"I've been attending Graph Expo for 15 or so years, and in some years it's been buoyant and exuberant and in others it's been a bit more difficult," Printing Industries of America CEO Michael Makin told PrintWeek.

"Over the past two years, our industry has been severely impacted by the global economic recession, but this year there was definite optimism and the buzz at the show was very positive.

"In my conversations with printers and my conversation with vendors there was a definite feeling that the bottom has been reached and things are turning around."

Makin added most commercial printers he spoke with both prior and during the show are not really focused on big picture issues such as how print will coexist with electronic messaging and billing going forward.   

"Most printers are concerned about growing their business and making sure that it's profitable though they do understand the need to diversify and grow the value proposition for their customers," he said. "I don't know if they're that contemplative about whether things are going electronic. That's just a reality of our industry and certain printing segments are going to go away."

One reason for optimism is that cross-media and new platforms such as mobile printing are generating new opportunities, Makin said. "The forward looking printers are looking at things and are realizing that the overall pie may be smaller going forward and in order to get a bigger piece of that pie they're going to have to make some adjustments and change and invest," he added. "There's no doubt that US printers are reinventing themselves - many have changed their names and have added new services."

He continued: "Once you understand that the communications message is changing, you realize you're going to need a different alignment in terms of your offerings. There's no reason why a printer can't go out and offer everything an ad agency does and more."

What may be surprising is that while all the buzz in commercial printing seems to be focused on the digital and the web-to-print space, the US printing industry remains predominantly offset. "The US printing industry is still a $150bn a year, and a lot of that is offset, so you're still seeing printers investing in big iron."

Makin pointed out that no one expects a return to the glory years of say 2007, when US printing was a $175 billion annual industry. But he noted, "Even as we forecast for the industry to continue to contract in the aggregate in terms of shipments, our industry will still be bigger than most industries can ever dream of becoming. So we can cry over the milk that's been spilled or we can try to re-focus our energies into something that's positive and creative and value-generating for our customer base."