In the June issue, the “Top 30 Book Manufacturers” feature showed that revenue for 23 of the 30 book manufacturers listed had grown over the previous year. According to Book Business’ 2007 ranking (in the June 2007 issue), just 17 book manufacturers had reported revenue increases.
In this issue, in Book Business’ first compilation of leading digital book printers (story begins on page 33), 18 out of 20 printers indicated that they will purchase new equipment in the next 12 to 16 months. While we don’t have last year’s figures to compare with digital printers’ revenues this year, purchasing new equipment doesn’t seem to indicate decline. Market research and consulting company Interquest has estimated that between 2 percent and 3 percent of total book volume is currently produced digitally; it anticipates that figure will increase to 5 percent to 6 percent in 3 years.