 Mixed Bag For Industry Profits
The 2014 Printing industries of America's Ratio Survey shows a mixed picture for printing industry financial performance last year. On average, the typical printing firm's profit as a percent of sales dipped slightly from the previous year-to 2.6 percent versus 2.7 percent. However, industry profit leaders-firms in the top 25 percent of profitability-saw their profits rise from 9.9 percent to 10.3 percent of sales.
The full series of Ratios volumes will be available in the PIA Bookstore in a few weeks and the free volumes and Ratios Customized Financial Analysis reports will be distributed to survey respondents soon. If you have questions please contact Ed Gleeson at 1-800-910-4283 (ext. 756) or egleeson@printing.org.
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 Court Rules On FMLA Notice
Recently the Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that an employer who relied on regular U.S. mail to provide a Family and Medical Leave Act notice failed its statutory obligation under the Act. The plaintiff claimed she never received the notice and would have structured her leave differently if she had known. While the Third Circuit covers just Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, employers elsewhere, including Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming would be wise to send FMLA notices via traceable means, with tracking numbers and a signature. Email that shows confirmation of receipt and reading should be sufficient as well. Always better to be safe than legally sorry.
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 Changing The Sales Model
Print industry veteran Joe Polanco from Dallas, Texas recently called for a change to the conventional sales model in our industry, away from a system where representatives are compensated on a commission basis to something different. Polanco argues that a commission system works well when the work consists of individual jobs, e.g. the client wants 20,000 32pp self-cover booklets by next week. As many in our industry are realizing, however, the traditional system has challenges when the work is a complex fabric of products/services (variable data, point-of-purchase, mailing, fulfillment, and other media) with a long time line of "maturation."
While this type of project can produce meaningful sales and profit, it creates problems for the sales rep who is expected to put major effort into nursing the project but doesn't get paid until the project begins to deliver, perhaps months or even years after it began.
Although many in the industry realize the weaknesses of the existing system, it's difficult to move from tradition. Yet, as our industry become less and less job centric and more project oriented, sales comp methods need to be reconsidered. Polanco argues it is time to look outside of the industry and see what methods are being used to incentivize representatives. Those methods tend to be more salary based with incentives for project management and customer retention as part of the compensation package.
Polanco posits that it may also be time to look at the type of person we hire. We no longer need print gurus. Our future sales reps need to be problem solvers and knowledgeable about all visual media and the role it plays in marketing. It's no longer about selling ink on paper.
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 It's Better On Paper
Is there a quantifiable difference between reading on paper versus a screen of some sort? We've all heard people assert that they'd never want to "curl up with their computer" to read a book, but the proliferation of tablet devices and smartphones have people turning to a digital screen more and more often. One common complaint is eye strain and fatigue from back-lit screens (although e-ink technology is said to provide the same ease of reading as a printed page).
However, studies have been performed on other reading factors that give the advantage to paper. One such study indicated that "silent reading" from a screen can be as much as 20%- 30% slower compared to paper (although variations such as background color and font size could have had an impact). Editors have long been aware, too, that accuracy can be affected, particularly for activities such as proofreading on screen. But reading comprehension has also been shown to be affected negatively by the screen. Why? A study in Norway suggested that the direct contact with paper-feeling it in your hands, seeing where it begins and ends, and being able to flip back and forth through the pages, creates a "mental map" of the entire text in your brain which makes it easier to review and recall. That's a benefit you just can't get with the device screen..
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 Power of the BookBook
Speaking of the power of paper, if you haven't seen the latest ad by IKEA touting its latest printed catalog, you must! In its first week in release it generated almost 8 million views, according to data from Visible Measures.
The Swedish furniture retailer's "Experience the power of a bookbook" video introduces viewers to a device that "changes the way we live" - the new IKEA catalog- parodying the tone and language Apple uses to market its gadgets. In the IKEA spot, a "chief design guru" highlights the so-called bookbook's specs and innovative features such as an "eternal" battery life and "pre-installed" content. To view the ad, click here.
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 Quote For The Week "Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."
David Russell
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