Taking Communication to a Whole New Level; Introduction by ROY BAILIE, British Printing Industry Federation

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PRINTING and Publishing represents an enormous industry sector and is the fourth largest industry in the world.

It encompasses a broad range of activities with Multinational conglomerates and one-person ventures providing a huge diversity of products and services.

New technology is bringing change at an ever accelerating pace particularly in the field of computers and communications.

As a result of this digital revolution the structure of the industry is changing to accommodate the fact that printing is no longer the only way to disseminate information in a permanent form.

This is a fundamental shift in position as printers now have to compete with alternative media and new entrants using different technologies.

Information technology, and the consequent digital revolution is the major driver for change across the industry and printing is moving from being a relatively well defined industry in its own right to one that is a part of the converging telecommunications and information industry.

In that wider industry successful smaller companies will be part of networked alliances and larger companies will be complete communication providers to their customers.

The challenges we face are great but the opportunities even greater. …