I just finished my 2009 travel with a two-day trip to Los Angeles. As is often the case, the trip included an unscheduled hotel night in Atlanta due to a late arriving return flight. When you have a fully booked 767 that gets delayed at LAX for six hours, you’re sure to create some pretty testy reactions. This was certainly the case on this trip.

Despite being told that the delay was necessary in order to fix the airplane so it wouldn’t fall out of the sky, some folks seemed to take it personal. They griped, they argued, they insisted, they called for supervisors, and all too often, they shouted and screamed at the gate agents. None of which did squat to change the situation. Meanwhile, scattered throughout the gate area were individuals who seemed calm and contained. They had the right attitude—Zen, que sera sera, roll with the punches, don’t sweat the small stuff—whatever.

The importance of attitude cannot be overstated. I wonder if those folks who were screaming and swearing would want to hire, associate with, or date somebody who consistently behaved like they were behaving? QP columnist Deb Thompson preaches that we should hire attitude and teach skills. I don’t care how skilled those obnoxious passengers might be, I wouldn’t hire them. I would, however, look for the kind of attitude displayed by those who kept their cool in a bad situation.

This is my last blog for 2009, so I’ll leave you and the year with a quote from Carlos Castaneda: “The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same.”

Best wishes for the New Year from all of us at Quick Printing.

It was only a matter of time before somebody suggested that perhaps Graph Expo/Print should not be an every year event. I couldn’t disagree more. Despite recent drops in attendance, the annual Graph Expo and its four-year rotation with the Print offer a valuable and necessary resource for the entire printing industry.

Not that long ago there were a number of regional printing trade shows serving the industry, but they have fallen by the wayside. Aside from Graph Expo/Print there are only two remaining shows that could be considered major events—Graphics of the Americas and On Demand. Both of these events have also suffered from attendance declines. GOA has become more and more oriented toward the Latin market and is no longer the major draw for North American printers it once was. On Demand is a digital-only show with no offset component, meaning it only represents one segment of the evolving printing industry.

Graph Expo/Print is the only show with offerings for all industry segments and it has continued to expand its coverage into areas such as wide-format, mailing services, newspapers, etc. It has attempted to change as the industry changes and has, for the most part, been fairly successful. As far as attendance goes, an improving economy might help some, but there needs to be an emphasis on attendee quality as opposed to attendee quantity. Sure, it’s nice for students to attend the show and learn about the industry. It’s also a perk for non-management employees to attend, but neither of these segments buy or recommend purchases.

Vendors have always had a love/hate relationship with trade shows and the recent economic turmoil hasn’t helped things but until there is an effective and efficient alternative to a well-run and comprehensive printing trade show Graph Expo/Print will remain a valuable and viable venue.

I have often said that I really like editing a magazine for the quick and small commercial printing industry. Quick Printing readers are mostly small business people with great entrepreneurial spirit and strong opinions, which they are not afraid to express. I don’t always agree with some of the opinions, but I never find them dull or boring. Not to disparage other industries, but I doubt it would be anywhere near as much fun to put out a magazine for accountants, concrete finishers, or proctologists. I doubt their conventions would be as much fun either.

Now I’m involved as executive editor with two other magazines, Printing News and Wide-Format Imaging. Are those industry segments as much fun as the quick and small commercial segment? Well, it’s really too early to tell, but there are certainly many similarities among the readership of the three publications. For one thing, they are all print service providers, or PSPs in the current jargon. For another, they all are finding that being just PSPs is not going to be enough to grow and prosper in the future.

Readers of all three publications are dealing with digital workflows, competition from electronic media, environmental concerns, business efficiencies, employee retention, equipment acquisitions, regulatory considerations, and a host of other common concerns. Sure, many readers of Printing News are larger commercial printers who also print in larger formats and most readers of Wide-Format Imaging often print even larger stuff on a wider variety of substrates, but the similarities outweigh the differences.

As we move into 2010, you can look for a more consistent exploration of these similarities across the three titles in both print and in our growing electronic media capabilities. Also look for more coverage of the capabilities, concerns, and opinions of their readers. In the meantime, you might want to take a look at the other two websites, www.Wide-FormatImaging.com and www.PrintingNews.com to see what their industry segments are dealing with as we all look to the future.

I’m a print addict, but I am under no illusion that I can improve the health of the printing industry by simply upping my dosage. That’s just too simple. We can’t just urge people to buy more print, we have to get them to buy print differently—as a vital part of the whole communications process.

Those who both predict and lament the decline and possible demise of print are part of a long line of folks who got this technology evolution thing wrong. Television did not kill the movies, as many predicted. In fact, it now provides an even more diverse outlet for films. TV didn’t kill radio either, partly because TV does not offer a drive-time audience. These three communications technologies co-exist quite nicely.

The same will be true with print and electronic communications, although just where and how that balance will be struck remains to be seen. Newspapers are now allowed to count certain online readers in their circulation audit. We put out 43,000 printed copies of our magazine, but we also have a wide variety of electronic products that are increasingly important profit centers. Most studies now show that print can effectively drive traffic to the Web and vice versa. That’s where the future of print lies—as an effective and integrated communications tool.