Encyclopedia Britannica going 100% digital.

Encyclopedia Britannica announced they are going 100% digital. No more volumes of books with glossy picture. No more impressive bookshelves boasting intellectual curiosity. No more PRINT. http://ht.ly/9EfP3

“The print edition became more difficult to maintain and wasn’t the best physical element to deliver the quality of our database and the quality of our editorial,” Jorge Cauz, president of Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., told Reuters.

As to whether print editions of books will be viable products in the future, Cauz predicted, “print may not completely vanish from the market, but I think it is going to be increasingly less important. Many publications will never have a print analog and will only be printed on digital formats.”

A month earlier Proctor &Gamble announced cuts to their marketing budget by $10 Billion to focus on digital. http://ht.ly/9Eu20

News? Hardly. These changes have been coming and will most likely escalate in years to come. Some members criticized Printing Industries of Northern California reorganization to Visual Media Alliance two years ago. As an organization committed to supporting the printing industry, some wondered if we were jumping ship. Others who lauded this transition understood. The best we can to for our valued members as well as our important community that has supported our trade for decades, is to educate them. The term “Opporthreats” applied precisely. What’s going on is clearly a threat if we continue with business as usual. It is as well an opportunity if we can morph ourselves into the broader  communications industry we need to be. It’s not that we’ll all disappear. After all, there is still an industry who succeeds by chiseling words onto stone as our ancestors did thousands of years ago. Of course, even the headstone industry is being affected by technology today.

“Computers have made the process of engraving and etching much easier and more detailed. A computer can quickly scan an image and transfer it to a stone in a matter of seconds. In fact, engravings and designs that took months to create now take only a few hours or days. Even pictures of the person, like a ceramic picture or laser etched portrait, can be placed onto a headstone.” http://ht.ly/9ErG0

So when we invite you to VisualMedia012 this April 26 in San Francisco, take a second look. It might be the look into your future as you learn about the latest trends and technologies and how printers, designers, marketers can embrace these “Opporthreats” and flourish from the opportunities.