Keeping Print Relevant -- A Call to Arms

But now there is an industry organization with one goal: making the case for our medium. That organization is The Print Council (www.theprintcouncil.org). Yes, there are already industry associations and trade organizations. But we have never had, prior to The Print Council’s existence, a strong and committed alliance of industry resources focused on educating both our own industry and the media community of the importance of print and, most importantly, the role that print can and should play in the overall media mix.

Andrew Tribute recently echoed this by offering several very topical thoughts about the viability of print. Most significantly, he noted that the printing industry needs to evolve from a “print or nothing else” mentality to print as part of the total package.

The mission for our industry’s future is clear:

• We must retrain ourselves—including company owners, senior managers and sales executives—to be experts, not just in the printing business, but in the media business.

• We need to learn how to work together with our advertising agency and corporate clients to be part of the development of marketing and communications strategies, and not just a part of the execution of these ideas.

• We need to become valuable and trusted consultants to all of our clients in all areas of media communications.

• And, we need to be smart enough to demonstrate to our clients when print is the most appropriate media vehicle, and confident enough to be able to say when it isn’t.

These are lofty objectives and ones that most companies in the printing industry will need help accomplishing. The Print Council can provide this assistance. Tools have been developed to help sales representatives communicate with clients. Research has been conducted that reinforces the fact that print remains a powerful and efficient manner in which to communicate to target audiences (i.e., Print in the Mix at www.printinthemix.rit.edu).