More on newspapers

Following a post about Futurelearn here is some detail on newspapers that did not quite fit in. Worth a look by the way. Online learning and the campus may develop in similar ways to how news has changed.

Anyway, more hints that UK newspapers are closer to a crunch than appears.

Telegraph reports that pension funds are part of the reason for delays in Trinity Mirror buying Express. Seems that Desmond will get actual money but the pension funds have to consider whether the investment is sound. £19 m deficit at Express, £400m at Trinity.

Not much recently on the Guardian move to tabloid format. Expected in 2018, printed by Trinity Mirror. Trinity may find enough extra work to have a viable print operation but there will be some surplus equipment somewhere.

Peter Preston recently wrote about success for the FT with online paywall but story includes info on annual declines in circulation over 20% for Mirror, Sunday Mirror and People. Also mentions Murdoch decision not to buy any more newspapers. Unclear so far what is intended for future structure if Fox assets sold. My guess is that the brands are not linked to global digital scene. sun not competing with Mail as USA website.

There could be a lot more about this at a future IPEX, say in 2019. What is actually happening? reasonable question for a show.

IPEX News in Print Business

Print Business has a report from IPEX 2017 with opinion. It "failed to walk the walk". The hall " was only half occupied" , visitor numbers "will come nowhere near 20,000."

So I am more confident in my post from yesterday. The tweet flow had me confused for a while. There really is an issue.

One quibble, I think the Print Show has more substance than suggested.

Everyone spoken to commented on the credibility of the visitors, comparing favourably with those that had attended the Print Show in Telford a few weeks earlier. There the visitor profile had been smaller companies with limited budgets. At Ipex the demographic was a larger company with litho as well as digital printing.

It may depend what you are looking for. Telford welcomed Canon, Konica Minolta, Xeretec. The case for printed fabric was made at IPEX by the London College of Fashion but perhaps not well backed up through evidence. At Telford there was machinery from HP and Epson. Man Roland was there for conversation. Apparently taking weeks to set up equipment  only makes sense for a longer show. Not in the UK presumably.

The Print Show has announced September 2018 at NEC. See previous post why I think there is still scope for a global theory event as well. Maybe more or less often so still pretty vague.

So plenty of time to work out what IPEX would be like in 2019. What talk to talk?

Options after print shows

Thinking about IPEX and The Print Show I am wondering about possible different directions. It seems there will be a Print show at the NEC in September 2018 and also an IPEX in 2019. Various comments show there is no support for another clash of two events close in time and space. ( Trust me I am a blogger, details and direct quotes maybe in a future version ). My guess is that the Print Show will be solid as a UK event with a regular update on info. Maybe no dramatic product launches but a definite local support base. For example Man Roland sheetfed this year had no equipment but many conversations.

Could IPEX go in a more speculative direction, more of a conference around digital and creative? Adobe on Creative Cloud showed other possible media. The BPIF is expanding the rangeof activity supported, especially by associates. I have been looking again at the keynote from Francois Martin.

When he says there is a choice between being a printer and being a service provider he may also identify a choice for a print show. After the 2014 IPEX  the Infoblog suggested that one option for IPEX would be

De-emphasizing its print focus and becoming more of a digital marketing & publishing event. It’s doubtful there is a large enough vendor community for this to make the event as big as IPEX once was; certainly not initially although it is a fast growing market. Besides, there are already some very sizeable marketing & publishing shows locally and some of the top vendors in this market (Adobe, Oracle, Salesforce.com, etc.) all organize their own customer events.

Something like this is still possible though it might mean less of an emphasis on floor space. Informa may be able to combine with other events.

There was not as much at IPEX about Cross Media as I had expected. Around 2014 there were events in Islington and a section for Cross Media Production. "OmniChannel" was mentioned by Ian Sulivan but only in passing or an optional word. My impression is that omnichannel is used by people in marketing so could be a link to print. Not sure yet how this would work as an event. Maybe it starts online. Alternatives to an annual show could be more often or less often.

There needs to be some sort of reality check on where UK print is now at as reflected by IPEX. The show met expectations but if attendance dropped by anything like the same percentage as last time then the scale is the news. I heard not much about newspapers but theere are significant developments. If Trinity Mirror buys the Express and also prints the Guardian there is a lot less working machinery. I welcome the positive views from Pat McGrew in the session about Print in Publishing but John Charnock might have given the same sort of description as for magazines and books. Maybe next time?

Slightly off topic but still about newspapers more or less, there is a contrast in social media and reporting so far.

The magazines I found seem to be aligned with specific shows or awards. Discussion on how it all fits together or not has yet to appear as far as I can tell, links welcome.

Comments interesting though, these on Printweek story about 2019 date.

Wm • a day ago
It might be time to rename it to avoid confusion. It is just a very small regional show now - it has nothing in common with the once mighty IPEX that we all nostalgically remember. DRUPA now has the European monopoly. Taking back control!!

steve • a day ago
Just Got back from a Morning At Ipex.
As someone who has been to every Ipex since the late 70's ( apart from last time in London) It was shocking to see how small it was. But saying that it was a well organised show, well layed-out and the people who took stands, seemed to be doing good business, and it was quite crowded by lunch time. Shame there was no Heidelberg, Komori, Indigo, Agfa or Xerox. There were only two proper presses as far as I could see, the Ryobi on the Apex Stand and The Presstek DI. Fair bit of Finishing kit and lots of bits and bobs of ancillary kit. Quite a few Foreign visitor's as well as far as I could tell. But its certainly not Ipex as we used to know it. But things change and certainly Print has changed it all recognition, in the last 20 years. So Ipex will have to evolve, or maybe just change the name, to avoiding being compared to past glories.

Ginger • 3 hours ago
I think it simply reflects the state of what is left of the trade now, for all the talk bigging up the industry, it is in a bit of a state now I'm afraid

Dave Bautista • 12 minutes ago
I have to agree with Wm, the show shouldn't be called IPEX. It was more a finishing show than a true "print" show as we have known over the years.
It did seems busy, but there was an awful lot of students there filling the gaps.
I hope the exhibitors did well and made some good business, because the costs to exhibit can't have been cheap.
I can't see how making it every two years will benefit anyone, other than the organisers. They could probably move its location to the NEC cloakroom if they do that! ;-)

Comment welcome, probably several versions of this text still to come.

Cross Media continues at IPEX, words mean whatever people think

Ian Sullivan spoke yesterday in the Future Skills Theatre about combining print and social media. He did mention "omnichannel" but he prefers "cross media" as these are words he has used for a while. There were cross Media events in Islington and Cross Media Production as part of the IPEX at ExCEL.

I will upload some video later, just catching up with other things in Exeter.

I did talk to him about omnichannel and he recognises the word is in use. But also "multimedia" and maybe others. Seems to me best to just use whatever words make sense to people. Ian presented convincing case studies, more in the video later.

I am still trying to get a sense of the scale on which social media now compares with print. I don't think the reality is yet obvious, including to the people at IPEX. The show is exciting in itself but has to be compared with previous events. My guess is that numbers attending will turn out closer to 10,000 than 20,000. Just based on first two days. So "cross media" is urgent topic as print is not the central choice for content.

Hard to make out a trend in IPEX numbers as the Print Show was just a few weeks ago and manymaded a choice to attend just that one. IPEX could have chosen another venue or time of year and it may turn out that both have been damaged. I met both exhibitors and visiting printers with concerns. One problem is that the trade press seems connected to specific events. Printweek has no detail on either event but more on their own awards. Needs something to report on what is going on and what people are saying.

The rationale for an event every three or four years may be ending for the UK. A shift towards software and online just requires space for discussion. Setting up kit may take some weeks so a show of three or four days is not making sense. I don't think IPEX will change to an annual show for the UK but if so it could work something out so different time of year to Print Show, also maybe one at ExCEL and one at NEC. There is still a role for a wider discussion on a global basis, but maybe more often than annual, not less. Some sort of network, several places.

Beginning to ramble, more later maybe more thought out. But not off topic yet. Looking at "cross media" needs a reality check on where print is starting from now.

95 Theses at IPEX

John Naughton wrote in the Observer yesterday (UK hard copy) about a new website that is live tomorrow. 95 new theses about technology.

So far it seems to be mostly about printing. Once the online is available there may be more about tech but the print aspect seems way in the past. Update needed, and I think it could be specific about Guardian Media Group.

I will be at IPEX tomorrow so will check at least some of the 95 later in the week. I hope to discover what the UK market might be like for second hand kit from Man Roland. Sorry to put it this way, the reality of UK newspapers is getting closer to a news event. At the previous IPEX I met some people from India where there is still investment in training for print and expectation that online news will not reach all the audience anytime soon. Not sure they will be at this IPEX, long way to come when the show seems much smaller.

But some info will be there, maybe just informal opinion. Blog update later.

Is there a web strategy for news organisations? How can print fit in?

Hello @whattheythink , What To Think about #OmniChannel at IPEX2017 ?

Expanded tweet as some space required. I am getting back to blog mode re print after some time away.

I notice there is no sign yet of @whattheythink at IPEX. I have found a tweet linked to a Ricoh press release.

So headline for day one something like this is not the IPEX we might expect.

Headline for day two needs to explain what happens next.

I did a LinkedIn post on what happened to Cross Media as a term ?

My impression was that it did not make the same impact now as at the time of the previous IPEX.

Gee Ranasinha ( @KEXINO on Twitter ) told me that the current marketing term is "OmniChannel" .

I have tried to check this out. seems to be about retail as well as media but maybe online they mix up anyway.

Google check found his info is sound.

Cross Media still used at print shows, such as The Print Show recently in Telford.

Also found on @whattheythink, Jennifer Matt in 2016.

But I suggest #omnichannel could be a future term. I tried out Adobe Spark as a way to get thought down below a minute. Conclusion is that even if several words mean the same thing best to use the ones people already understand or think they do.

Continues at IPEX and online. Will check @whattheythink on Twitter

By the way The Print Show at Telford seemed fairly solid as an annual event for UK only.  My guess is that IPEX could develop into something different, maybe more discussion and a wider scope. To include #OmniChannel with explanation. Not sure how often, three years is a long time for software.

Continuing what happened to Cross Media?

I did a post on LinkedIn recently after LikeMinds in Exeter. Jason Miller from LinkeIn surprised me by announcing that the "best bits" of the online marketing blogs are now available in a print magazine. Intended as quarterly. This reminded me about "Cross Media" but I could not find any recent links. So I wonder what has happened and how it is described.

There has been one comment, from Gee Ranasinha-

I think for most marketers 'cross channel' has morphed into today's 'mot du jour': omnichannel".
I understood cross-channel to mean repurposing content originally designed for one channel, into another. Creating a print ad, email newsletter and landing page for the same campaign, for example. For me the "omnichannel' approach is taking a more holistic view of content - i.e. not 'imposing' (if you'll pardon the printing pun) a potentially restrictive structure on content until it's destined for output. It comes from a position that most customers navigate across numerous touchpoints prior to purchase.
An omnichannel approach ostensibly places higher value on customer experience, with a network of channels working together and interdependently, with the goal of a more consistent (and hopefully positive) brand experience.

This makes a lot of sense. I will check out how it connects with the Print Show in Telford and IPEX at the NEC.

Known events-

11th Oct      12.30   LinkedIn for Lead Generation  John Heffernan
12th Oct      13.40   Win with Web , Win with Print  Rob Finnie


1 Nov           15.30  Print in Publishing  Alice Audley 



@RedLiveDigital  John Heffernan
@grafeniaplc  Rob Finnie
@KEXINO    Gee Ranasinha
@AliceAudley   Alice Audley
@JasonMillerCA Jason Miller


me Will Pollard @will789gb

continues as tweets, Pulse update later