Digital Print: Bright Spot in a Gray World

I just got the latest Economic & Print Market Flash Report from Printing Industries of America. There wasn’t anything really surprising in it. The economy should stabilize in 2010, along with printing shipments, and grow modestly in 2011. Conventional ink-on-paper printing will continue to decline in 2010 and stabilize in 2011. Etc. All that said, there will be some segments that will fare better than others. Among them, digital print, both toner-based and inkjet, should grow between 4% and 5% over the next two years. Meanwhile, ancillary services will also grow, by 2.7% in 2010 and 4% in 2011. None of this is any reason to throw a party, but it is better news than we have been getting for the past couple of years. Right now that’s about all we can expect.