Printers should aim to derive 50% of their sales from non-print activities by 2010, according to digital print research and consulting experts CAP Ventures.


Managing director Charles Pesko told an audience at last weeks On Demand digital print show in New York that printers must make the decision today to diversify and deal with other media than print such as data mining, digital asset management and electronic document distribution.


Pesko added that the linear growth of paper-based documents was slowing, and was expected to grow by just 2% over the next six years, whereas e-documents were set to grow exponentially. You dont want to bet your future on paper alone, he said.


By 2010, Pesko predicted, there would be complete integration between paper and e-media and only printers that offered a service covering both forms would survive. Five years from now you should be well on the way to offering integrated media services, but you only have five years, he said.


No longer is print a manufacturing industry offering good-enough products, he added. Now its a customer-centric service industry that has moved from print to integrated communications services.


US print giant RR Donnelley recently revealed that 25% of its turnover came from non-print services and that it wanted that figure to top 50% within five years, claimed Pesko.


He also predicted huge growth in web-enabled printing. In the US today 18% of print is web-enabled and Pesko claimed this would rise to 80% by 2005, representing a compound annual growth of 40%.


You dont want to sacrifice personal relationships but you want to embrace new technologies that will make that relationship more efficient, he said.


* See Analysis, p27.


Story by Lauretta Roberts