PRIMIR is on track to publish the following research studies in 2007.


2006 N.A. Benchmarking Study: Printers and Consumables **

This study will provide an overall quantitative and qualitative industry assessment of general commercial printing in North America in 2007 using 2006 as the base year. It will profile the number of plants by geographic region and size, and identify markets served and profile the typical products produced including estimates on consumption of paper, ink, blankets, and other supplies. It will also provide a profile of equipment utilized. (State Street Consultants)

Trends in Sheetfed Lithography

This North American study will evaluate the current and future trends in sheetfed press technology including longer and wider presses, perfecting, hybrid printing, roll to sheet-fed, ink and coating technologies, inline finishing as well as inkjet for variable capabilities, etc. Markets covered will be general commercial, packaging and specialty. The study will identify trends in consumable usage by end use or application including substrates and changes such as trend toward alkaline porous papers, specialty inks, UV and other coatings as well as roll to sheet feeders. It will also evaluate hybrid workflows with digital printing. (Reed Business Information)

To be Published in 2008

Mega Printers Impact on the North American Print Market

Huge printers with more than 250 employees conduct business in a very different way than the average general commercial printer. This study would investigate the geographic footprint effect of mergers and acquisitions (by state) and investigate purchasing power shifts and the impact on equipment and supplies manufacturers. The study would also evaluate trends in equipment disposition, and investigate the impacts of print jobs being shifted to offshore plants. (J Zarwan Associates)

Trends and Future for Financial and Transactional Printing

This study will identify and quantify the market for financial and transactional printing in 2007 with forecasts through 2012. Segments will include statements, documentation, policies and prospectuses. It will also investigate regulatory and other drivers and barriers impacting this specialty printing segment. Verticle markets include insurance, financial, and banking. The study will address the influence of the Internet, EBPP, and transpromo trends, and delve into the trends in printing processes utilized to serve this market including installed base of equipment and unique workflow requirements. (IT Strategies)

Topics Under Consideration

Future of the North American Newspaper Industry

North American newspaper circulation and advertising is in decline. Newspaper publishers are redefining themselves to stave off competition from the Internet in general and specific classified ad sites such as Craigslist.com or Monster.com. This study will investigate both newspaper publishers and commercial printers who print newspapers from 2007-2012 and provide qualitative and quantitative assessment of newspapers including paid dailies, free dailies, inserts, on-line advertising and newspaper on-line editorial, non-dailies including ethnic, weeklies and shoppers, and e-paper.

Global Trends in Packaging Affecting N.A. Converter & Supplier Markets

This study will identify global packaging trends that impact the North American converter and supplier markets, identifying drivers and barriers and demographic, environmental, or regulatory issues influencing the package preference and point of origin. The study will specifically delve into labels, folding cartons, corrugated, flexible and retort pouch packaging and specific substrate and coating requirements. The study will evaluate food versus other packaged goods and identify the package format specifiers and their future needs.

2007 Completed

Effect of Postal Reform on the Demand for Print **

This Executive Insight study explains the new postal legislation and pending changes and evaluates the effects of postal reform and potential postage increases on the demand for print. It identifies the 'trickle down' effect postal service (and postage) changes have on all segments of the printing industry including general commercial, periodical, catalog, direct mail and financial. The study discusses the impact this has not only on print volume, but also mailing and fulfillment processes and the implications to printers as well as suppliers of equipment and consumables. (INTERQUEST, Ltd.)

Installed Base and Market Potential for Traditional Bindery/Finishing Technologies **

The same forces that transformed pre-press and press rooms over the last decade are now reshaping the traditional bindery. This study profiles the North American installed base of in-line and off-line production bindery/finishing equipment by type, format (size), cycle speed, age, market, and shop size, to characterize the status of the current bindery, broken out by in-plant, production digital printer, commercial printer, and trade bindery.

The study also addresses barriers and drivers for bindery investment decisions including automation, JDF readiness, CIP4, etc. It delves into the decision process for new vs. used equipment. The study also identifies bindery areas where printers still depend upon manual hand labor operations, and areas in greatest need for automation. (State Street Consultants with Larry Tanowitz)

Life Cycle of the Analog and Digital Lithographic Printing Plate - 2007 Update **

This report is an update to the 2005 study. The objective of this study was to identify the consumption of printing plates by market segment and size of printer for products such as: conventional lithographic plates, direct to metal lithographic plates and direct to non-metal lithographic plates. This study also forecasts plate consumption change for the next five years. (State Street Consultants)

Magazine Printing and Publishing in the US: 2006-2011 **

This study assesses key changes taking place in magazine printing and publishing through 2010 in North America. It addresses ad formats (digital vs. film) and impact on turnaround, time, cost, quality/quality control, targeting, zoning, and globalization. It identifies trends in the number of titles (by category), circulation, readership, demographics/psychographics, and custom publishing. Distribution and consumable trends are also covered. It also discusses trends and effectiveness of "e-zines," and publisher strategies re: print vs. Internet and profitability measurements. (PrintCom Consulting Group)

Trends in Inkjet Technologies

This study reviews the technology and product lifecycle of inkjet products used for output applications (non-proofing). It discusses the growth/decline in various applications such as signs, direct mail, transactional, posters, point of purchase displays, and industrial applications. It reviews drivers and barriers for adoption of this technology in the various applications, as well as various print market segments and provides trends and forecasts the potential impact on litho and toner markets. (IT Strategies)

The World Wide Market for Print (Phase I, II and III) **

The Phase III study looks ahead at the global challenges facing the printing industry during the course of the next five years. It provides print market forecasts for the period 2006 to 2011 across print product markets, print processes and also company type, as well as data on machinery, inks, substrates and prepress consumables. This data is provided for 51 national markets, together accounting for over 99% of the global print market, as well as on a region-by-region basis.

The final report follows two earlier phased studies covering trends during the first half of the decade, the first issued in 2006 focused on print product markets and the second in early 2007, covers markets across inks, substrates, consumables and machinery. This report is accompanied by a database of statistical information supplied in electronic format (CD-ROM), covering both market information and background statistics on the operating environment. (Pira International, Ltd.)

2006 Completed

Benchmarking Non-Print Revenues of U.S. Printing Companies: 2005-2010 **

Printers are increasingly adding non-print ancillary services to augment their "core" print on paper business. This study identifies the revenue volume and types of non-print related services offered and trends through 2010. Findings are broken out by employee size, process, and end-use/segment specialization. The final analysis outlines the impact of ancillary services on printer's business as well as the impact on graphic arts equipment and consumables suppliers. (Richards Research)

Current and Future Trends in Printing Processes and Run Lengths **

This study evaluates the printing processes: lithography, flexography, gravure, letterpress and digital utilized in North America and identifies why and where shifts are taking place. This includes web offset to gravure, sheet-fed offset to digital, flexo to offset, flexo to gravure and hybrid processes. Shifts between flexography and gravure for packaging and the impacts are also addressed. It covers trends today with a forecast through 2010. The report includes a quantitative forecast of the growth and decline of printing processes in the market to 2010 and identifies drivers and trends in run lengths by end-use application and discusses various run length concerns. (Naselli/SFM/PrintCom)

Digital Printing Outlook in a Production Environment **

This study provides a quantitative analysis of the installed base of black and white and color digital printing equipment in North America by geographic region, and possibly broken out by size/type of firm including printers, trade shops, and in-plants. This study also provides a qualitative overview of trends, as well as discussion on barriers and drivers to adoption of digital printing. The analysis results in a forecast through 2011. (State Street Consultants, Inc. and John M. Hamm & Associates, LLC)

The Future of Catalogs

This study provides a better understanding of the future trends and potential growth for catalogs: business-to-consumer, business-to-business and hybrid. It provides an understanding of the role the print catalog plays in the advertising mix and how growth in multi-channel marketing has impacted the print catalog. The study includes recent historical data and provides quantitative projections for 2010 and directional projections for 2015 and beyond. It also provides quantitative analysis of consumption of graphic arts supplies and identifies shifts in print process. (PrintCom Consulting Group)

Small Commercial and Quick Printer Study: 2006-2011

What is the Quick Printer's path to success? - What are the market leaders doing, how are they growing their business? This study investigates the print business at small copy shops, franchises, and the superstores such as Office Max and Office Depot. Is the future franchise or owner/operator? Is the future national branding or print and distribute or 'all print is local'? Will the new global owners of quick print centers be using their last mile delivery capability to build a new business for advertisers?

This project defines the size of the quick print market (dollars and sites), and profiles the profit leaders including product mix and print processes. It identifies sales trends for the next 5-10 years. It also segments the 2005 market size by: franchise quick printers, owner/operator entrepreneurs, superstore quick print sites, and FedEx or UPS owned sites. It also identifies product and ancillary service mix such as: print, digital printing, wide format, embroidery, banners, web page development, etc. (J Zarwan Partners and Sherburne & Associates)

2005 Completed

Dynamics and Trends in Color Proofing

The study identifies the size of the market for inkjet, toner, conventional, film-based, digital halftones, monitor & PDF proofing. It identifies trends for the key market segments in North America including: commercial, book, and publication printers as well as newspapers, packaging printers, in-plants, and ad agencies and discusses concept, content, imposition and contract proofs. 2005 is the base with trends and forecasts projected through 2010. An interactive model is included. (State Street Consultants)

Electronic Displacement of Print

This study looks at how print is impacted by existing and emerging technologies. It covers the Internet in general, SMS, Search, RSS Feeds, E-paper, E-Book Readers, E-mail, and other electronic media. The study details how much electronic technologies are displacing as well as driving new print by end product (books, catalogs, direct mail, inserts, journals, etc.), demographic and cultural changes impacting print vs. new media, and in direct marketing - how effectively print compares to other technologies. (J Zarwan Partners)

Future Direction and Trends in Retail Print Media Advertising **

This study updates a previous GAMIS study and addresses the current status of this market, drivers and barriers to changes and retail trends in the use of print media advertising. The focus was on newspaper inserts, in-store inserts, direct mail, and magazines. It also investigates printing process trends and shifts, for example from litho to digital. (Wilkofsky, Gruen Associates - published June 05)

Integrated Automation in the Commercial Printing Industry **

This study queries printers already involved in integrated automation of their plant to find out what are they doing and how, how it has worked, as well as identify the process, bottlenecks, drivers and barriers for adoption, costs involved and paybacks. The study also queries those not yet involved and determines why. It also addresses whether integrated automation is applicable for all sizes of printing operations. (PrintCom Consulting - published March 05)

Note: An Executive Insight Report was published in January 2006 that provides an update to the information in this earlier Integrated Automation study.

Life Cycle of the Analog and Digital Lithographic Printing Plate **

The objective of this study was to identify the consumption of printing plates by market segment and size of printer. This study analyzes products such as: conventional lithographic plates, direct to metal lithographic plates and direct to non-metal lithographic plates. This study also addresses how plate consumption will change in the next five years, what plates are being displaced and why, trends as to what type of plates are preferred within the above products and what factors drive purchase decisions on plates (run length, cost, brand name, sales channel, environmental, etc.). (State Street Consultants)

The Market for Print Finishing Technologies **

This study analyzes how today's changing printing technologies and streamlined workflows are affecting print finishing technologies and workflows (in-line and off-line). It establishes current market and future growth trends for "high-end" finishing technologies such as: foil stamping and embossing, die cutting, laminating and coating, gluing, scoring and wrapping equipment. This study also identifies the impact of skilled labor in post press. (Mason Consulting/PrintCom Consulting)

Package Printing and Converting, An Industry Assessment: 2004-2009 **

This study is an update to the 1994 Package Printing study. This study quantifies the market for package printing in the U.S. and Canada by major packaging industries. It also assesses the utilization of printing equipment and graphic arts supplies by process (flexo, gravure, offset) and product type. It investigates the following markets: folding carton, corrugated, flexible packaging, plastic and tag and labels and addresses important trends such as color printing, printing processes, distribution/buying patterns and legislative/environmental issues as they relate to the package printing industry. (State Street Consultants)

Trends in Paper Grade Substitution: 2005-2010

This study evaluates historical trends in printing & writing paper grades, blurring of traditional classifications, lower basis weights, etc.. It also evaluates demand for each of the grades; identifying which end use markets are driving changes to grades, imports influence on purchase decision, grade substitution, and the influence of standards like SNAP and Gracol. (Temanex Consulting)

** NPES members receive these studies.