Printing Industry Profits Up from Previous Year

Headquartered in Lexington, Ky., WhatTheyThink—an online media organization serving the printing and publishing industry—announced the availability of its most recent economic report, “Printing Shipments and Profits.”

The report is authored by Dr. Joe Webb, director of WhatTheyThink’s Economics and Research Center. “Printing profits for the last four quarters, Q3-2006 to Q2-2007, were $5.15 billion dollars on an inflation-adjusted basis,” said Webb. “This is excellent news compared to the same period a year ago, when profits were only $3.86 billion, a 23.4 percent increase.”

Built on data from WhatTheyThink’s Economics and Research Center, the U.S. Commerce Department and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics from 1995 through the second quarter of 2007, the Printing Shipments and Profits Report shows that Industry profits for the quarter were $1.73 billion. This is the first time it broke that level, on an inflation-adjusted basis, since the third quarter of 2000, when it was nearly $3.5 billion.

Webb further commented, “While we’re not at pre-2001 levels, the results are certainly very encouraging and these improved conditions played a role in the positive tone many of us felt at Graph Expo.”

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.

The report includes Adobe PDF, Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint files, as well as an MP3 file with audio commentary from Dr. Webb. The cost of the report is $50.00 and can be purchased through WhatTheyThink’s online store at http://wttstore.com/prpr.html.