An Investigation into printing industry demographics

What is the printing industry? The goal of this study is to define the printing industry universe. There are about a dozen major sources of information about the printing industry, only one of which is the Federal Government. Although printing is one of the most documented industries in the United States, each of these sources arrives at a different view for the size and scope of the industry. This report investigates the challenges in developing a meaningful set of criteria for defining and quantifying the printing industry. Using the criteria from 15 points of definition, a database of just under 3,000 firms was developed and all relevant data sources were reviewed. The goal was to list all of the major printing firms in a comprehensive database and to understand the demographics of the largest printers, as well as a sampling of medium and small printers. The results found that lass than 1,000 firms represented 65% of the revenue of the entire industry