Books Publishers Trying To Find Answers to Paper Shortages

 

Books Publishers Trying To Find Answers to Paper Shortages

A recent webinar was sponsored by Canon Solutions America, on the topic, “The Powerful Case for U.S. Book Manufacturing in the Face of Global Supply Chain Challenges, Paper Shortages, and Rising Distribution Costs,” moderated by Chris Lyons, featuring Jim Milliot, Bill Rojack and Matt Baehr.

Key Takeaways: Paper shortages and rising distribution costs are challenges that the industry will likely face in 2022. 

Rojack made a statement: “I’ve been doing this for 25 years and I’ve never seen a market like this before.” He went to state that, paper accounts for only about 5-7% of total paper market demand (including for catalogs and magazines) and despite an increase in demand by book publishers, overall paper demand has dropped 50% in recent years.

Some solutions were offered, albeit long term rather than short term. An option suggested was print-on-demand, which solves inventory and time issues, though boasts a high per unit cost. 

“This situation creates an interesting dialog with publishers because it assures that there will have to be a standardization of trim sizes, paper usage, cover stocks, and more,” Baehr said. Rojack argued that, “The future for new models is in digital printing".

Ultimately, the labor and paper shortages will not dissipate soon and in some cases publishers have become more proactive in bringing printing back stateside.

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