and visceral/sensory attachment to printed books," researchers note, "potentially
elevating them to a luxury item."
"I think there might be some surprise
to that," suggests Mike Herold, worldwide
manager, Inkjet Technologies for Ricoh.
"What the study has illuminated is that
there is an impression out there about
what is going on in the books industry.
I think what the study has dug into and
discovered is that there is a different reality as to what hard copy books are being
used today, and how they might be used
going forward."
"Despite the perceived growth of
e-books, our research shows that there is
a silver lining for the printed books and
the digital production print industries,"
says Marco Boer, consulting partner, I.T.
Strategies. "As book orders become smaller in quantity and more frequent, and as
an unprecedented number of titles are
introduced each year, digital print is helping book manufacturers tackle potential
challenges head-on through automation
and more intelligent printing." He adds,
"Seventy percent of all books sold are still
sold in paper format."
A Boon for Print
Other findings from the study spe-
cifically relevant to publishers and book
manufacturers include:
• Publishers are using digital printing in
two ways. The first is as a test with one to
two books placed per retailer, circumventing cumbersome distributor guidelines
and storage fees before ordering larger
offset or digitally printed quantities. The
second is for predicted strong titles—digitally printed books are used for reorders
as needed to supplement first-run offset
printed books.
• Digital production inkjet printers
have opened the door to a business model
shift. Combined, the study estimates that
just 50 production inkjet systems owned
by 25 book manufacturers produced more
than 10 percent of all printed book pages
in the US in 2012.
• Offering titles electronically does not
correspond to revenue generation or cost
savings. Even the largest publishers derive
revenues of no more than 20 to 30 percent from e-book sales.
"I think the critical aspect for printers
to understand is where the trends are
going to be for hard-copy books, and
where things are going forward," says
Herold. "There are obviously some books
that are going to continue to go more
into electronic. I don't want to call them
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throwaway books, but they are books
with which you don't have a sense of
need to collect, to gift, to share, to show
off. Those types of books that would have
longer intrinsic value to the users are
going to continue to be critical in a print
format because, again, they can be shared,
passed down."
In other words, traditional printed
books aren't going anywhere. ◗◗
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January 2014 / QUICK PRINTING
17