Printing Industry Performance & Insights Survey and Report

Fifteen regional printing associations have introduced a quarterly survey called the Printing Industry Performance & Insights (PIPI) study analyzing the performance and outlook of the print and graphic communications industry. The objective of the quarterly study is to provide leaders like yourself actionable advice on how to more effectively manage your operation.

The study is conducted through the Jones College of Business at Middle Tennessee State University. If you have any questions, please reach out to Dr. Ralph Williams Jr. at Ralph.Williams@mtsu.edu.

We invite you participate in the survey occurring on a quarterly basis. The current survey is closed, please check back for the next survey or view our reports below

PIPI Report

Fall 2025

 

Beyond the Press: A Roadmap to Enhanced Performance Through Non-Printing Products and Services (NPPS)

We explore how printing companies are expanding beyond traditional print by offering non-printing products and services to drive growth and profitability. Based on a survey of print firms and insights from industry leaders, the report finds that companies offering services such as fulfillment, wide-format, and marketing support often see stronger financial performance and deeper customer relationships. It also outlines practical guidance for selecting, implementing, and measuring these services, while highlighting common motivations and challenges printers face when diversifying their offerings.
Download Report

Spring 2025

 

A Micro Look at Printing Firms: Employee Counts, Adjusting Estimating, Effects of Other Mergers, & AI

We provide below a view of various topics that individual printing firms deal with, a “micro” look. Our findings came from our February/March 2025 “Printing Industry Performance and Insights” survey.
Download Report

2025 Financial Benchmarking: More Printing Purchased? More Customers Added?

In our February/March 2025 “Printing Industry Performance & Insights” survey, we dug into key trends shaping our industry. The pressing topics we explored included these two: Are printing company customers purchasing more or less printed products? And are printing firms gaining or losing more customers?
Download Report

2025 Financial Benchmarking: The Printing Industry: A Broad Overview

This report offers a snapshot of the printing industry based on the February/March 2025 “Printing Industry Performance & Insights” study. It covers revenue trends, profitability, staffing plans, rising costs, and recession expectations—providing useful benchmarks and insights to help printing businesses plan ahead.
Download Report

June 2024 Report

2024 Financial Benchmarking Report: Paths to Improving Your Printing Company

This report presents strategies to improve your printing business. We looked at numerous financial benchmarks, and information on how leaders can analyze financials, performance perceptions, accounting strategies, and other various related topics.
Download Report

October 2023 Report

DOWNLOAD A Big Picture of Revenue Trends, Business Outlook, Other Knowledge, and Actionable Thoughts

In this report, we help printing company leaders see the big picture of our industry from the October 2023 “Printing Industry Performance & Insights” study, which provides insights related to revenue, business outlook, customers purchasing more or less printed products, and customer turnover. The study includes thoughts on how to address this environment proactively.
Download Report

A Big Picture of Inflation, Paper Supply, and Postal Mail Rates, with Actionable Thoughts

In this report from our October 2023 “Printing Industry Performance & Insights” study, we provide insights as to how our industry is affected by external factors, such as inflation, paper supply, and postal mail rates. The study concludes with printing firm leaders’ thoughts about a potential recession. Actionable thoughts are shared throughout our report.
Download Report

Branding Your Firm as a Good Place to Work: Employer Branding

From our October 2023 “Printing Industry Performance & Insights” study, it appears effective recruiting and hiring is connected to two key concepts: an Employee Value Proposition (EVP) and Employer Branding. We explain EVP and Employer Branding and provide a model illustrating our findings. This report closes with survey participants’ responses to open-ended questions about their employer branding approaches.
Download Report

March 2023 Report

Financial Benchmarks, Ratios, and Actionable Thoughts

This March 2023 survey addressed benchmarks and ratios to assess your firm’s performance and plan a path forward. Along with income statements and cost categories as a percentage of revenue, balance sheets and related ratios, and cash management indicators.
Download Report

October 2022 Report

The October 2022 report covers effective management priorities, inflation, paper shortages, and more.

How Paper is Affecting Printing Companies & Approaches to Consider

Given the vital importance of paper to our industry, in our October 2022 PIPI (Printing Industry Performance and Insights) study, we explored the following topics: paper’s effect on meeting customer needs; is the paper situation getting better; how much firms have increased paper inventory; is increased inventory helping; and the impact of growing paper inventory on cash. We present our findings for each of those topics with actionable suggestions. Our last section includes ways to respond to paper supply issues, which we drew from previous supply-chain research and tested in this study.
Download Report

PIPI Delivers a Big Picture of The Printing Industry

We present a big-picture view of the printing industry drawn from our October 2022 PIPI (Printing Industry Performance and Insights) survey. Our big picture includes revenue trends, covid recovery, inflation effects, business outlook, and employees per $1m in sales. We provide actionable suggestions throughout the report.
Download Report

PIPI Connects a “Comprehensive Strategic Approach” to Printing Firm Performance

A few years back, we researched effective management practices in the printing industry. We looked at past research on how strategic planning affects firm performance. We found that when printing firm leaders strategically plan, set goals, and analyze financial ratios (those three together), they likely experience enhanced firm performance. We labeled this a Comprehensive Strategic Approach (CSA). We re-examined our original CSA findings in the October 2022 PIPI (Printing Industry Performance and Insights) survey. And yes, we again found a positive relationship between applying a CSA (strategic planning, goal setting, and financial ratio analysis) and firm performance. Therefore, to help printing firm leaders effectively apply the three CSA elements, we provide a plethora of execution tips arranged in a simple bullet-point format. Our October 2022 survey also examined “budgeting” as a possible fourth CSA element. Surprisingly, we did not find a clear positive relationship between budgeting and firm performance. We also discuss those findings and provide budgeting execution tips.
Download Report

April 2022 Report

In the April 2022 survey, we addressed marketing planning, sales management, and social media marketing.

Is Your Firm Growing Like Others in the Printing Industry?

This April 2022 report identifies print business revenue and growth insights.
Download Report

Marketing Planning, Sales Team Management & Social Media Usage

The April 2022 survey addressed marketing planning, sales management, and social media marketing.
Download Report

January 2022 Report

In the January 2022 survey, we addressed two topics: Industry Outlook and Strategic Groups.

Printing Industry Outlook

Download Report

Industry Strategic Groups

Download Report

October 2021 Report

In the October PIPI survey, we addressed three topics: Industry outlook, Workforce Shortages, and Supply Chain Issues.

Printing Industry Outlook

Download Report

Supply Chain Disruption

Download Report

Workforce Shortages

Download Report
more-protection2
HR-+-Govt
printaccess-ad