By Dr. Joe Webb on May 23rd, 2013 - Comment
The US Commerce Department issued its annual update of manufacturing shipments data last Friday. The bottom line is that they increased each of the last two years by about $1 billion, but the increases were not enough to increase annual shipments after inflation. The revision process is constant. Every year, five historical years are revised,…
By Dr. Joe Webb on May 15th, 2013 - 4 Comments
The Commerce Department recently released the latest edition of County Business Patterns data about the number of US business establishments in 2011. Those data indicated that commercial printing establishments declined -4.1% compared to 2010. The biggest percentage declines were in establishments with 500 to 999 employees (between about $90 million to $200 million in sales),…
By Dr. Joe Webb on May 3rd, 2013 - Comment
US commercial printing shipments for the first quarter were down -$42 million compared to 2012 (-0.22%), at $19.3 billion. Q1 shipments may have been distorted by a strong January, likely caused by delayed buying by small businesses as they delayed purchases in tax planning efforts in December 2012. March 2013 shipments were $6.771 billion, down…
By Dr. Joe Webb on May 3rd, 2013 - Comment
This month’s recovery indicators had just a minor stumble, as the ISM Non-manufacturing new orders tripped over a pebble; otherwise, all of the indicators are higher than last month. (click chart to enlarge) The new orders index is still above its level at the start of the recession and indicates moderate growth. The same is…
By Dr. Joe Webb on April 29th, 2013 - 12 Comments
Neil Richards, retired market research executive (and legend) of Kodak, spread the word about the end of Terry Nagi’s battle with brain cancer the other day after getting the news by phone from Terry’s wife, Barbara. I’ve known Neil for more than thirty years, and it was Neil who introduced me to Terry. At the…
By Dr. Joe Webb on April 29th, 2013 - Comment
Last Friday’s GDP report for Q1-2013 came in lower than expectations at +2.5%. That is an annual growth rate compared to Q4-2012. That looked like a pickup in activity compared to Q4-2012 which was +0.4%. Because of the changes in tax rates, there were distortions in the Q4 data as companies reduced spending, slowing real…
By Dr. Joe Webb on April 25th, 2013 - Comment
Stock analysts are a funny breed. To listen to them, Apple had a terrible quarterly report. Profit as a percentage of sales was only 21.9%, iPhone sales increased a paltry +5.7% and iPad sales were up a disappointing +65%. At least, this is the way they look at it. In every aspect, Apple’s continued march…
By Dr. Joe Webb on April 17th, 2013 - 5 Comments
Everyone’s heard it. Everyone thinks it’s true. Everyone thinks it’s a paradox. Everyone thinks it’s insightful. It’s not. It’s almost like the inventor of ibuprofen or aspirin or acetaminophen saying “it’s a paradox that we can make products to stop a headache, but we get headaches ourselves.” Or perhaps a dry cleaner “we clean the…
By Dr. Joe Webb on April 10th, 2013 - 7 Comments
Last week’s unemployment report was like one of those snacks that looks great when it’s on the shelf in the store, but when you open the package at home, it’s quite different. The picture on the package looked tasty and appetizing, the stuff on the inside was stale and tasteless. The decrease in unemployment to…
By Dr. Joe Webb on April 3rd, 2013 - Comment
The US Department of Commerce reported that shipments of commercial printers for February 2013 were $5.994 billion, down -$169 million compared to 2012. This was the first time that shipments were below $6 billion since January 1992. On an inflation-adjusted basis, those 1992 shipments would be $9.9 billion today. January 2013 shipments, however, were revised…
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Strategies and Action Items for Success
A contrarian look at the printing industry and the new rules and strategies needed to succeed.
