It's that time of year... not the most original of openers
at, well, this time of year, but we have a favour to ask of you.
We've been sending out a set of eight questions to people in
the print industry on their hopes and fears for 2008, and it seems appropriate
to open the field up to general debate.
Me? I have a few expectations for 2008. I think
most agree that the environment will continue to enjoy its high profile
and that the issue of training will grow in importance. But in terms of
business? I'm looking for the next salesforce.com that enables local
printers to deploy cross-media services: personalised urls, websites,
email list management and so on.
And I'll tell
you why. When you look at other industries, the focus is going to be
local. 2007 was the year for building communities on the internet - Web
2.0 and all that. Next year I expect newspaper companies, mobile
companies, internet companies, advertising companies, to be looking at
how they can get at local audiences. Really local audiences, such as
where's my nearest dry cleaners, where's the restaurant everyone's
eating at these days? Lots of tiny markets, but when you add them up
they really count. What everyone is calling the long tail. Still with
me?
The UK print industry is largely a network
of small companies, ideally positioned to go local - not go local; they
are local - but they only do print. They need a set of third party
services and expertise that they can hook into and take advantage of
this trend in the same way salesforce.com revolutionised CRM.
But if you don't want to start a business with me - and I wouldn't blame you - at least add your voice to our 2008 predictions.
The more people we can get to answer this, the better
picture we will have of the industry as a whole. So copy the questions below,
hit "leave a comment", paste the questions and bang out your answers.
Keep an eye on printweek.com over the festive break to find
out how your peers have answered and we'll round up the general consensus next
year.
Eight questions for 2008:
1. What do you believe will be greatest opportunities for
printers to grow their businesses in 2008?
2. What will be the greatest threat to your sector for 2008?
3. How can the industry raise its profile next year?
4. What do you believe is the most under-recognised aspect
in printing that is likely to become more important in 2008?
5. What print sectors do you believe will experience the
greatest innovation next year?
6. What should the print industry do for the print industry
when it gets back to work after the holidays?
7. If the Government stepped in and did one thing to help
the industry, what would you hope that would be?
8. What will you do differently in 2008?