The most startling fact is that of the hundreds of printers that have completed the concurrent online survey so far, more than 50% have said that they have invested in kit in the past six months.

Obviously this is just a snapshot, and no one is suggesting that these were all multimillion-pound investments (one-quarter were post-press spends, for example), but the fact that so large a percentage are actually starting to invest in their business has to be encouraging.

Of course, the survey has already revealed some challenges on the horizon, the most obvious being that 55% of the respondents said that they had clients in the public sector – so clearly the Comprehensive Spending Review is going to impact many print businesses. However, even here the split between those who see it as much of an opportunity as a threat is fairly equal.

There’s no doubt that the industry is evolving, in terms of structure, technology, applications and markets and the recession clearly speeded up the transformation. However, print still has a critical part to play in the marketing and communication mix – arguably more than ever.

So, PrintWeek’s role has to be one of the supporting the industry with the information it needs, but never forgetting that as a good friend we have to make sure we never shy away from telling you how it is.

To this end, the research has already revealed a raft of the data and anecdotal evidence that will prove to be invaluable when it comes to honing the look, feel and content of PrintWeek next year (obviously until then we’ll be keeping that info close to our chests).

On the whole, feedback has been positive, but it’s clear that there are still things we can do better, and its here that we need your help, so visit www.printweek.com/survey and play your part in shaping the future of PrintWeek.

Darryl Danielli is editor of PrintWeek