Printing and Print Media

The Printing sub-sector is responsible for the printing of newspapers, books, magazines, packaging, labels and other related materials.

The printing process is demand driven and technical. People working in this sector must have a good sense of colour and be able to manage complex technical processes to deliver against a defined deadline. Career streams range from factor manager, printers mechanic, and printer technicians through to specialist rotary printing apprentices.

The printing industry is difficult to measure because of the problems that arise when one tries to define a “printing company.” Today’s printers may offer a variety of services beyond putting ink on paper, ranging from website design to marketing communication campaign management. For some, revenue from these services may outweigh the revenue they actually obtain from print, although print may have been their core business in the past. It also becomes difficult to effectively measure the printing industry when considering other companies whom offer printing or reproduction services as one of their many services. The revenues these companies obtain from the printing services they offer should still be counted within industry revenues, but it becomes difficult to differentiate which revenue is obtained from which services.
There are 5 categories of printing processes currently used commercially, each of which have their own technologies, skills and labour market dynamics. These are:

• Relief printing
• Gravure
• Lithography
• Screen printing
• Digital printing.

A generic value chain for the printing industry is given in Figure 7 immediately below, as well as a set of the categories of products produced by the industry that follows.