Special Report: Printers' Outlook: Not Your Father's (or Mother's) Book Manufacturers
Beisser: What is your five- to 10-year outlook given the growth in e‑book sales and publishers' focus on inventory management and short-run printing?
Spall: I think we'll continue to make aggressive changes relative to continued investment in software capabilities for customers and automation in-house that will enable physical book printing [and] digital POD. We expect a larger percentage of our business to be derived from publishing services and e‑book conversions. We've already begun to offer tools for [authors and publishers] to market their books [and] design and editorial services. We expect the self-publishing model to grow, and we expect that percentage of our business to be much larger than it is today. Clearly, I see our physical book business … remain[ing] the majority of revenue for five years to come.