Feeling like an origami sheep in a digital herd? Designers innately understand the value of communication on paper. They know that a strong message, thoughtfully crafted, well-designed and printed on quality paper is an effective communication tool and allows the recipient to tactilely experience a brand. If you’re a lover of print, you probably spend a good deal of time trying to convince clients that print is a critical part of any marketing plan. This is especially true when working with limited or diminished budgets and teams that believe that print may be dead.
But are ‘print is dead’ perceptions based on reality? Well, as they say on the Marketplace® program widely distributed on public radio, let’s go to the numbers…According to a recent article in the market intelligence blog, WhatTheyThink?, measured media in the US constitutes a $300 billion market. This works out to a media spend of about $1,000 per person per year—here’s how it breaks down:
* Television commands the biggest single share at $70 to $75 billion, including network, cable, and streaming channels.
* Direct marketing—the only medium with results that can be measured in ROI dollars—comes in at $60 billion.
* The newspaper market makes up $45 billion.
* The Internet—specifically, its SEO (search engine optimization) portion—is a $25 billion medium.
* Magazines and periodicals own a $20 billion share.
* Directories account for $10 billion.
* The Out of Home market (OOH) including billboards, signage, and other components, adds up to $9 billion.
* The “other” category, which includes printed promotional items such as free standing inserts, comes in at $15 billion.
* And, non-measured media, like trade shows, sweepstakes and lotteries, public relations, and collateral, comprise $200 billion in promotional activities.

When we add up the numbers associated with print communication, it continues to own the largest share with $159 billion—bigger than all the others put together. It’s obvious that print is an important part of our consumer-driven economy. Still not so sure? Did you know that Amazon is opening brick and mortar bookstores and CEO Jeff Bezos paid $250 million in cash for the old guard publication, The Washington Post. Also, according to the Association of Magazine Media, overall print circulation is slightly up or stable. It’s refreshing to have drawn a personal line in the sand and see leading edge thinkers start coming back to my point of view. Does that make sense?

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As an educator, designer, humanist, mentor and lover of all things graphic arts, Daniel Dejan has been an evangelist for the power of paper and print for the span of his career. He is the face of the etc (education-training-consulting) Group at Sappi Fine Paper North America where he delivers etc services to Sappi's wide range of clients.
With more than 40 years of design, production, print buying and on-press experience, Dejan is always ready to share his knowledge of the successful and effective marriage of print and paper. On the road 200 days a year, he is a hands-on, in-person resource—delivering presentations to designers, printers, corporations and paper merchants as well as to organizations at public and private events and conferences throughout North America including AIGA, HOW and Printing Industry of America chapters, Canadian Printing Industries groups, IDEAlliance/IPA events, Print Production and Art Directors Clubs .
As printing techniques have evolved, Daniel has embraced new technology by not only investigating creative and effective ways to use QR Codes and Augmented Reality in conjunction with print and paper—earning him a position as a Google Glass Developer—but also by exploring and commenting on the layered and complex relationships between the print and digital worlds; merging new -communications technology and human interaction.
Dejan has written articles for numerous trade magazines and was both a technical consultant and contributor to The Designer's Guide to Print Production. As a certified G7 Expert, Dejan is an authority in both Color and Color Management and an avid student of color perception and color theory as it relates to branding and printed color reproduction. He co-chaired the Spectrum Conference in 2007 and is currently a member of the Board of Directors for IDEAlliance/IPA.
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