Create a Proper PDF File or Worry about the Economy?
Just about everyday in PrintWeek UK’s newsletter, you read of another printer going into bankruptcy. And it is no secret that the publishing industry, especially the newspaper industry, is having a tough go at it. (Even though I still think there are many opportunities, just takes getting with the times and trying new things, like this, for instance: Design can save the newspaper)
For those graphics and media companies in America, the auto-industry getting hit so hard, on top of an already down economy, makes for some extra challenges. As we read in this PrintCEO blog post:
A recent report at autoblog states, Obama administration’s auto task force slashed Chrysler ad budget by 50%
Source: http://printceo.com/2009/06/auto-industry-media-spending-during-bankruptcy
Not to mention all of the dealers (almost 2,000) that will no longer be doing print advertising or brochure printing, for their right to sell GM or Chrysler cars has been revoked, effective in many cases next week. The AutoBlog.com report stated this:
Chrysler is nearly two weeks into its bankruptcy, and the Auburn Hills, Michigan-based automaker is already getting an idea of just how engaged the Obama administration plans to be in the process. Chrysler planned to spend $134 million dollars on advertising during its supposed nine weeks of bankruptcy, but the Auto Task Force has reportedly cut the figure in half.
Then, just to throw salt in the wounds, I see this in the “What’s New in Publishing” (UK) weekly newsletter:
Magazines and newspapers face ‘lethal threat’ from advertising downturn
In the report, WPP-owned media-buying operation Group M has significantly revised down its previous ad revenue forecasts for the newspaper and magazine sectors this year and is expecting a major shakeout before the end of the year as smaller players are cut from a share of dwindling ad budgets.This bleak forecast for the UK newspaper and magazine industry scotches recent tentative hopes that the ad recession might bottom out after a dire first half of 2009.
Group M has forecast that the newspaper industry will see ad revenue fall by 26% year-on-year across 2009 – a significant downward revision from its forecast in March of a 20% decline and, back in December, of a 15% slide. National newspapers are expected to be down 18.6% year-on-year for 2009 and the regional newspaper industry a massive 32%.
Source: http://papyrus.creativemessage.com/Newsletter.aspx
In other words, time to get really smart and lean, if you have not already done so. Markzware has some great special offers going, on top of preflight and conversion plug-ins for InDesign, Quark, Publisher and PDF that will save you time and money already. If you are interested, you can see some of these great deals listed here. Markzware’s FlightCheck preflighting software can save printing costs in this tough economy and could become extremely important in the weeks and months ahead. I know it may seem strange to worry about how to better create an Adobe pdf file or quality control check Adobe files, but this could be a big help to the print and publishing industry.
Stay sharp; the business is still out there and in some sectors even going well, you just have to make sure your the ones tapping into it. Something I have been hearing, is that more and more successful online only publications or blogs, have turned to traditional print, to help them get a leg up on the heavy Internet competition, for instance. That would be irony, now wouldn’t, to get business from them.
All the best.
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