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Many magazine printers face the new year with a 'cautious' outlook.
As many in the industry look ahead to a hopefully prosperous 2006, many are also reflecting and evaluating their past performance. Publishing Executive's annual "Top 25 Magazine Printers" examines and ranks the top magazine printers based on their most recent, complete fiscal year revenue figures.
Quebecor World tops this year's list with total magazine revenue of $1.78 billion, up from $1.66 billion the previous year. Quad/Graphics ranks second on the list, with $552 million-a drop from $740 million-and Brown Printing comes in at No. 3 with $320 million in magazine revenue, posting no gains or losses over the prior year. Cadmus Communications ranks fourth with $288 million (down slightly from $302 million), while Banta Corp. rounds out the top five with $197 million (up from $184 million) in magazine sales. (RR Donnelley, who for many years ranked in the No. 1 and No. 2 spots, and some other major magazine printers are not reflected in the list, as these companies don't release a breakdown of their segment sales.)
As we turn the corner to 2006, many challenges continue to strain the magazine printing industry. Postal rate increases obviously are a challenge for much of the overall printing industry, but magazines bear the brunt of this, along with catalogs and direct mail.
Paper issues-including pricing, availability and sustainable manufacturing-also face printers. Magazine printers' customers have the same basic options when these costs rise-change paper weights, cut pages, reduce the format size and trim quantities.
In the past couple of years, there's been a trend among the top magazine printers to launch major investment programs to optimize the efficiency of their production platforms. Standardizing equipment across operations is often part of such schemes to streamline manufacturing.
What's in store for the year ahead?
What will all this mean for the 2006 fortunes of publication printers? "Cautious" may be the best word to describe the...