Before you all reach for the bubbly, you should know that the increase relates to 2004/2005 and that bread and butter work, such as the printing of marketing and advertising literature, actually fell in the same period.

The good news is the numbers from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that, while the turnover for the print industry as a whole may have fallen by less that half of one percent, total sales of printed matter actually rose 4.1%. Hardly indicative of an industry in its death throes, as some would try and have us all believe.

And out of all of the 14 manufacturing sectors, which bundle print with paper and publishing, we are still only second to the food, drink and tobacco sector when it comes to contributing to the nation’s coffers.

However, there can be no denying that print is not an easy sector in which to earn a living (as the volume of business failures in the sector in 2006 went a long way to proving). Yet many do.

I’m sure that this is in no small part down to the fact that, historically, the industry has been fast to adopt new technologies to help it manage change. After all, the simplest way to increase profit is, of course, to take a close look at costs and efficiencies, something that I’m sure all of you reading this are already familiar with.

On the whole, the ONS figures are positive, if a little dated. They actually prove that the sector, if not winning, is at least holding its own against the onslaught of internet-based media. No mean feat.

And better than that, as our web-to-print feature on p28 illustrates, the sector is actually embracing the internet to help it conduct its business more efficiently – probably more so than other manufacturing sectors.