North Little Rock, said the digital revolution and the new services it has spawned surpassed the 15-employee company’s traditional offset press revenue for the first time in September.
“The two sides are really complementing each other very well right now,” he said. “The key is to find ways to keep up with the technology without exhausting your revenues.”
Investing large amounts back into the business is a necessity in the competitive landscape in the central Arkansas market, according to Kristi Dannelley, chief financial officer at Magna IV of Little Rock, the state’s largest sheet-fed printer.
Dannelley said Magna IV recently invested more than $3 million in a high-tech color press that will cut time and add quality while quickly paying for itself.
Magna IV’s new eight-color perfecting press runs at 11,000-13,000 sheets per hour and prints color on both sides of a sheet on the same pass. That essentially cuts the printing time in half when compared to traditional presses in which the sheet of paper has to be flipped and sent back through for printing on the second side.
“We cut production time and costs at the same time,” said Kent Middleton, president of Magna IV.
New Leaves
But simply adding a new, high-tech press to the mix is only half the game, said Middleton.
“Along with a lot of the new software and presses come new ways to do business,” he said.
Strack said the evolution of technology and the development of new services are causing him to upgrade the 40-year-old company’s name as well, from Custom Printing to Custom XM — Cross-Media Communications.
One example of how new software has changed the industry is called variable data printing (VDP), which allows for more personalized marketing and direct-mail techniques.
“Imagine running off an entire job for a client but individual parts of that job are geared toward the specific interests of one individual,” said Strack.
The concept is not new — Ed McMahon and Publisher’s Clearing-house have been inserting individual names in mailings to potential prize winners. But printers can now additionally target certain graphics and tailor pieces of information to clients’ needs on the same press run.
Strack said a new take on VDP is the concept of “personalized landing pages” — individualized Web addresses that allow the recipients of printed marketing pieces to find customized information on the Internet.
“Once they go to that personalized URL, the client would get an immediate e-mail notifying them a potential customer has visited,” said Strack.
Get In Where You Fit In
While most printing companies have had to evolve their equipment and services to stay relevant, Weldon Williams & Lick in Fort Smith simply found a niche to dominate. The highly secretive company founded in 1887 is now one of the world’s premiere ticket printers.
According to WW&L, a desperate manager of an opera house at the time visited the printer in dire need of reserved seat tickets after a deal with a large East Coast printer fell through.
The company went on to secure accounts with the Ringling Bros. Circus and the St. Louis Cardinals and today prints tickets for major sporting and entertainment events worldwide — including the Super Bowl.
But like other printers, WW&L’s technology and business plan has also had to evolve with the times. The company also prints college parking stickers, state validation stickers, ski-lift tickets, game and fish stamps and other security-specific items. Its presses have had to accommodate modern security standards for tickets like holograms and coding.
The company now employs more than 330 and records nearly $40 million in annual sales.