U.S. Commercial Printing Industry Profits Decline 10%

January 7, 2008—Lexington, KY—WhatTheyThink, the leading online media organization serving the printing and publishing industry, today announced the availability of their most recent economic report titled "Printing Shipments and Profits." The report is authored by Dr. Joe Webb, director of WhatTheyThink’s Economics and Research Center and is available for immediate purchase and download. The report includes Adobe PDF, Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint files, as well as an MP3 file with audio commentary from Dr. Webb. The cost is $50.00 and can be purchased through WhatTheyThink’s online store at:

http://wttstore.com/prpr.html

“Printing profits for the last four quarters, Q4-2006 to Q3-2007, were $4.06 billion dollars on an inflation-adjusted basis,” said Dr. Webb, director of WhatTheyThink.com’s Economics and Research Center. “This was a disappointing performance, and includes the effects of a significant downward revision of previously profits data by the U.S. Department of Commerce.” Dr. Webb also states that “our exclusive forecasting models now indicate profit levels will remain under serious pressure because of lackluster sales levels, higher operating costs, changes in demand levels, and competition from digital alternatives.”

Dr. Webb also commented, “Economic and market forces for consolidation and downsizing are stronger now than in any recent period.”

The report contains significant and proprietary analysis by Dr. Webb and WhatTheyThink’s Economics and Research Center based on data compiled by the U.S. Commerce Department and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. It includes all segments in NAICS 323 for commercial printing and trade services such as commercial offset, digital, and other printing processes, as well as prepress and postpress. Those purchasing the report can easily repurpose the charts and data for internal and client presentations and reports.

WhatTheyThink.com’s Economics and Research Center contains a blend of free and premium content for graphic arts and publishing executives. It offers an online library of primary research reports, executive summaries of economic trends, and related industry columns, videos, podcasts and webinars. The Economic and Research Center can be found at:

http://members.whattheythink.com/erc/erc.cfm

About WhatTheyThink

WhatTheyThink 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 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.

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