PI 400 -- Books - Judging a Book

Plain and simple, the book printing segment has not lived up to its expectations for this year, says David Mead, vice president of sales and marketing for the Banta Book Group. Mead points to a few reasons for this market falling short of strong pre-2001 predictions.

"There have been significant mergers and acquisitions of major publishers during the year," Mead recounts. "High expectations from educational publishers for 2001 expressed in late 2000 did not materialize from a manufacturing perspective. Unit growth declined and educational publishers burned off inventory manufactured in 2000."