A report commissioned by the Stationers’ Company has promised calmer times in the wake of the ‘digital whirlpool’ caused by the recent competition between print and digital media.
Written by consultants Martin Glass of EMGE & Company and Jim Bilton of Wessenden Marketing, the new European Digital Media Landscape to 2020 – The Future of Paper and Print report was launched at the Stock Room at Stationers’ Hall.
The report follows a similarly named one released five years ago which at the time was regarded as unnecessarily gloomy in its forecasts but which turned out to be realistic as digital alternatives to print combined with an economic maelstrom to rock the printing and paper industries.
Since that last report the EU has established ‘A Digital Agenda for Europe’, a policy to promote and develop all aspects of the digital economy.
Today the edges between technologies are blurring and there are digital players going back to print and print publishers going digital and others launching on multimedia platforms. There are digital technologies and applications that are with us long term, others that will turn out to be hype.
The authors believe that by 2020 most of the substitution effects between digital and print will have taken place and the paper and print industries, whilst reduced, will reach a settle-down phase in a world dominated by digital, when the durability of print will be recognised.
The authors offered eight challenges to the paper and print sector:
Embrace digital, don’t fight it. It is your friend not your enemy Know more about digital than digital knows about print Be more creative with print applications. Think outside the box and adopt new technologies like augmented reality, optical recognition, goggles etc Be confident and honest about papers’ qualities, its engagement capability when digital technology increasingly fragments data to meet the needs of the smaller devices Match content to the medium Aim for value rather than volume – print offers a deeper experience than digital can offer Develop the metrics to prove that print engagement, something to compare to and compete with the volume metrics of digital Make yourselves relevant in a digital world
In addition to a look at overall trends, paper volumes etc the European Digital Media Landscape to 2020 report includes a look at specific market segments, including newspapers, magazines, books, advertising and commercial print and office/business documents.
The Report can be purchased for £950 (or £2,500 for multiple use up to ten) from the Stationers’ Company – (Please contact Sophie Miller on 0207 246 0982 and admin@stationers.org).
