Some Spokane-area printers are changing their business models and expanding the services they offer as part of an effort to offset a general downturn in the industry over the past two years due to the recession and a trend toward digital marketing.

In some cases, printers are beginning to couple online services with their print jobs. Other times, they are offering unconventional services and products, such as vehicle graphics, in an effort to shore up their bottom lines.

Laura Lawton-Forsyth, president of Lawton Printing Inc., says Lawton Printing's sales were down by 25 percent in 2009 from the previous year, but the company was able to reduce that decline to 10 percent last year.

"We've gained some back, and there was a resurgence in the second half of 2010, although the beginning (of last year) was pretty dismal," says Lawton-Forsyth.

Lawton-Forsyth says that because many businesses here have cut back on direct-mail advertising, catalogs, and newspaper inserts, Lawton Printing, which is located at 4111 E. Mission, recently began incorporating those print advertisement offerings into online versions as well.

"We've spent a lot of time investing in different ways of utilizing the print we do and incorporating online offerings with that because they work together, such as sending a postcard that directs people to a site," Lawton-Forsyth says. "It can be a more inexpensive way, because print still drives people to take action, but if you want to find a more cost-effective way, that is one option."

Lawton-Forsyth adds that she had predicted this shift in advertising several years ago, so the company has been able to make the transition smoothly.

Mark Hearn, co-owner of Hearn Brothers Printing Inc., at 2105 N. Monroe, says that company also has seen the recent trend where businesses are demanding fewer print advertising pieces.

"The Internet has had a big impact, and ads are down because so many businesses have closed. People are watching their ad dollars really closely and they are trying to produce as much as they can in-house with copy machines and laser printers," Hearn says.

Hearn says the 39-year-old business, which he owns with brothers Dale and John, has seen an overall decline in sales since 2009, but he declines to say how much they've dropped.

"We had to lay off one employee, and we cut in every area we can to save money," he says. "We used to carry a bigger inventory of paper, but now we don't. We watch everything we buy."

The local printer now employs a total of seven full-time workers, he says.

As a whole, Spokane County's printing industry and related industry support services saw a drop in employment of 73 people from 2009 to 2010, and went from 58 companies in 2009 to 56 companies in 2010, says Doug Tweedy, regional labor economist for the Spokane office of the Washington state Employment Security Department.

"It looks like they are following the same trend as other industries during the recession," he says. "There's not a lot of loss of companies, only two, but just about everyone was laying off."

Another longtime Spokane-based printing services company, Standard Digital Print Co., located at 256 W. Riverside, began offering expanded services as of late last year to make up for recent sales losses.

Company vice president Leon Davis says the company invested about $100,000 in new equipment near the end of 2010, including a printer that is able to print large-scale vehicle graphics and a laminating machine that can laminate objects that are up to 54 inches wide.

Davis says Standard Digital's sales fell about 15 percent in 2010, compared with the year earlier, mostly due to a drop in printing jobs from the construction industry, which had been one of the company's largest customer bases in years past. Traditionally, most of its business has involved printing construction documents, including blueprints, computer-aided-design drawings, and renderings. Since the construction industry has slowed, work for that sector has fallen sharply over the last several years, he says.

"The economic climate is forcing general contractors to do business in other ways," he says. "They are becoming more digital and don't always make prints, but use PDF documents to pass around construction information. The business primarily revolved around the construction market, and because that industry is down, we had to diversify and offer more services."

To accommodate that shift in business, Davis says that in mid-2010, Standard Digital started offering an online-based document management system through which contractors pay Standard Digital to host such project documents online to distribute them electronically.

In another recent purchase, the company bought a full-color scanner that can scan images up to 54 inches wide, adding to its existing lineup of large format printing equipment, which already had included a full-color digital printer that has the capability to print sheets up to 56 inches wide.

Lawton-Forsyth says the recession also gave Lawton Printing an opportunity to look at various services it offers and diversify some of them, including mailing services and digital tools that complement its print offerings.

"We beefed up those areas because they are core to everything we do for our clients, and we want to offer more well-rounded services to them because it's our job to make their job easier," she says.

She says that because Lawton Printing offers such a variety of print-based services, the company didn't really see one segment suffer or fare better than another, besides the advertising sector.

"We did see cutbacks across the board, but people are starting to market again and are doing that through both print and electronic ads," she says.

Lawton-Forsyth says the company is a full-service commercial printer that offers a wide range of services from initial product design and layout—including taking a customer's print design and creating a complementary web-based version—to specialized finishing and personalization services.

The 71-year-old company currently employs about 57 people and had its last layoff in mid-2010, she says.

"It's unfortunate we had to lay off some employees over the last two years, but it's no different than what some other business owners had to do," she says. "I think we're a stronger business and better business because we went through those things."

Hearn says that Hearn Brothers Printing is prepared to face coming changes to the printing industry that are likely to occur over the next five to 10 years, such as a shift from offset printing to digital presses.

"In a few years, everything will be digital and the mid-sized shops like us will have to acquire the digital technology," he says.

He says Hearn Brothers doesn't own a digital press now, but does have a small digital color copier. Digital presses are large and expensive, he says, adding "now is not the time for us to go out and get one."

Hearn Brothers Printing offers a broad spectrum of offset printing services, including flat-sheet printing on sheets up to 19 inches by 25 inches, brochures, letterheads, envelopes, business cards, and other basic printing needs of businesses.

While the company has seen a decline in sales, Hearn says, "We haven't changed the way we've done business. We just sharpen our pencils on every bid because it's gotten so competitive."

He says one benefit of these leaner times is that he and his brothers are able to meet with their clients in person, whereas before much of that interaction took place over the phone.

"As the economy turns around, it will start to pick up," he says. "Right now we're just holding our own. We're not losing, but we're not making money and we are just holding up."

Looking into the future, Lawton-Forsyth says she expects the printing industry to continue facing changes, and to shrink in size, due to advances in technology and the trend toward digital dissemination of information.

"A lot of people say that print will die, but I think we will continue to have some printed product, and again that is—through all of the marketing surveys that have been done—still the most persuasive form of advertising," she says. "But now, it may be partnered with digital content so there will be print but other pieces with it."

She adds that she has a positive outlook for the company and the printing industry as a whole on the current year, and believes that business will slowly but surely rebound.

"Things will look different than before, but that's not a bad thing. We like new technology and what it can bring, and we embrace that."