Taking Stock

A hopeful horizon

To make sense of the market's fluctuations, The National Association for Printing Leadership (NAPL) published a comprehensive industry report which predicts that recession will turn to moderate growth and then to vigorous growth for the commercial printing industry over the next 18 months.

According to The NAPL 2001-2002 State of the Industry Report, prepared by NAPL's Printing Economic Research Center (www.napl.org), the print industry is in a recession that began well before September 11. "Even without that day's unspeakable tragedy, a meaningful upturn in business that supported healthy sales growth and relieved the intense pressure on printing industry profits wasn't likely before next spring," the report states. "Now, it's not likely until the second half of 2002."

-Natalie Hope McDonald