WOA 06 Special Report — Rolling With the Changes

“The industry as a whole is trying to preserve its market share against the more immediate media,” Holliday notes. “The heavy iron, to a degree, is also fighting to preserve its place against toner-based, variable data printing.

“I think the most significant single phrase for web offset is ‘run lengths declining in most market segments.’ Printers are having to do more makereadies per impressions printed, and it’s taking more presses to produce the same amount of printed matter in a year. The impact of spreading the same fixed overhead for a press across fewer good signatures sneaks up on printers,” he asserts.