The publishing and graphic arts industries are under assault on many fronts: from new technologies, from changing and uncertain advertising strategies, from constraints on readers' time, from a confused economic picture and, frankly, from our own mismanagement. When Quebecor World, one of the world's largest printers, filed for bankruptcy protection in January, that was certainly an ominous sign for the printing industry. The paper industry too is in trouble. And cur- rent solutions are questionable. Does anyone believe that the private equity ownership of the paper industry will result in a more successful, stable industry in the long-term? Certainly equity firms are masters at financial engineering, but that's not going to result in an industry that serves us better, or that succeeds in attracting new talent, or that can help the paper business reform and prosper in the future as it needs to. Most concerning is the print distribution channel. Last year saw the passage of postal reform. A key tenet of that reform was rate protection. Going forward, increases are to be limited to annual consumer price index levels or below. But what no one wanted to acknowledge at that time was that First Class revenue had already started to decline. And that decline will only accelerate as electronic delivery of bills and payments becomes more widely accepted. How can a $75 billion dollar entity accept inflationary increases in the face of declining revenues without changing its mission?
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