noelward
Well-known member
The End of Professionals
By Noel Ward, Editor@Large
Have you noticed that the plethora of “how to” videos on You Tube (and others) are often missing key information or best practices? This lapse is one of the reasons you wind up burning a couple hours watching six videos to do a job that will take 45 minutes. Chalk it up to life in the age of pseudo experts who spew misinformation.
On some FM station broadcast in the car (I’d already seen this online) it was pointed out that several million people have now become AI-enabled writers, publishers, video producers, printers, auto mechanics, builders, graphic designers, electricians, scientists, and far more. No degree or experience required! A small handful are good at it. Making it worse, the vast majority of people creating the videos often assume viewers possess the skills and tools required to do the job being described. This is scary and in the case of auto repair, electricity, plumbing, carpentry, and others, threatening to life and limb.
This carries over to printing, especially in an age when short runs have become the norm and things we have taken for granted—like folding and binding—have become less than essential. OK, lest the color wonks send me more hate mail, I am aware that the brand police are still out in force. The 85,000-page jobs coming off the big Koenig & Bauer press will most assuredly be properly color managed. This is not always the case for lower quantity jobs landing in the output trays of home and small office digital printers. While toner and inkjet devices can be color managed (to some extent), the “experts” making videos on Tik Tok and You Tube will proclaim that whatever color you see is fine. Sometimes it can be.
What’s worse is that these self-proclaimed experts are among the reasons your print volume may be shrinking. Equipment vendors are also to blame. The Canon printer in my office will happily churn out hundreds of full-color duplex pages while I sleep. A few years back these pages would have gone to one of the local print shops where a bigger, faster and better Canon or whatever would have been put into action. Today, the print shop may just get the finishing.
But I digress. Sorry.
Dumbing down Print
What web-powered expertise enables is the dumbing down print and many other endeavors —removing the craft and skill while minimizing the expertise of professionals. The upshot is that many print pros may need to cast a wider net and take on unfamiliar jobs. The question is determining which kinds of jobs make sense in a given market. Some shops I’ve talked with are already headed in this direction.
One printer I spoke with had added large format printing and found a growing market. While some existing customers liked the wide machines for signage, he also found new customers. In his case, he was urged on by a local photographer who haunted the sidelines of local high school football games. The photographer believed parents would pay for poster-size images of their kids in action. He was right. Seeing opportunity the shooter and the printer expanded their offering to other schools, other sports and even to theater. Commercial printing is still the printer’s main revenue source but large format has opened up a line of revenue. The photographer has done okay, too.
Another printer near me uses his large format machine almost exclusively for tourists’ vacation photos. It’s seasonal work for his shop but still nice for his bank account from May through October. He promotes his work through hotels, Airbnbs and the Chamber of Commerce. I suggested how some of his regular customers might be able to use the big printer for signage and trade shows. He’s talking with them.
Other printers I’ve talked with have started producing labels for locally produced wines, beers and foodstuffs. Like large format, these are a sideline but your existing offset or digital press may be more than capable once loaded with the right substrates. With food and beverage labels you have to comply with state and federal rules about content but your customer probably knows what these are. Labels, by the way, come in self-adhesive and glue-applied flavors, so know what the customer prefers or expects. For many local products short runs of labels may be all that’s needed. As with large-format prints, labels can be a way to supplement what you are doing, while not changing the main focus of your business.
So What About You?
I’m interested in hearing about what you do or are thinking about doing. There is no right or wrong answer and there are as many answers as there are print shops. Tell me what might work for you, what wouldn’t, and so on. I know that in some cases an investment in equipment and/or software might be required, and that this can be a barrier. So can entering a new market. Yet we can all learn from each other. Please tell me how any of these may or may not be a fit for you. And also what would you consider if it’s not on the list below.
If you are thinking about other areas of printing, which of the following are you most interested in? Please use a scale of 1 to 4, with 1 being Very Interested and 4 being Not at All Interested.
If you are Very or Somewhat interested (a 1 or 2 on the scale) please tell me why. All responses are private and stay that way. This is just basic market research and input is only useful in aggregate.
Please e-mail your responses to me at [email protected]. It’s secure (only I have access) and I delete responses once I import them to an encrypted folder on my computer.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
By Noel Ward, Editor@Large
Have you noticed that the plethora of “how to” videos on You Tube (and others) are often missing key information or best practices? This lapse is one of the reasons you wind up burning a couple hours watching six videos to do a job that will take 45 minutes. Chalk it up to life in the age of pseudo experts who spew misinformation.
On some FM station broadcast in the car (I’d already seen this online) it was pointed out that several million people have now become AI-enabled writers, publishers, video producers, printers, auto mechanics, builders, graphic designers, electricians, scientists, and far more. No degree or experience required! A small handful are good at it. Making it worse, the vast majority of people creating the videos often assume viewers possess the skills and tools required to do the job being described. This is scary and in the case of auto repair, electricity, plumbing, carpentry, and others, threatening to life and limb.
This carries over to printing, especially in an age when short runs have become the norm and things we have taken for granted—like folding and binding—have become less than essential. OK, lest the color wonks send me more hate mail, I am aware that the brand police are still out in force. The 85,000-page jobs coming off the big Koenig & Bauer press will most assuredly be properly color managed. This is not always the case for lower quantity jobs landing in the output trays of home and small office digital printers. While toner and inkjet devices can be color managed (to some extent), the “experts” making videos on Tik Tok and You Tube will proclaim that whatever color you see is fine. Sometimes it can be.
What’s worse is that these self-proclaimed experts are among the reasons your print volume may be shrinking. Equipment vendors are also to blame. The Canon printer in my office will happily churn out hundreds of full-color duplex pages while I sleep. A few years back these pages would have gone to one of the local print shops where a bigger, faster and better Canon or whatever would have been put into action. Today, the print shop may just get the finishing.
But I digress. Sorry.
Dumbing down Print
What web-powered expertise enables is the dumbing down print and many other endeavors —removing the craft and skill while minimizing the expertise of professionals. The upshot is that many print pros may need to cast a wider net and take on unfamiliar jobs. The question is determining which kinds of jobs make sense in a given market. Some shops I’ve talked with are already headed in this direction.
One printer I spoke with had added large format printing and found a growing market. While some existing customers liked the wide machines for signage, he also found new customers. In his case, he was urged on by a local photographer who haunted the sidelines of local high school football games. The photographer believed parents would pay for poster-size images of their kids in action. He was right. Seeing opportunity the shooter and the printer expanded their offering to other schools, other sports and even to theater. Commercial printing is still the printer’s main revenue source but large format has opened up a line of revenue. The photographer has done okay, too.
Another printer near me uses his large format machine almost exclusively for tourists’ vacation photos. It’s seasonal work for his shop but still nice for his bank account from May through October. He promotes his work through hotels, Airbnbs and the Chamber of Commerce. I suggested how some of his regular customers might be able to use the big printer for signage and trade shows. He’s talking with them.
Other printers I’ve talked with have started producing labels for locally produced wines, beers and foodstuffs. Like large format, these are a sideline but your existing offset or digital press may be more than capable once loaded with the right substrates. With food and beverage labels you have to comply with state and federal rules about content but your customer probably knows what these are. Labels, by the way, come in self-adhesive and glue-applied flavors, so know what the customer prefers or expects. For many local products short runs of labels may be all that’s needed. As with large-format prints, labels can be a way to supplement what you are doing, while not changing the main focus of your business.
So What About You?
I’m interested in hearing about what you do or are thinking about doing. There is no right or wrong answer and there are as many answers as there are print shops. Tell me what might work for you, what wouldn’t, and so on. I know that in some cases an investment in equipment and/or software might be required, and that this can be a barrier. So can entering a new market. Yet we can all learn from each other. Please tell me how any of these may or may not be a fit for you. And also what would you consider if it’s not on the list below.
If you are thinking about other areas of printing, which of the following are you most interested in? Please use a scale of 1 to 4, with 1 being Very Interested and 4 being Not at All Interested.
- Bills & Statements 1 2 3 4
- Books/booklets 1 2 3 4
- Direct mail 1 2 3 4
- Photo Printing 1 2 3 4
- Fabric Printing 1 2 3 4
- Labels 1 2 3 4
- Metal printing 1 2 3 4
- Packaging (other than labels) 1 2 3 4
- Shorter runs of what we already do 1 2 3 4
- Signage 1 2 3 4
- Vehicle wraps 1 2 3 4
- Wide/large format 1 2 3 4
- Something else (please specify): _____________________________________________.
Please e-mail your responses to me at [email protected]. It’s secure (only I have access) and I delete responses once I import them to an encrypted folder on my computer.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
