World Printers Forum Outlook 2021

World Printers Forum Outlook 2021

Again this year, WAN-IFRA’s World Printers Forum conducted a survey among its members about their plans for the future. The year that’s gone has not been easy for the printing community with the heavy blow dealt by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Many had expected that the pandemic would accelerate the digitisation of the newspaper business as well. To a certain extent, this has happened. Surprisingly, however, it turns out that many newspaper publishers still want to invest in their printing plants in the future, despite the seemingly gloomy outlook. The majority of newspaper printers apparently want to upgrade and maintain their printing plants economically, as the survey results show.

The World Printers Forum conducted this survey, powered by data market research specialist Syno International. 49 print executives, who are members of the World Printers Forum and part of the WAN-IFRA Global Media Trends Panel, took part to give some insights on what 2021 has in store for the printing community.

Survey participants came from 20 countries. Respondents included printers of all sizes.

90% of the printers with more than 500,000 circulation were from India. 53% of the printers with less than 100,000 circulation were from Europe, only 5% from India. This illustrates the very different circulation levels in the different world regions. Circulation figures are often higher in Asia. On the other hand, page count tends to be higher in Europe and Northern America, although the drop in print advertising lowered the page count of Western newspapers in recent years considerably.

We express our gratitude to all the participants who played an invaluable role in bringing out the report. Also, a big thanks to our partner Syno International for helping us complete the survey successfully.