David Savastano, Editor11.13.20
The past 12 years have been difficult for the publication printing market. Since the global recession in 2008, daily newspaper subscription in the US has dropped from 48,597,000 to an estimated 28,554,137, according to the Newspapers Fact Sheet posted by Pew Research. To put that in context, the high-water mark was 63,340,000 in 1984. The number of newspapers in the US has also declined in recent years, as newspapers continue to emphasize digital editions.
The magazine industry has been steadier. According to Statista, there were 7,357 print consumer magazines in the US in 2019, up from 7,218 in the previous year. While some big names have closed over the years, others have taken their place.
It is too early to assess the impact of COVID-19 on the global newspaper and magazine industry, but it is also taking a toll.
John Corcoran, VP, sales – US Ink, Sun Chemical, said that from a print standpoint, similar to previous years, newspaper circulation continues to decline as they attempt to move to a digital platform. With this change, ink usage has also declined with the market.
“The heatset market has continued to achieve stable levels over the past few years,” Corcoran reported. “Despite the mid-single-digit decline we forecasted for this market, we have not experienced that contraction. Putting the pandemic aside, regionally focused printers were showing growth pre-pandemic, saw sluggishness during the pandemic, and are now starting to return to a stable state.”
Amy Millington, marketing coordinator for Flint CPS, said that the publication and commercial markets took a significant hit at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We saw a significant downturn in volumes,” Millington added. “The publication and commercial ink markets were significantly impacted by local and national lockdowns, which saw many industries who normally support commercial print come to a standstill. We did, however, see an increase in demand for our commercial packaging inks, influenced by panic buying in the supermarkets, causing an increase in demand on the food and pharma packaging sectors.”
Joern Bartelheimer, VP Business Unit Tobacco EMEA & Publication Gravure, EMEA for Siegwerk, reported that the European publication gravure market was significantly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The demand for publication ink dropped quite fast and radically: the need for printed advertising completely collapsed during shutdowns as shops, airports and other public places stayed closed for several weeks, while subscriptions of magazines stayed stable over the time,” Bartelheimer noted. “Overall, we have seen the biggest decline in ink consumption in Europe between April and June with a decrease of up to 30% depending on the country.”
There has been a rebound in the area of publication printing and inks.
“We are now seeing that both publication and commercial markets are beginning to show signs of recovery begin to lift across the world,” Millington said. “We have seen demand increase in both the commercial and publication print markets, with the third quarter signaling a steady recovery in the market. Publication inks saw an increase in demand much earlier than the commercial market place, and continue to show signs of recovering to pre-COVID-19 levels.”
“Most of the European markets are recovering since August,” said Bartelheimer. “As expected, levels are still below the consumption in 2019, also because of the general reverse trend in the market we have already seen in the past years. However, the second wave of infections is already impacting selected markets, further delaying a potential market recovery.”
“While COVID-19 certainly has affected all industries, most of the coldset and heatset printers that Sun Chemical serves are considered essential businesses and continued to operate,” Corcoran reported. “At this point, COVID-19 has had a large impact on their operations. The switch to digital platforms seems to be the ongoing reason for the decline. We do want to note that we’re working to ensure that our supply chain is well-positioned to respond to any upcoming hurdles, whether it is a COVID-19 wave two, more trade wars or any other geopolitical events.”
Jeffrey Shaw, chief supply chain officer, Sun Chemical, added that the pandemic caused significant disruption in global supply chains as well as price volatility in some key raw material categories.
“All regions globally were impacted, however, supply, distribution channels, and labor continue to improve,” Shaw observed.
Opportunities for Growth
Overall, publication ink leaders say they see limited opportunities for growth in the publication and commercial markets.
“Even though this is difficult to judge at the moment, we do not see huge growth opportunities in the publication printing market,” said Bartelheimer. “There may be customers that beat market development either by specializing, serving niches or outperforming competition through reliability or additional services but this will have a limited impact on the total market.”
“Flint CPS believes that print continues to be a key element in many industries,” Millington said. “We continue to look for new opportunities across both the publication and commercial markets, as well as sheetfed packaging.”
Chris Parrilli, president, North American Inks, Sun Chemical, said that from a company perspective, there are always growth opportunities.
“Customers value our products and services and when we can create mutual benefit, we win business,” Parrilli added. “From a market perspective, there will continue to be a decline for the reasons stated above. Whether digital platforms or just general disinterest in the print format, these markets will decline each year and depending on the economic environment, some years will be worse than others.”
The magazine industry has been steadier. According to Statista, there were 7,357 print consumer magazines in the US in 2019, up from 7,218 in the previous year. While some big names have closed over the years, others have taken their place.
It is too early to assess the impact of COVID-19 on the global newspaper and magazine industry, but it is also taking a toll.
John Corcoran, VP, sales – US Ink, Sun Chemical, said that from a print standpoint, similar to previous years, newspaper circulation continues to decline as they attempt to move to a digital platform. With this change, ink usage has also declined with the market.
“The heatset market has continued to achieve stable levels over the past few years,” Corcoran reported. “Despite the mid-single-digit decline we forecasted for this market, we have not experienced that contraction. Putting the pandemic aside, regionally focused printers were showing growth pre-pandemic, saw sluggishness during the pandemic, and are now starting to return to a stable state.”
Amy Millington, marketing coordinator for Flint CPS, said that the publication and commercial markets took a significant hit at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We saw a significant downturn in volumes,” Millington added. “The publication and commercial ink markets were significantly impacted by local and national lockdowns, which saw many industries who normally support commercial print come to a standstill. We did, however, see an increase in demand for our commercial packaging inks, influenced by panic buying in the supermarkets, causing an increase in demand on the food and pharma packaging sectors.”
Joern Bartelheimer, VP Business Unit Tobacco EMEA & Publication Gravure, EMEA for Siegwerk, reported that the European publication gravure market was significantly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The demand for publication ink dropped quite fast and radically: the need for printed advertising completely collapsed during shutdowns as shops, airports and other public places stayed closed for several weeks, while subscriptions of magazines stayed stable over the time,” Bartelheimer noted. “Overall, we have seen the biggest decline in ink consumption in Europe between April and June with a decrease of up to 30% depending on the country.”
There has been a rebound in the area of publication printing and inks.
“We are now seeing that both publication and commercial markets are beginning to show signs of recovery begin to lift across the world,” Millington said. “We have seen demand increase in both the commercial and publication print markets, with the third quarter signaling a steady recovery in the market. Publication inks saw an increase in demand much earlier than the commercial market place, and continue to show signs of recovering to pre-COVID-19 levels.”
“Most of the European markets are recovering since August,” said Bartelheimer. “As expected, levels are still below the consumption in 2019, also because of the general reverse trend in the market we have already seen in the past years. However, the second wave of infections is already impacting selected markets, further delaying a potential market recovery.”
“While COVID-19 certainly has affected all industries, most of the coldset and heatset printers that Sun Chemical serves are considered essential businesses and continued to operate,” Corcoran reported. “At this point, COVID-19 has had a large impact on their operations. The switch to digital platforms seems to be the ongoing reason for the decline. We do want to note that we’re working to ensure that our supply chain is well-positioned to respond to any upcoming hurdles, whether it is a COVID-19 wave two, more trade wars or any other geopolitical events.”
Jeffrey Shaw, chief supply chain officer, Sun Chemical, added that the pandemic caused significant disruption in global supply chains as well as price volatility in some key raw material categories.
“All regions globally were impacted, however, supply, distribution channels, and labor continue to improve,” Shaw observed.
Opportunities for Growth
Overall, publication ink leaders say they see limited opportunities for growth in the publication and commercial markets.
“Even though this is difficult to judge at the moment, we do not see huge growth opportunities in the publication printing market,” said Bartelheimer. “There may be customers that beat market development either by specializing, serving niches or outperforming competition through reliability or additional services but this will have a limited impact on the total market.”
“Flint CPS believes that print continues to be a key element in many industries,” Millington said. “We continue to look for new opportunities across both the publication and commercial markets, as well as sheetfed packaging.”
Chris Parrilli, president, North American Inks, Sun Chemical, said that from a company perspective, there are always growth opportunities.
“Customers value our products and services and when we can create mutual benefit, we win business,” Parrilli added. “From a market perspective, there will continue to be a decline for the reasons stated above. Whether digital platforms or just general disinterest in the print format, these markets will decline each year and depending on the economic environment, some years will be worse than others.”