Book printers look to digital printing and e-publishing in 2009 and 2010 busines outlook

By Erik Cagle

eBooks No Eliminator

As the Amazon Kindle came into its own and other technology providers began to unveil their versions of the electronic reader, the traditional book market was of two minds. One, the e-reader is here to stay. Secondly, as currently configured, the reader stands as a complementary technology as opposed to a cannibal.

Worldcolor’s Kevin Clarke makes an excellent point: People will purchase products they want, delivered in the way they want them, and in the time they want them.

“We have positioned all aspects of our organization to embrace the technology and understand that content is king. Our ability to provide more options in the whole stream of that process is part of the mantra that we have to blend the newest and best technology with digital print engines,” Clarke says. “Our new hybrid equipment has the ability to run shorter quantities effectively, and has the horsepower, width and speed to run millions with the least amount of labor.

“As the business moves in this direction, we will benefit at every one of the points where people are requiring service—be they traditional print,  logistics and all the things that used to go into a book. We benefit from the dynamics of a changing market, and that’s not by accident.”

One area where electronic readers could presumably make inroads on market share is in the higher education realm, where the cost of textbooks is high and the shelf life of an edition often short. Courier’s Peter Tobin has followed the Kindle with interest, noting that several universities have experimented with using the device, with mixed results. The novelty soon wore off, he says, and, in the end, students preferred the printed text.

“Until there is a full four-color offering, e-books will have a modest impact on educational materials,” he says. “I can’t predict what the next generation is going to (prefer). And it’s precipitous for anyone to say that e-books are going to cause the decline of a particular market of publishing. These things take time to take hold.”

IT IS fascinating to note what market influence the recession has visited on the book market, beyond the tempering of consumer confidence. The 2009 campaign's slump has not only impacted how much we read, but what we read. But even in an atmosphere of printing platform right sizing and other business-related reconciliation, it is difficult to take any view but an optimistic one of the past year and the coming fortunes in 2010.

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