The expectations of readers are also rising. There are three kinds of publishers and three kinds of publications. The automation of printing is nearly complete. New computing, communications and imaging technologies have automated most of the print production business. Word processing, desktop publishing, computer graphics, electronic photography and digital imaging have eliminated most prepress jobs.
Nobody wants more print.
Instead of a single press run of a million impressions, buyers are asking for ten press runs of a hundred thousand each and many are shooting for a hundred thousand press runs of ten impressions each. Printing belongs to the Industrial Age. New technologies like desktop publishing, image processing and digital prepress have dramatically improved the efficiency of batch printing and at the same time made smaller batches more affordable. Interactive media belongs to the Information Age. Advances in computing, communications and imaging technologies improve the targeting of publications.