Selling Digital Printing to Higher Education Webinar Proves Popular

Large Attendance and a High Level of Audience Participation

November 19, 2007 -- Lexington, KY. WhatTheyThink.com, the leading news and analysis site for the printing and publishing industry, today announced that well-known industry expert Frank Romano conducted a free educational webinar entitled Selling Digital Printing to Higher Education on Wednesday, November 13, 2007, sponsored by the Ricoh Production Printing Business Group. This session provided important guidelines that will help print service providers with digital color printing capability to target companies in higher education to spur business growth.

The archive for this no-charge webinar is available at this special Web page or by clicking on the Webinar tab on the WhatTheyThink home page:

http://members.whattheythink.com/home/webinars/webinar071113.cfm

“Colleges and universities were early adopters of digital printing, said Romano, “both in-house and in terms of outside purchases.  Our print buyer panelists indicated that digital printing represents 20% to 40% of their overall print budget, largely in flyers, brochures and short-run promotional materials.  That is a significant increase over five years ago.”

Most of the major colleges and universities have in-plant printing operations, adds Romano, yet, they are still major purchasers of print from commercial printing services. He pointed out that there are 2,474 public and private 4-year institutions with almost 11 million students along with 1,666 2-year institutions that serve almost 7 million students.

Panelists indicated they are purchasing a number of different types of applications produced using offset and digital production methods, including alumni and recruiting magazines ranging from sheetfed to web-fed production, and newsletters. Most are still producing a printed university catalog in quantities ranging from 5,000 to 20,000, but they are also offering a catalog online and/or a CD that can be more frequently updated.  One of the panelists indicated that even with a robust web presence, students often prefer the printed catalog.  Yet the overall number of printed catalogs has been reduced for most institutions, in some cases by as much as 75%. Direct mail purchased by the panelists tends to consist primarily of “save the date cards” and invitations.  Most buyers indicated they would prefer not to have to manage these purchases and either already have or are investigating a web-to-print solution to handle these routine applications while still ensuring adherence to the institution’s graphic standards.

Most panelists indicated their institutions have a for-profit university press which purchases print as a unique entity. 

“This session generated more questions from the audience than almost any previous session we have held,” says Randy Davidson, “indicating a high level of interest on the part of print service providers in better serving the higher education market.  WhatTheyThink is pleased to provide this kind of valuable information to our audience, and we thank Ricoh for sponsoring the event to enable us to offer this service at no charge to attendees.”

WhatTheyThink conducts frequent webinars on important industry topics that are regularly attended by hundreds of printing industry executives from around the world. This was the sixth and final session in the 2007 series of vertically-focused webinars Romano conducted, and all are available in the WhatTheyThink webinar archive for replay. “We have been extremely pleased with the high level of attendance Frank’s popular webinar series has drawn,” added Davidson, “as well as the positive feedback we have received from those attendees.” 

About Ricoh’s Production Printing Business Group

The Production Printing Business Group (PPBG) of Ricoh Americas Corporation is dedicated to delivering state-of-the-art, high-speed production systems that provide efficient document workflows with high-volume production printing and finishing. Incorporating superior engineering, service, reliable technology, and extensive software and finishing options, PPBG helps production centers cost-effectively modernize and streamline their operations to meet today’s rapid turnaround and high-quality demands.

Ricoh Americas Corporation, founded in 1962, is headquartered in West Caldwell, NJ and is a subsidiary of Ricoh Company Ltd., the 71-year-old leading supplier of office automation equipment.

Information about Ricoh’s Production Printing Business Group can be accessed on the World Wide Web at www.ricoh-usa.com.

About WhatTheyThink

WhatTheyThink.com is the printing and publishing industry's leading online media organization; offering a wide range of publications delivering unbiased, real-time market intelligence, industry news, economic and trend analysis, peer-to-peer communication, and special reports on emerging technology and critical events. Serving a membership base of more than 50,000, WhatTheyThink.com also hosts webinars and live events as well as providing content through a syndication program, which delivers content directly to related websites and through RSS.

About Frank Romano

Frank Romano is Professor Emeritus, School of Print Media, Rochester Institute of Technology. He continues to teach courses at RIT and other universities and works with students on unique research projects.

Romano’s career has spanned 44 years in the printing and publishing industries. Many know him best as the editor of the International Paper Pocket Pal, or have read one of the hundreds of articles he has written for publications from North America to Europe to the Middle East, Asia and Australia. He has also consulted for major corporations, publishers, governments and other users of digital printing and publishing technology.

The author of the majority of the books that have been written on digital printing, Romano is the author of 44 books, including the 10,000-term Encyclopedia of Graphic Communications (with Richard Romano), the standard reference in the field. His books on QuarkXPress, InDesign and PDF workflow were among the first on those topics.

Romano has founded eight publications, serving as publisher or editor, including TypeWorld, then Electronic Publishing, Computer Artist, Color Publishing, The Typographer, EP&P, and both the NCPA and PrintRIT Journals. His columns appeared monthly in the Digital Printing Report since 1993.

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