Printing Industry Demographics

The primary goal of month’s research study, An Investigation into Printing Industry Demographics—2009 (PICRM-2010-04), by Frank Romano, Professor Emeritus, RIT School of Print Media, and David Broudy, M.S., RIT School of Print Media, was to discuss definitions for the U.S. printing industry and the “print universe.” The print universe is the authors’ term for an expanded view of establishments that produce some kind of reproduction as a service.

Defining the Printing Industry

Data Sources
Printing industry information sources include the following:

• Graphic Arts Blue Book
• Dun & Bradstreet
• NAPL
• Yellow Pages
• PIA (Printing Industries of America)
• State Street Consultants
• C. Barnes
• InfoTrends
• NPES
• Trade magazines
• Industry suppliers
• U.S. Government

The Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics keep track of the number of U.S. businesses by business or industrial category within each U.S. county. County Business Patterns is an important information resource and business tool. Data for 1992 through 2002 is readily available and 2007 data is now being released. These data count printing establishments in each county and categorize them by their NAICS (North American Industry Classification System).

This categorization is based on how each company defines itself on its tax form. Because of tax form data collection methods, some establishments are missed because the establishment selects codes from its primary industries (which could be converting, packaging, or specialty areas), or the company is so small that it does not file a tax form because it has no employees. Data is shared between IRS and BLS via Schedule SE for self-employed individuals; however, some proprietorships may file a Schedule C instead of a Schedule SE.

Thus, the entire system is flawed because each entity decides what they are and some entities are missed completely. The possession and use of a printing device does not automatically correlate that the entity is in NAICS 323.
This investigation surmises that small companies are undercounted—and the U.S. printing industry is mostly small companies.

There is a more detailed economic census every five years, for years ending in “2” or “7”—the last was in 2007 and data is being released as this report is being finalized. Firms that constitute 80 percent of the printing industry receive the long form, and the balance of firms is sampled.

Thus, we are usually working from “old” data in an industry that is changing rapidly. We have many data sources for the printing industry; yet, we really do not know what is happening as it is happening. Data, as always, needs interpretation, opinion, and explanation.

We contend that any entity, individual or company, that sells reproduced material from any kind of reproduction device should be considered in the demographics of the printing industry. Thus, newspaper, lettershop, and pre-press firms that sell print services must be counted.

A Quick Comparison
One can see the differences between some of these information sources. Once the methodology and definitions are understood, each may be valid in its own right. Since different marketing people in different organizations select one or another source, their opinions and presentations reflect their selected sources. Thus, we hear conflicting numbers for the size and scope of the printing industry. Fortunately, most tend to be within a reasonable range—especially counts for larger firms.

Table 1: Comparison of five data sources describing the printing industry, 2008
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Methodology and What We Learned from the Phone Book List
Our 1999 report was based in large part on analysis from a Dun & Bradstreet database acquired by RIT. This 2009 report used a list compiled from phone books by InfoUSA. The D&B list was nationwide. The InfoUSA list included New York and the six New England states and national data was extrapolated.

Because we were using a sample audience for analysis, we needed to compare the sample to base data. In this case the base data is the last three Economic Censuses. The 7-state sample represented 12.52 percent of the U.S. This has changed slightly from 13.19 percent in 1997 and 12.64 percent in 2002.

Table 2: County Business Patterns, 1997-2007 (U.S. Economic Census data, 1997-2007)
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Our sample required several adjustments. Because the Yellow Pages category is selfselecting, we had to analyze the InfoUSA list. We categorized all records and they fell into nine categories that are not considered part of the printing industry. 73.94 percent were print-related.

Table 3: Sample list categories from 2009 InfoUSA list
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This analysis resulted in the Adjusted Sample column. Interviews by phone, e-mail, and in-person revealed the number that were not physical printing firms:

• 15% of the listings were printing brokers with no equipment
• 7% were printers operating with different trade names from the same facility
• 4% were printers in a different city but with a local phone number
• 3% were sales offices for printing firms in other cities
• 1% were local plants of national firms
• 1% were printers that merged or ceased business

Thus, 31 percent of the listings were not printers.

Table 4: Sample list analysis
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The resultant analysis placed the six states at 12.64 percent of the U.S., while Federal data placed the seven states at 12.52 percent.

We contacted 1,217 of the 7,071 names in the purchased database using phone, in-person, and e-mail surveying. This allowed us to define the companies on the list. The survey questions are included in the appendix in the full monograph.

Table 5: Interviews
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Trade magazine lists emphasize circulation; thus, they have higher numbers in order to support advertising rates that are based on “cost per thousand” for advertisers. They achieve higher numbers by sending multiple copies to printing sites based on qualification forms.

Table 6: Magazine circulation by state*
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Using Google, the A.F. Lewis Blue Book, industrial directories, one print magazine list, and on-line Yellow Pages, we sought to discover if there were printers that were not included in the InfoUSA list.

Table 7: Printers not on the sample list
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The underlying problem is that the majority of printers are individuals or proprietorships and some may not be listed anywhere.

Table 8: Preliminary NAICS 323 data presented by County Business Patterns based on 2007 Economic Census
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Non-employer statistics originate from tax return information of the Internal Revenue Service. The data are subject to non-sampling error such as errors of self-classification by industry on tax forms, as well as errors of response, non-reporting and coverage. Values provided by each firm are slightly modified to protect the respondent’s confidentiality.

The result is that the sample selected and analyzed was a good basic list to establish an understanding of the printing industry.

Criteria for Consideration
The following criteria were considered, although the full discussion is not included in this summary. Please read this section in the full monograph for more detail.

1. Is any person or company with a reproduction device that sells print, a printer?
2. Should anyone who provides copying services be counted?
3. Should anyone who provides digital printing services be included?
4. Do packaging printers count?
5. Do specialty printers count?
6. Do screen printers count?
7. Do newspapers count?
8. Should we count pre-press and post-press (finishing) services?
9. Should we count firms or plants (establishments)?
10. What years’ data are we using?
11. What is the difference between a small printer and a quick printer?
12. Should we categorize by reproduction processes?
13. Should “in-plant” operations be considered?
14. What about companies that do not provide data?
15. What about multi-national firms?
16. What about direct mail and graphic design firms?

The Bottom Line: Reconciling the Numbers
Each decision made in the points above changes the final total. Because different marketers and analysts segment the data differently, they arrive at different counts.

Table 9: U.S. printing industry from four points of view
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Conclusions and Projections
Table 32 is an overview of the printing industry and the print universe. The print universe combines traditional categories that have been considered part of the printing industry with additional categories that include selected company types that apply production-level printing technology.

Table 10: The Print Universe, 1995-2015
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The number of printing industry firms has been contracting since 1995, and we project that it will be close to 50 percent of its size in 2015 as compared with 1995. It is digital printing that has allowed the expansion of the printing industry into new categories of user.

The chart that follows plots the number of traditional printing firms from 1965 to 2020 and projects that the printing industry will return to its 1965 size in 2020. This is based on the fact that electronic substitution will continue to reduce the volume of print and this will result in fewer printers needed to produce the reduced print volume.

Figure 1: The growth and decline of printing firms in the U.S., 1965 - 2020
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Table 11: Number of traditional printing firms in the U.S., 1965 – 2020
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Summary
The printing industry is diverse and complex. Selecting a set of criteria for quantifying and tracking the industry is equally diverse and complex. A lot may have to do with what is sold to the industry and how it is sold. But there is a fundamental need for base data to allow consistent comparison over time for the printing companies themselves.

The printing industry needs a centralized database in order to maintain and research relevant information on a timely basis.

2009-2010 Research Monographs

To read about this research in detail, download the monograph from: http://print.rit.edu/pubs/picrm201004.pdf

Research publications of the Center are available at:
http://print.rit.edu/research/index