m-Bossed

Print's Darwinian Evolution

Charles Darwin taught us that the smarter, faster, and stronger are the winners in the game of life. The process of natural selection ensures the "survival of the fittest." These changes, spanning millennia, in human evolution are often categorized by ages. The Stone Age where humans mastered the use of rudimentary tools is personified by the recent Capitol One commercials. Stones were eventually replaced by the Copper, Bronze, and Iron Ages, as our knowledge base and mastery of tools progressed.

Every Age has disruptors along the way. These "revolutions" are marked by relatively short periods of rapid change. The Industrial Revolution during the 18th and 19th centuries had profound and lasting effects on society, cultures, and economies. According to Wikipedia, "It started with the mechanisation of the textile industries, the development of iron-making techniques and the increased use of refined coal. Trade expansion was enabled by the introduction of canals, improved roads and railways. The introduction of steam power fueled primarily by coal, wider utilization of water wheels and powered machinery (mainly in textile manufacturing) underpinned the dramatic increases in production capacity. The development of all-metal machine tools in the first two decades of the 19th century facilitated the manufacture of more production machines for manufacturing in other industries. The effects spread throughout Western Europe and North America during the 19th century, eventually affecting most of the world, a process that continues as industrialisation. The impact of this change on society was enormous."

The Industrial Revolution conveniently coincided with the Golden Age of Print. The tremendous changes and knowledge of this period needed to be shared, debated, and recorded for posterity. Print was the perfect medium for the job. Print was relatively fast and cheap as compared with previous methods and could be easily distributed. As a result, print as a communication platform flourished and would remain a dominant medium until the dawn of the Information Age.

Blame the microprocessor and the Internet for the rapid change in communication and information exchange. The Internet as a distribution network has been adept at reducing the need for printed material. Online forms with back end databases have replaced form printing. Advertising collateral such as direct mailers, posters, flyers, are supplemented by social media and mobile campaigns (text, QR, apps). A portion, yet to be determined, of book and magazine printers' work is being distributed digitally on Kindles and the soon to be released iPad. No amount of optimism or dreaming will revert the tide of printing lost to bits and bytes, but stop blaming what cannot be controlled and contained. Companies and individuals involved in print need to quit dwelling on recent "woes" and focus on getting "fit."

This is not a sad story, nor is it printing's swan song. Contrary to The Buggles song, video did not kill the radio star. Just as TV did not kill radio, all-things-digital will not kill printing. New technology simply causes existing technology to adapt - to evolve.  After all, the medium that delivers the intended message to the targeted audience with the best cost to action ratio is the winner.

How are you getting fit?

photo by: Corey Ann

A Book of Tweets

Continuing in the trend of bytes becoming things, there is a service that allows you to print a 200 page book of your tweets. A Tweetbookz is roughly 28,000 characters on 200 pages wrapped in a hardbound cover. For around $30, a Twitterer can save their tweets from the "fail whale."

Personally, I think the price and customization are lacking for Tweetbookz as compared to photo book offerings. More importantly, Tweetbookz represents a larger trend of users wanting to print their digital lives for sharing and archiving.

Since our tweets are not necessarily poetic masterpieces, most of us will probably not shell out the money for this printed record. Looking back at your tweets, after all, is probably like looking at your school yearbooks - shockingly funny and disturbing at once.

Watch this guy unwrapping his Tweetbookz to get the idea.

Sharing Twitter Tweet Book with the world from TweetBookz on Vimeo.

Personalized Print Pays Off with mine.

Remember the advertising/print experiment mine. magazine? Mine. was six issues of personalized articles aggregated from some of Time's better known magazines such as Sports Illustrated and Money. The car maker Lexus used the magazine as an exclusive outlet to promote their RX SUV. Although I was critical of the personalization (VDP) in the Lexus advertisements, Val DiGiancinto recently reported to WhatTheyThink (membership required) positive metrics for the trial run. Val's company, The Ace Group, was responsible for printing the six issues.

Positive Results:

• Readership levels 3X higher than the average magazine.
• 16% lift rate of vehicle awareness as measured by click-through responses.

Bottom Line:
Personal is always better than broadcast mediums (others agree).

Friend or Foe? For Adobe and Quark, their actions speak for themselves.

Take notice! Traditional print software providers are slowly changing their business plans. Adobe, after previously causing a stink with the FedEx Kinko's tie-in with Acrobat, decided recently to drop it's Print Service Provider program. In both instances, printer's and print media outlets took notice.

Quark's recent entry into an online design and print outlet has largely gone unnoticed. Last year the company introduced the QuarkPromote.com website which allows design neophytes easily editable templates for standard business print collateral. Simply put you can customize templates for brochures, business cards, letterhead, postcards, etc. Although Quark does not directly produce the artwork or the printing, they do control the marketplace and thus the terms of service for both designers and printers. (Sound like Apple's iTunes model?) Regardless of their public stance, Quark sees this as a growth opportunity according to an article in the Denver Business Journal.

After the announcement, a lively discussion ensued on their message board. The larger print community has either not heard of the initiative or do not see it as a direct threat. On the other hand, Quark learned valuable lessons from Adobe's previous FedEx Kinko's debacle - extend the olive branch and opportunities to both designers and printers. Most of the country's quick print franchises are prominently displayed on the main page, but any independent printer can join as an authorized partner. For designers, Quark designed templates can be uploaded which one assumes pays a royalty at purchase similar to iStock photo.

Will designers and printers still feel part of the family or simply locked out?

photo by: Monsieur Celsius