Business News
Statement Albrecht Bolza-Schünemann President drupa 2008 and CEO Koenig & Bauer AG
Tuesday 15. January 2008 - on the occasion of the drupa 2008 press conference on 14 January, 2008 in Düsseldorf
Fifty-seven years ago, drupa made its debut appearance in Düsseldorf. Today, it is still by far the biggest trade fair dedicated to print, paper and the print media industry.
At the first drupa in Düsseldorf in 1951, many things were very different from today. Newspapers were black and white with largely poor-quality pictures, books in colour were the exception to the rule and packaging was relatively simply designed. Especially as the word “point of sale” was not yet part of marketing experts vocabulary.
Todays frequently described competition between the media was limited almost exclusively to rivalry between the various forms of print back then – as otherwise there was only radio and a sparse scattering of TVs. The modern information age is fundamentally different. Nowadays, everyone uses the Internet, watches TV more or less and is influenced consciously or unconsciously by sophisticated packaging designs at the point of sale.
Does this mean that print and paper are under threat in the 21st century, or even facing extinction?
Not at all – more paper, cardboard, foils and other materials are currently being printed than ever before. In fact, the global total is almost 500 million tonnes per year. Of that, just under 100 million tonnes alone are printed for commercial purposes and thats excluding the far greater amount of packaging printing.
Despite the rise of the Internet and TV, print still eclipses them in virtually every country as the No. 1 information and advertising medium. Global volumes of print climb from year to year by three to five percent. In highly populous nations such as China and India, growth is even in the double digits.
Print your ad and raise awareness
The substrate most frequently printed on is still paper and investment in this area is proportionately large. Books, textbooks, telephone books, newspapers, magazines, catalogues, posters, forms, financial reports, printed advertising materials of the most varied kinds
the list goes on and on.
More and more, however, printing in this field is associated with time and cost pressures. In turn, customer, production and distribution processes are changing. Whether Web2print or print2Web, the networking of print and electronic media steams ahead, creating opportunities for new business models.
Naturally, this upheaval has also impacted traditional media such as daily papers and magazines. In the short-lived and at times very superficial world of news, the good old newspaper has been assigned the role of a beacon. In the information jungle, people turn to newspapers for direction. When it comes to breaking news or targeted research, the electronic media and, above all, the Internet have undoubtedly trumped dailies or magazines. But not for forming well-grounded opinions on political and economic relationships or for local insights.
Leading brands put more money into magazine ads
In future, too, well conceived newspapers of the printed variety among others will continue to depend on intensive research, informed opinions as well as emphatic language and quality. The changes have been many and even the short-lived product that is a newspaper is boosting its appeal to the branded-goods industry with increasingly sophisticated finishing and new interactive advertising formats. Contemporary newspapers have nothing to fear from comparisons with Web sites on plasma screens as far as user friendliness and design are concerned. And consumers rate nothing as highly as newspapers in terms of credibility.
Forward-looking newspaper publishers have long since discovered the cross-media advertising and information synergies that can be harnessed with the parallel use of electronic media. The recognition levels achieved over many decades of the core brand “newspapers” bolster acceptance of associated but more ephemeral electronic information offerings. Even Google has recognised this fact and publishes newspapers of its own for its community.
Worldwide in 2006, an average of 515 million paid-for newspapers were printed daily – up by 2.3 percent from 2005. If the explosion of free papers is included, the number jumps to 556 million. Slight dips in circulation in many highly developed industrial nations are offset against double-digit growth rates in populous emerging markets.
The future of packaging
When I was child, we bought our groceries from the “corner shop” – sugar, pasta, sweets, vegetables and salads were scooped into brown packets or wrapped up in newspaper. If they havent disappeared completely, this type of store is considered a curiosity in industrialised countries today. Supermarkets with self-service are the norm. For hygiene reasons but also the marketing advantages, packaging plays a central role in determining the success of a product at the point of sale. Within a matter of seconds, a products packaging has to grab customers attention from among an abundance of similar articles and win their favour. Visual and tactile sensory effects such as unusual shapes, varnish, metallic colours, foil finishes, stamping, scented varnish and many more features characterise modern-day packaging.
Manufacturers of printing machinery and branded goods as well as the packaging industry have caught on to this trend, and finishing is set to be one of the key topics in the packaging section at drupa 2008.
On top of that, intelligent solutions to protect brands against rising product piracy – something which in pharmaceuticals and replacement parts can even pose a severe threat to consumers – will be on show. Plus, theres the not too distant possibility of printing RFID antennae to create intelligent packaging, RFID-controlled logistics solutions, 100-percent quality control built into the printing machine and much more.
Address your customers` needs directly
Whether as the printing of personalised printed materials for database-supported direct mail campaigns or the ink-jet printing of large-format posters, digital printing promises to gain significant ground at drupa 2008.
In the meantime, the question hotly debated at drupa 2000 of digital and offset printings sustainability has long been an open and shut case. Experts have realised that the combination represents more of a cross-pollination of two complementary processes than cannibalisation. The quality and performance of offset printing harmonises wonderfully in many printed products with the individuality offered by digital printing. After all, both processes with their respective advantages use paper as a substrate. The remarkably swift technical development of sheet-fed offset and the substantial gains in cost effectiveness that have resulted on short print runs are a gift from digital printing. In printing, too, competition stimulates business.
In the age of globalisation, the print and media industry is also under tremendous competitive and productivity pressure. At present, products with slightly longer lead times such as packaging, books or catalogues can be produced practically everywhere in the world. For this reason, many businesses are on the lookout for solutions to step up the cost effectiveness of their operations. This is only possible by turning their backs on the venerable handcrafted aspect of the trade in favour of cutting-edge, industrial production processes.
Integrated workflow concepts extending from prepress through printing to finishing and distribution, high-performance MIS software to speed up internal processes and reduce staff as well as the ongoing advances in automation to cut back on labour-intensive manual work will once again be the order of the day at drupa 2008.
Electronics meet print
State-of-the art electronics and global networking via the Internet make things possible today that were unimaginable eight or ten years ago. More than 1,800 exhibitors from round about 50 countries will present new ideas and solutions for all the topics and sections mentioned to once again an anticipated 400,000 visitors from all corners of the globe at drupa 2008.
So why not come and witness for yourself the unflagging vitality of the early 21st century print media in Düsseldorf in May 2008. In four months, the big moment will arrive.